Damaging Fresh Paint.

Unknown

I have been in the process of prefitting the fenders, hood and trunk lid. I wanted to make sure everything fit before I paint in the spring. I have found out that working by myself I probably can not install these items with out scratching the paint. I am now thinking of painting the edges, jambs, and openings then installing the above pieces and painting the car as one unit instead of painting everything individually. The rear fenders I will still probably paint separate as the caulk strip is supposed to be unpainted.

Progress pictures:

Unknown

You can do it if you're careful, but if you're using a metallic or other tricky finish, you'll want to spray the whole car at once anyway. Yes you can do it and make it match, but it'll be easier. If you elect to paint then assemble, make good friends with masking tape and fiber washers. Sometimes you can masking tape an edge, bolt the panel on, then pull the tape. Part of the tape will remain under the panel edge, invisible, but what is that going to hurt?



My general policy depending on vehicle is to paint, assemble, then go all around with a final finish coat after assembly, carefully masking to avoid overspray inside the panels.

rambos_ride

Forget about those shows where the panels get painted off the cars. Ridiculous to try and do by yourself and takes just as much if not more time than jambing the car and masking and painting afterwards.

The jambs can be painted first. You just have to be very diligent in masking for overspray.

We paint cars all the time for Avis - they cannot have visible blend or paint edge lines.

The trick is to reverse mask on the edges. the exosed glue and angle of spay to tape makes a near invisible edge.

Take 1" masking tape (I like it better than 3/4) unroll a piece and "kill" it with your fingers, or I just tape across my shirt once like you're trying to get lint out. "Killing" the tape just makes the glue a little less sticky.

Then you run about 1/2 the tape along the edge and roll back the extra so the tape is folded with the exposed stick side out. The roll should be gentle and not sharp or it will leave a line.

I've been painting cars like this for longer than some of you have been alive!