Painting tips...

[68blackbird]

I’m at that point in the project where the paint is getting close. When I did the ’59 last year, I painted with cab on frame, doors on. As the pics show, I did the cab in 2 stages because I’m a short guy, 5’ 6”. Did the roof by laying board across front fenders to get an even spray, then re-masked and painted the rest. Really don’t want to go the route this time. I was thinking about doing this one, cab off frame, doors on. While its in primer, my thinking would be easier to get doors aligned and not scratched up. Does this sound feasible? What kind of issues will arise doing it this way, like getting cab back on frame, how long I have to wait after paint to use hoist to get cab back on? Paint bed on or off frame. I know to do fenders separate. Any other advice is much appreciated, thanks, Kel

[mongocanfly]

Im close to painting mine as well...im gonna do it with the cab on the frame...gonna fix a platform to stand on.....im gonna have my bed on the rotisserie when I paint it....everything else will be on sawhorses..

[dsraven]

remember to mask off everything you don't want overspray on. it gets everywhere, not just what is visible. if you are proud of the frame detailing then best mask it off. take wheels off etc and the unit will be lower to the ground for painter's access, but not so low you can't get the underside edges of things properly. encase everything you don't want to spend time buffing later. really, that's why lots of guys paint stuff totally separate so it is just a single part or group of parts getting painted bare. some like that way, some don't. reasons on both sides of that argument.
on the doors and cab, it's a balancing act of labor time spent and supplies for masking OR spend time removing stuff for paint separately and then arrange to have help to install later. personally I like to paint the whole interior including the insides of the doors and jambs. insides of the fenders, under the hood etc. leave it for a bit to cure, then assemble the fenders and hood to the body. then mask it all off and paint the cab with the doors, fenders, hood etc on. that way the paint all looks the same. especially with metallic paint. I have done the paint both ways and found sometimes the paint looks different if the parts are done each separately. maybe I wasn't shaking the paint cup enough to keep the metallic stuff suspended. dunno. just know it happens.
good luck
nice colour
make sure the doors fit and you are satisfied with the gaps etc, then drill a small hole in the door to hinge area so when you assemble it the parts will line up in the drill holes. use a line up pin the size of the bit, like 1/8 or something. done that before and it works. gotta touch up that little hole after though.

[68blackbird]

Originally Posted by dsraven

remember to mask off everything you don't want overspray on. it gets everywhere, not just what is visible. if you are proud of the frame detailing then best mask it off. take wheels off etc and the unit will be lower to the ground for painter's access, but not so low you can't get the underside edges of things properly. encase everything you don't want to spend time buffing later. really, that's why lots of guys paint stuff totally separate so it is just a single part or group of parts getting painted bare. some like that way, some don't. reasons on both sides of that argument.
on the doors and cab, it's a balancing act of labor time spent and supplies for masking OR spend time removing stuff for paint separately and then arrange to have help to install later. personally I like to paint the whole interior including the insides of the doors and jambs. insides of the fenders, under the hood etc. leave it for a bit to cure, then assemble the fenders and hood to the body. then mask it all off and paint the cab with the doors, fenders, hood etc on. that way the paint all looks the same. especially with metallic paint. I have done the paint both ways and found sometimes the paint looks different if the parts are done each separately. maybe I wasn't shaking the paint cup enough to keep the metallic stuff suspended. dunno. just know it happens.
good luck
nice colour
make sure the doors fit and you are satisfied with the gaps etc, then drill a small hole in the door to hinge area so when you assemble it the parts will line up in the drill holes. use a line up pin the size of the bit, like 1/8 or something. done that before and it works. gotta touch up that little hole after though.

Understand the masking, been there...

I am going with a darkish Gunmetal grey metallic, so, I agree, painting at same time would be preferred. My 1st project, '68 Firebird, I did hood/trunk, then rest afterwards. It was a solid red color and the parts still didn't match. Love the drill bit tip for the doors, never heard of that, just what I was looking for, many thanks! Kel

[e015475]

I painted the door sills, the inside of the doors inner fenders, inside of fenders and the interior first in the shop. I cut and buffed the interior, the exposed side of the inner fenders and the doors and then assembled the doors to the truck and aligned them. I masked all the surfaces I'd cut and buffed and masked the insides of the fenders too, but I didn't bother to color sand them.

I used a fairly large paint booth so I could spray everything at once. Here's everything outlaid in the booth-



I tried to put everything at a comfortable height for spraying and laid it out in a pattern that I could easily repeat for each coat of clear. I did a couple of dry runs of the pattern to make sure the hose for the gun wouldn't rub anything or catch on a stand and knock it over. We started at the far end of the booth with a full gun and sprayed our way back to the mixing table, took a short break and refilled the gun then started the pattern over again.

You can see I used fender stands, ladders with conduit - basically anything I could find that'd get the parts to comfortable height for spraying.

We used a good Iwata gun with the collapsible plastic bag that holds the paint so you can hold the gun at any angle and it won't drip.

There were two of us in the booth. One person mixed paint and helped with hose control during spraying while the other person sprayed.

We removed all the back taping just as soon as we finished the last coat of clear.

All the individual parts were color sanded, then reassembled back on to the truck, installing welting as we went.

[my56chevytruck]

I painted my 56 mounted and together, BUT as others have said, the more you can do to cover and cover and cover everything up you don't want overspray on, the happier and less work for you later. I was told long ago, the more you can do to prepare for NOW, the less you'll have to do to fix LATER.

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by 68blackbird

I’m at that point in the project where the paint is getting close. When I did the ’59 last year, I painted with cab on frame, doors on. As the pics show, I did the cab in 2 stages because I’m a short guy, 5’ 6”. Did the roof by laying board across front fenders to get an even spray, then re-masked and painted the rest. Really don’t want to go the route this time. I was thinking about doing this one, cab off frame, doors on. While its in primer, my thinking would be easier to get doors aligned and not scratched up. Does this sound feasible? What kind of issues will arise doing it this way, like getting cab back on frame, how long I have to wait after paint to use hoist to get cab back on? Paint bed on or off frame. I know to do fenders separate. Any other advice is much appreciated, thanks, Kel

By the way, love that red!!!

[68blackbird]

Appreciate all the input! Kel

Originally Posted by my56chevytruck

By the way, love that red!!!

Thanks...its actually Daytona Sunrise Orange - 2015/14 Corvette