hi guys,

have a 66 chevelle that i am going to start boby work on shortly, i would like your opinions on the order i should do things ( this is the first car i have tried bodywork on)

this is what the car needs to be prepped for painting: rear 1/4 panels replaced, bottom door skins patched, front fenders patched behind wheel well(right next to door)misc. dings and dents, and it has 4 layers of paint that need to come off. i am planning on chemically stripping it to the metal in most places. also the front and rear windows will be removed so that i can fix leaking rust holes.

i plan on taking the front clip off and doing the body work,put on last coat of primer and reinstalling, then the same thing with the doors(including painting the door jambs), then when all other body work is done i will spray the bc/cc with the car assembled.

my question is, what order do i attempt this in? front clip first, then doors, trunk, and remainder of body? or do i start from the top of the car and work my way down? i just want to make sure i do this in an efficient order, body work takes alot of time by itself, i don't want to add any other difficulty just by being ignorant http://www.chevelles.com/forum/tongue.gif

sorry fo being long winded, and thanx for any insight!

samX1
66 chevelle 327/Tremec/4.11 posi
2000 Buell X1 Lightning

The best way is to do a panel at a time. Do one door, do all the body work and get it in primer. Then move on the next door and get it in primer. If you try to do the entire car or even a front clip you can get overwhelmed. Once you have the entire car in primer you then can do more work at once. Say you block sand the front clip, respray it with primer. Then the next day you do the doors and deck lid, respray. Then you sand the body and respray, then back to the front clip.

One thing on primer is the longer you let it sit the better the end result. Primer likes to shrink as it cures, so if you allow it to shrink down first before you sand it the car will be straighter. I try to let my primer sit for about a week before sanding.

The best method I have found for stripping is media blasting. Media blasting uses plastic not sand to strip the metal, so you get no warpage. In my area it costs around 600 bucks to do an entire car, pretty cheap by the time you add in the paint stripper and time you have invested. You mention that you plan on stripping to metal in most places why not all places?

The best advice is not to bite off more then you can chew. If replacing those quarters is giving you a headache dont stop and go to work fixing the rust in the doors. More then likey you get frusted at the doors as well, and you will start to give up on the car. Do one task at a time, complete it and move on...Eric

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1970 chevelle
1970 chevelle SS455 not a typo its a buick baby
1949 and 1972 chevy trucks
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/sevt_chevelles

Best way to strip all that paint and rust:

Have the body/chassis dipped.

Ok I realize this is expensive. I was very fortunate on this when I bought my 66 SS in '97. The guy that had it before me had begun its restoration and completely dissasembled the car down to every nut and bolt and had the body/chassis and all other sheet metal acid dipped. That's were it was left when it came into my possesion (mabey all the cost broke the bank for this guy)

The moral of my story though, it left a totally bone clean body free of paint and rust. If you can afford it, do it. You'll love it.

Sage advice from sevt_chevelle. Start with the easiest panel, one at a time, learn as you go. It is very easy to get overwhelmed on these projects. Karl