Paint job questions?? Need input!!

[Justinmk4]

Good morning all. I am wondering if I can mount the body, doors, hood and trunk trim and lay out strips. Once that prep is complete can I remove the entire body and paint it off the chassis? I'm trying to continue on the build while its at the paint shop. Is their enough adjustment in the hood and trunk left/right to paint off the chassis? All help is much appreciated!! Also guys like I have posted I'm running a coyote and had the pre cut out done r some bodies requiring some trimming around the pipes where they come through those cut outs? Thx

[edwardb]

Depends on where in the build process you mount the body and do all the fitting. All the sheet metal needs to be installed so the bulb seal can be placed and the body put in the correct place. Front and rear suspension should be installed. Ideally you should have the dash mounted so you can fit that as needed. In order to get the doors properly mounted, the wheel well liners (aka elephant ears) need to be mounted. Ideally as well you should mount the windshield and anything else touching the body, e.g. lights, quickjacks/bumpers, roll bar, etc. You really don't want to be fitting/adjusting/trimming anything after it's painted. Finally, you really need the engine installed so you can mount the headers and sidepipes and get the body side openings adjusted as needed. They are either uncut or undersized if you chose the body trim option. So short answer, yes, but it needs to be pretty far along. I don't know how fast you build, but things that can wait until after the body is fitted is some of the wiring, finishing the cockpit and trunk (e.g. insulation and carpeting), and probably a whole list of smaller details.

[Jeff Kleiner]

To do it properly and have all panels flow together a certain amount of body shaping (i.e.; bodywork with fillers) has to be done on the chassis. Paint is done with the body off.

Jeff

[j.miller]

The cut-outs are close but ya need to tune them up. All "trimming" and "fitting" should be done on the chassis . I have never painted one on the chassis, always off. 1.I shoot stripe color down the center of the body, deck and hood. 2. (using pieces of foam tape in the jambs) center the hood and deck with even gap and tape in place. 2. lay out stripes. 3. pull hood and deck off and mask stripes 4. paint body color , unmask stripes and clearcoat . When you go to put it together you just have to line up the stripes...when you do that your gaps are the way they were when you set them for your stripe...da bat