What's the downside of painting an

[iwantacobra427]

assembled car? I know the overall quality of the paint job won't be as good as painting it first.. but the money is very tight. One positive of painting after is less worry about damaging a $5000 plus paint job during the assembly..

[Dwight]

My first paint job was done with the body off the car. Not a good paint job,but I put the car together and drove it. After a year I removed the windshield, trim, etc. and had the car repainted. If the painter does not cover everything under the hood, under the car and the interior you will have over spray on everything. It's very hard to clean every part on your car. It's best if you car is on stands or raised so the painter can see the bottom edges of the body. Most painters miss the bottom edges of the side louvers, brake duct etc. The easy way to paint a Cobra is body off frame, but you can paint an assembied car. It's just a little more work, paper and tape. Dwight

[strictlypersonl]

We get the kits painted with the body bonded to the chassis (but no mechanical bits installed), and somehow everything is quite free of overspray. They must be very careful masking off the rest of the car. I don't see why someone else can't do the same, although having the suspension on is going to make things more complicated.

[mj_duell]

I completely assembled my A&C before paint and put everything on the body. It was essentially done except for the paint. Then I completely disassembled everything and removed the body and sent it to be painted. Yes it was time consuming, but the paint came out great and there were no issues with drilling holes or mistakes during assembly that would damage the paint job. This approach is used by a lot of high end car and bike builders and it pays off big in the end.



--Mike / Turn Ten Racing, Inc.

[Tongue Pirate]

With these cars is shouldn't be much of a problem. The majority of the skin parts...Rollbar, winshield, lights etc are 4 bolts or less. The interior & engine compartment can be taped off completely. I would suggest pulling all of the doors, hood & trunklid also so that they can be painted on a stand. the doors are the most critical as you will have a tough time getting the front of jams if they are on. Lastly you can roll the car onto a sheet of plastic, pull the wheels & tires & tape up the complete bottom to keep overspray from making its way up onto everything that was covered from the top.

[Jerry Clayton]

A customer recently had his 88 mustang painted--they got paint on the engine, plated caster camber plates and worst they put a truck bed lining type spray in the fender wells---yep enough overspray that the coilovers won't ever rust or adjust and the polished stainless headers and merge collecters look like well casings now



Take it apart for paint


Jerry

[DonC]

Iwanta:
I'm in the "body off for paint" camp. My personal opinion is that, unless you're having it done by a really high quality shop or someone you know personally and can be there throughout the whole process, you'll probably spend a lot of time cleaning up after the paint job.
Taking care of someone elses mistakes can detract significantly from the overall enjoyment of the project.
DonC

[Jim Holden]

Folks:

When Bob Putnam speaks everyone should pay attention.

As Bob indicated, bond the body on, trial fit the trim and send it off to paint without any of the mechanicals installed. This way the painter can check all the body opening gaps and things are less likely to "move." Clean up of the car is much easier and consists largely of just hosing it down; not easy to do if everything is installed.

Tony, who has done a number of ERA cars, has stands for all the removable body parts for prep work and painting of door jams, etc.

Jim

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

See my 427 (#718) in primer at Tony's in Ma. in my gallery...you can see how Tony masks off the car and disassembles the hood, trunklid, and doors prior to painting, and returning the car to my home with a show quality paint job.

[cobred]

I painted my ERA with the body on as per ERA. One reason is because you have to stretch the body (pull it apart at the sides) to get it over the frame. It will not crack the body but may crack the paint. You should have ERA powder coat the frame and bond the body, they will align it all properly. This is the foundation for the entire build process and worth every dollar. I painted all the parts at the same time but off the body (doors,hood, trunk) and had no problem. Good luck

[chuckbrandt]

I painted mine with the body on and had no significant problems with overspray. You will spend many hours masking though.

My first time masking looked like this. (note the skirt around the rear of the car is not done yet in this picture, but you get the idea)



My second version dropped the paper in the passenger area to be able to spray under the edges more. The rest was the same.



Chuck