Restoring a 70 chevelle. First timer. Engine, tranny,all glass,and whole interior including dash is out. We are thinking of taking body off so that we can blast frame and put all new parts (suspension,lines,disk brake conversion,etc). My question is - if we go frame off, how and when do we get the body work, priming and painting done. Do we complete the frame and suspension and put the body back on to get the body work done or is there a different oder that we should do this in? My concern is that when they are striping the car and doing the body work and priming,can this damage the frame coating and new suspension parts?

Also - we are completing a 454 rebuild and need to know if we should install the engine before the painting?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

Kevin...This is what I did. Took the body off the frame and bolted it to a dolly. I then could do the body work and the chassis at the same time, depending on what I felt like doing that day. If your going to send the body to a body shop and have them do the work , you can get the work done on the chassis while their working on the body. I put the body back on the frame after all the painting ,sanding and buffing was completed. This way the chassis stays nice. The last thing you want is dust, over spray ,paint ect. on that new chassis...Bill

i would do the body work first think about it if you do the frame first then put the body on all the crude from the body work is going to mess up the work you did on the frame. i would at least change any body panels that need to be changed i did the major bodywork first then all the wet sanding i taped the underside off to prevent dripping on the frame. it still got on the frame. a friend of mine did all the welding took the body off the frame when he was done wrapped the frame in plastic then when he was done cut the plastic off

I'm there now,and think I'll wrap the frame befor I set the body back on.I'll also hang a paper curtin around the bottom of the body befor I start sanding/painting.I spent wayyyyyy to much time/money to be getting overspray on the frame. :cool:

Hey Kevin,
this is what I´m doing/gonna do.
I went frame of and I built a stand for the body. I blasted the frame, rear axle and the controllarms. I´m not gonna blast the springs and the sway bar because they can get weak!
I painted everything with POR 15 and put new bushings and bearings in. I overhauled the brakes.
The next, I gonna do is built a new engine and overhaul the tranny. Then I put it on the frame.

The body is the very last I gonna do. I want to restore every other part of the car before I do the body. When I have this done, I put the restored body back on the frame and then I can take one part after another and put it back in the car because everything is done then. smile.gif
Just put it together again.

Have fun.
Jürgen

Kevin, I'm not saying read the archives before you ask, because this topic is really hard to search for, I really understand you. But, this questions has been asked before and I remember a lot of extremely good points were made. You might want to spend some time searching down those postings. I'm too lazy to do it for ya! ;) :D

Good luck with your project! graemlins/beers.gif

Olli