Trying to decide if I should paint my car assembled or in pieces. I am using stainless bolts for the doors, fenders, hood and trunk. What are the pros or cons? Thanks

Painting in pieces allows for the best coverage on sometimes neglected areas like the door jambs, door hinges, trunk lip and the inner lip of the front fenders. Everything is painted properly.

One con is reassembly, as you need to be very patient so as not to chip your fresh paint. I've also received conflicting info on the following, depending on which bodyman I talk to; if the car is painted in pieces and is a METALLIC colour, there may be a noticeable difference between say a fender and and a door. Some have told me this a concern and would NEVER paint a metallic colour with the car disassembled, others have said 50/50, and others have said no problem whatsoever. I've made a point of talikng to a LOT of different paint & body guys for opinions, since I am NOT a body man and want to make a good decision when my car eventually hits the booth ( hopefully in 2005 ).

Hopefully someone like MARTINSR will chime in here.

It is a metallic paint 1969 code 51 dark blue metallic.

I have always painted my cars all apart for the same reasons. Many people will "cut" in a car do door jams ect. put the car together then mask off those areas. and paint the whole car together. The only proble I find is if you don't mask well you get a real thick ridge or maybe some overspray will find its way in some place. When I do a metallic car I try to hang or sit everything like its on the car especially the doors and fenders. Mainly because the way I paint the rear quarters of the car on a horizontal plane if that makes any since I feel should be the same with the fenders and doors. I don't seem to have any problems using this method. If its a solid color I hang them any way I can. Just my 2 cents
Jeff

I agree on painting the surfaces on a common plane. Hood/trunk lay flat, fenders doors are painted in vertical plane. What I have done to compensate is paint the jams, cowl area and cut in the trunk. Hang the doors and set the trunk inplace when dry. If you don't have shop quality panel stands, make up a set of high saw horses (48" high) to hang each fender on. Apply all of the exterior color the same day, that way the humidity and temp are the same so the outcome is the best. Depending on your garage space this also often allows you more manuevering room around the car and also makes it easier to mask the car as most of the work in masking is isolating the front end. When everything is cured, you can apply a couple layers of quality masking tape to the door, hood and fender edges and reassemble. This is how these cars were built and in my oppinion yields the best job and detail. Definitely more work to do it apart. But in the end I think it is worth the effort.

I hope you get plenty of touch up paint if you do the body in pieces. I have done them both ways and it does not matter how careful you are putting it back together, murphys law !!
Good luck,
LJ

We had our '69 Chevelle apart to do a base/clear finish in Cortez Silver. The results were excellent with no mismatches. The results probably depend a lot on how good the paint man is. Our '72 Lemans Sport was done the same way in red with the same results. Taping all the edges for assembly prevents a lot of scratches and chipping. Extra hands are a big help as well during assembly.

Thanks for guys