The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Painting metal parts of the bed (AD)

How do you go about painting the metal parts of a bed?

I'm in the planning stages and can't seem to come up with how one would go about painting these parts individually because every square inch needs paint. If you paint them prior to assembly, how do you fixture the parts in a way that allows access to the entire surface?

Or do you spot paint the mating surfaces, assemble the sides and front, feather the painted areas and then paint it as an assembly? If so, do you do this on the truck or off?

Man, this really has me scratching my head

I hung my parts with heavy wire and/or moving straps from the rafters.

Well, I guess that makes it unanimous

Thanks for the info, I figured that would be the best way to go but just wanted to ask.

Just make sure you hang small parts in two places. I used one string to hold my side steps from the rafter and as I sprayed the piece started spinning as I painted! Luckily, I was just spraying 2k, not the final paint.

When I did the bed on my '47 I primed all the pieces first. Then assembled them, then shot the color. Now I would Prime everything first shoot a couple coats of color then assemble and shoot the finish color.
I guess the hard part then becomes the finish on the inside corners of the bed. I was planning on using a brush on bedliner material in my 50 1 ton.