I'm having my front suspension rebuilt, so I've pulled the front clip (outer fenders, inner fenders, core support and grill back) and have dis-assembled it in order to have it blasted and then repainted.
My question is in regards to putting it back together, and specifically, what order I should do things in. should I prime everything, then reassemble as much as possible, then paint?
Paint everything before reassembly?
Prime everything, then re-assemble everything except the outer fenders, then paint that sub-assembly, then put on the outer fenders (after painting them seperately)?
Specifically what I'm wondering about is if I'm to paint everything before assembly, how do I keep the paint on the bolt heads from getting scratched off when I'm doing the final assembly, but if I assemble everything before final painting, how do I keep the paint from filling and sealing the bolts to the inner fenders?
Finally, most of these bolts will be hidden after it's rebuilt, so I'm tending to lean toward assembling most of it after priming, leaving the outer fenders off, and painting this subassembly, but the bolts that attach the inner and outer fenders together...how should I approach these? Paint, assemble, then mask and repaint the bolt heads?
As you can see I've got a number of different ideas, and have no idea if any of them make any sense.

Thanks
Randy

Any suggestions?

I am not sure if there is a correct way of doing the painting/reassembling as a lot depends on how you like the final job to look.

Personnally I paint the individual pieces and then assemble with new or refinished fasteners. There are some drawbacks as scratches can happen and it is trouble to get the same color on all panels, (paint all panels at once). I like the clean look without overspray. If you have chrome, it is better to put it on the fenders and doors before reassembling to the cab as some of the fasteners can't be reached. A good advantage of painting the individual pieces is that everything is coated for protection.

The best looking paint job was where individual parts were painted, assembly was done and then a final color/clear was done to the whole vehicle prior to installing the chrome/fender liners/windows/upholstery/etc. This was a 65 SS Impala and is entirely different from the trucks.

Jim

I'm in the middle of painting our BURB and fully agree with Jim that its a personal choice....I've elected to disassembled all that can come off and am painting each piece to ensure total coverage. Assembly is a real careful matter and chipping edges is a common problem but can be solved by taping edges, etc. I'm a backyard painter and painting the Burb BLACK.....I only hope that I can buff out all the "bug walks"!!!! Good Luck with your project.

7T1Burb,

I was just curious as to whether you have painted your Burb body yet, (you know that really hugh part). We have to paint my boy's yet and since it is two tone, the top is painted separately.

We have the body on a dolly, (fairly low one) and we plan on building a platform around the body to stand on as we spray.
Reaching the whole top appears to be very difficult and we would like to get good coverage so that the whole top is "wet" so we will have two paint guns going at once.

Just looking for ideas.

Jim

I was going to post this same question as I wasn't sure how to take care of the bolts. If I paint the parts individually, I thought I would put the bolts in so they get painted at that time, rather than trying to just paint the bolts some other way.

Jim: The top as you suggest is "HUGE" to paint....I built a "U-shaped" 2x6 platform around the perimeter of the Burb (rear and both sides & up to the firewall on each side...front end was off and engine out). Built about 3 feet in the air (body remained on chassis) it was somewhat shaky, but worked. With the entire rest of the body masked off I began on one side (driver's rain gutter) and worked towards the middle; once at the middle (and it is a LONG reach) I raced to the other side and began in the middle and worked from the middle towards the passenger side rain gutter. I used a slower temp reducer to maintain the "wet" of the acrylic enamel. HELPFUL HINTS: I bought a roll of that 4 mil plastic (100' long in a roll) to mask off the entire body below the roof to reduce the amount of paper masking I would have to do.....it worked like a charm and only cost about $20 a roll from Home Depot...because I am a one-person painter (Ms. BURB could not be bribed into operating a second paint gun!) I premixed another cupful of paint and had it covered and waiting...your idea of two people painting is great and should work well. Paint scheme for ours is WHITE top and BLACK body (below the lower trim will be WHITE also)..only thing left to paint is driver door and large driver rear quarter panel. Barn doors are black primed and will remain so until I do some nit noid repairs, but will also be painted OFF the Burb (WHITE above the upper trim and BLACK below).
Yukon Jack: For my paint job, all required bolts/washers were/are painted separately in a low gloss black. Once installed (and you do chip/gouge them upon installation) I go back over chips with a small painters brush to finish them off. Slow and tedious, but I kinda' enjoy it anyway.
Hope this helps!....Jack

I painted my truck completely disassembled this way you are sure the paint hits every piece of your sheet metal. With the assembly I used all SS bolts, this looks quite nice I think. However, be careful with the assembly cause 7T1BURB is right about the chipping. We do the assembly with three people, two placing the part and take care of not damaging it the last bolts it up. This has worked for me no damage has been done yet.