How does one paint car with panels off?

[375instroke]

When people paint Mopars with the body panels off the car, how do they put the car back together?  What about panel alignment?  Do they get everything together without chipping anything?  What about the fender bolts in the engine compartment and the door hinge bolts?  Do they paint the car again after it's together to get paint on those areas?  Is body work done on the panels on the car and then removed for paint, or are they sanded off the car also?

[Drop Top]

As many people here on this board already know. I restore cars for a living. I do it the way you are describing. Its a very long process to do a car this way. As for your questions. Before you start you want to aline all gaps first. Then mark them and take notes. Like how many shims in a certain area. Drill very small holes for alinement in areas that will never be noticed. When doing body work you may have to fit that fender or door, ect. on and off 10 or more times before you get it perfict. Do any and all panel replacing before fitting all your gaps. I do all my blocking with the body apart also. When it comes time to paint. It depends on what your shooting. Is it a factory color or a candy or maybe a pearl job. There are many differant tricks for painting a car apart. I wont go into that because it would take to long to explane all of them. Besides I give away too many of my little tricks as it is. After you have the car and parts painted and buffed. You cover all the edges with masking tape and be very careful when you attach them to the car. It takes at least 2 people to do this. To answer your question about how you get the bolts painted after its painted and put together. You air brush them. Don't paint them first. I also color sand and buff everthing before it goes together. To do a car the way I do one takes many long hours. That is why people like me charge by time and material. each and every car has its own set of problems. You don't know what they might be entill you do the car. This is whay a full on body apart restoration can reach anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000. Thats why you need to make sure the car your doing is really worth doing it this way.

[69 OUR/TEA]

Hi 375instroke,yes you see alot of mopars being painted in pieces this way and then being put back together,and your questions about bolts,putting back together,etc.I am not a big fan of painting these cars in pieces,for numerous reasons:first (main concern),if it is a metallic color all the panels should be in place where they go for proper metallic,or pearl layout.You can have the gun loaded,and just by walking merely feet away, to lets say to spray a fender or hood,can actually change the color as by how you are applying the base coat,gun distance.. numbers of passes...etc.I have seen this done,and when panels were put on car,did not match.Especially with B5 or other light blue colors are known for this along with being a poor hiding color. Alot of people think that because it is coming out of the same gallon it should be right on.Not so!! If it was a solid color like red,yellow or black,you should be fine,but like I said I would'nt do this with a metallic color.The worst part of painting a mopar together is at the fenderto cowl gap, it gets oversprayed into the crack,so you can't get this area good.Other than that,there are break points for just about every other area.This is the order of how I painted my car.First I painted the whole inside of passenger compartment,second  the inside of the trunk,third the door hinge area,cowl,(and painting the top of cowl where the gap of the fender comes to),and lower frame rail,and the upper control arm tray.Fourth the inside of fenders and jambs on the doors.I then hung and aligned the doors and fenders.(Before I forget to mention,the doors and fenders were previously on for alignment purposes and for the block sanding of the primer,you want your doors on and latched when you block so you can ride across both the door and quarter panel so those edges are taking the same shape.This makes a big difference when the car is painted,so you see the reflection of objects following thru both panels evenly.)Next I bolted on the trunk lid,which was painted underneath already.Here is one of your answers ......when I go to bolt on the trunk lid I masking tape over the bolt holes ,use some extra bolts to use for the alignment of trunk lid( TIP....do not crank down on the bolts,just snug them enough to hold the lid secure).When I had the lid right where it would stay,I took out one bolt at a time,removed masking tape,and with a 13 MM socket with masking tape pushed into,put in my previously painted original trunk bolts.
   Now up to the paint booth,fully masking taped the already painted frame rails,jambs on door,hinge area,tape and papered underside of trunk lid.Removed the catch in door jamb so I can open the doors during painting to paint door jamb with the car as not to get overspray and tape lines,( you can break this at the hinge area seam.)Did the same for trunk jamb.Next I taped at the cowl break point and fenders to inner fenders so I can paint the engine bay seperately from car( you can't do this with the outside,you will be shooting overspray out onto fenders,and won't have enough time to keep everything wet as to not create dryspray.)Painted the engine bay (with all the fender bolts in,solves your other question),one day.Came back the next day,fully tape and papered up the entire engine bay for protection from overspray.Strattled a stand over the radiator support for the hood to sit(like I stated about having panels in place where they go for proper match).Since I had a vinyl top,that was fully covered,during the sealer , basecoat and clearing I would lift off the hood,place on roof to get at the inside of fenders and cowl area down to break lip.Same thing with trunk,open it,do the trunk jamb close(with latch also removed),do the outside.There was  two of us painting at the same time,so it did make it easier.
   Also forgot to mention on the hinge bolts,did the same way as trunk lid.One more thing to mention,I used a dark blue sealer mixed with a grey sealer to get a medium blue to be as close to my color as possible,for proper color and full hiding.Here are some pics for you to see thru the process as I described.....

[69 OUR/TEA]

some more.....

[69 OUR/TEA]

last ones....

[bill440rt]

Another trick which works very well is plastic washers. If you're painting the bolt-on panels separately, off the car, when you fit them to the car use regular bolts with metal washers, & plastic washers underneath. Plastic washers are available at almost any hardware store, even Home Depot.
Have your correct bolts pre-painted. Then, one by one, swap out the bolts with the plastic washers for your correct painted ones. Eastwood sells plastic socket inserts for this purpose, to install bolts without scratching them. Trouble is, you can't crank down hard on the bolts to get a tight fit, I just use them to snug the bolts up. Then, I use a thin rag (like an old t-shirt or bedsheet rag), in the socket for the final tightening. A 1/2 turn with the ratchet with the thin rag in the socket does the trick, & usually doesn't scratch the bolt.
ALL the nuts and bolts on my '70 R/T are either painted, or plated & clear coated, so putting the car together was a slow process. But, take your time & you should have no problem.
Good Luck!

[Drop Top]

I'll add one more thing. Painting a car apart is not for the beginer or novice. I paint Candy Jobs, Pearls and factory colors all apart. The factory colors you can get away with painting at differant times. (The body one day, the doors a week later.) If you use good quality paint and fallow certain steps. Yes, even the metalics. But you have to know what your doing!!! For factory colors I only use PPG. Thats the only paint that you can get away with it on all colors. For Candys and Pearls. Its a whole differant ball game. I only use H.O.K. for that. The only time that I had a problem with the colors not matching after I put the car together. Was when I used Du Pont. It was on a 69 Shellby GT 350. Factory color yellow. I had to repaint the car out of pocket. I used PPG the next time. Guess what? No problems! Like I said before its all about experience and quailty of paint. By the way. Its very hard to find a paint booth big enough to do a car all at once and apart.

[hemi-hampton]

I prefer to do the car together similar to OUR/TEA but with some minor Variations. Mostly I do the jambs last cuz anytime I have the doors, ect, ect taped up & then try doing jambs the opening & closing with the Tape & paper in the way always screws up my wet painted jambs. Leaving these partialy open screws up my Equlibrium & gun distance to surface being uneven with uneven partially opened panel that I cant close due to fear of screwing up wet painted jambs. I know what your thinking, But dont you get Tape lines doing them Seperate, NO, I dont. LEON.