Ok, I learned the way an ebody was painted originally, it was all assembled.

How many people restore a car this way? My painter can do it either way, but he was going to shoot single stage underneath (all blue) and in the trunk and engine compartment, if painted all apart. He would 2 stage everything else (external).

IF you do it all assembled, is it just a pain to do the clear, say under the hood, etc?

I found one restoration guy that says paint it all assembled, as you get the body all set, and the bolts look nice afterwards. It eliminates the risk of reassemble scratches etc.

Opinions please....I can see the merit of painting it all together.

-bob (B5 70 cuda convert ready for paint next week).

Sounds like an concourse wrongstoration so it really doesn't matter.

But if I were having it done wrong I would have it jammed , paint under the hood and the underside , assemble it then paint it.

Spraying it apart allows you flexibility with regards to 'access' that yer not gonna have if it's sprayed fully assembled...

and that's why a factory correct restoration will have bare metal and primer showing in those areas.

Make it better than new and you won't have rust in those hard to reach areas in a few years but this is a totally personal decision.

Sheldon

There is a 3rd option as well. Prime and seal everything while it's apart, even go as far as painting those areas with a "primer" textured and colored paint so it appears to be primer but is actually a nice sealed and painted surface. Then, assemble the car, gap everything so no further bolt adjusting is required, and blow the paint on factory style leaving areas dry and uncovered by body color as they should be. You might not get that look past an O.E. judge as being original, but not many others will pick up on it and it will appear basically "correct".

thanks for all the responses. I like option 3.

By the way, is there a paint code somebody could recommend that matches the shade of the dipping primer?

Resto Rick sells some good stuff http://www.restorick.com/proddetail.asp?prod=PntPolyDipGray

Bare metal and primer is fine if the goal is to win at the Nats.....but for a car that gets driven, I wouldn't do it. Option 3 sounds good though or I'd just paint it full coverage.

Dave