The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Assemble and paint or pain and assemble?

I have taken apart my 52 AD, is it better to paint the firewall and then assemble and paint or paint everything separately and assemble them. what is best solution.

Thanks
Ganesh

"best" depends on what you want in the end and how good you are at assembly .... painting all the pieces apart is nice, but makes it touchier to assemble without dinging the paint - painting when it's all or mostly together is common, but makes for areas [seams/joints] not covered well and requires more work masking

Bill

Thanks that was the same thing in my mind, if I paint it then assembly will be tricky because of fitment. But if I assemble it then joints wont get paint then have to be with primer of something. hmmm thanks for the reply Bill

What I did with mine is paint then assemble. ended up with a couple of minor scratches so the next one will get the final coat of paint after assembly.

... .personally I would definitely decide on the firewall. Most folks, at least me, paints the firewall and takes a look for color clarity ect. It is also a good place to look at it and you can't see where other painted pieces join to it.

I painted the bottom of my firewall black... then the top was body color. If you would like to see what the bottom looks like painted then click on the photobucket below. Good luck. Keep us posted.

going through the same thing myself right now. I dissasembled the truck ,had the parts sandblasted and primed. Next the body guy cut in all the edges with color. I will reassemble and then bring the whole truck to him to paint. Don't know if this is correct but it was his suggestion and it makes sense to me. Be sure to remember to take off any rings or jewlery you may wear when dealing with assembly of finish painted parts.

Mine was painted entirely apart ..just some paitience and lottsa blue painters tape ...and assembly was not that hard with NO scratches.
I know all my seems and hidden places have a good coat of paint and clear on em.
Just how I did mine.
Tim

Depends on the color too. If you are using metallic, I would only paint after assembly (although you could do edging like neswes suggests above). Metallic is very difficult to get to color match if parts are painted separately.

Solid colors are more forgiving. Personally, I am painting in pieces, then assembling with a white/blue solid color two tone.
Regards,
Steve
New Orleans

I was planning on getting all the body work done on mine, then assembling/fitting. Disassemble and take in for fitting repairs if any, then paint and reassemble.

Not I am thinking maybe I will do as others suggested with getting all the seams/join points painted first, then reassemble and take in for final paint. The problem is that my bodyshop is 2.5 hours away from my house.

I vote for painting first, then assembling. Firewall and engine compartment get finished properly, as does rad shell. You are going to have the box off anyway, so might as well do it right. I have metallic on mine - painter did a great job on match. I took it slow, masked all the edges, and had a buddy holding the big stuff. Managed to get her back together with only a few minor scratches

If you're going with a non metallic color I would recommend painting the parts separate and then assembling them. That way all of the parts get completely painted. Yes it requires a bit of care when assembling but you end up with a better paint job. If you are going with a high metallic color it's better to paint everything at once, on the vehicle because of the difficulty in getting a good color match. MHO

What about painting the edges and back sides, hidden areas, etc. that you want to have paint and then assemble it and then give it a final paint job on the rest of the exposed body panels?

There's nothing wrong with that if you don't mind a bit of dry overspray in areas (back of the cab, front of the bed, door jambs etc.).

I painted the underside of my cab, the firewall, the inner fenders and all the inside of my fenders then put it all together. Now all I have to do is sand and paint the outside. It was my plan from the beginning.

Be careful to note 46 HalfTon's advice if you are painting it disassembled. I disassembled, blasted, stripped or sanded to bare metal, then epoxy primed, then body work and disassemble/re-assemble for what seemed like a hundred times to get everything to fit right, then painted disassembled and put back together. Do not do your first fit after painting. It seems like stuff that fit perfect when you took it apart just plain changes, even without body work.

Boy, do I agree with Nifty 50 on that one!

Thanks Guys lot of good advise, I was thinking of stripping,disassemble, body work, 2k primer, assemble and paint

I am too nerves about painting and assembly

Ganesh