[Ron M]

I am in the process of getting ready to prime and paint my old 49 Chevy. I am thinking of going with a burgundy MTK with 50 / 50 base and clear final coat. I am looking for ideas on how to go about the assembly process without getting chips in the primer and paint. I am thinking of priming whole body and then assembling doors, jamb with base coat, assemble front clip and them finish jambs, inside of hood, cowl and trunk. Then spray the final color coat. A body friend of mine suggested painting while disassembled and then reassemble. I am concerned about getting chipped paint if I went that way. I will be doing the assembly myself. I am also looking for ideas on how to go about the assembly process. Ideas, tricks and techniques on body panel alignment would be much appreciated.

[crazy larry]

All I can say on this is, You cannot be careful enough assembling a painted anything. I tried, and have several few places that I screwed up. but I think that except for the dings I put in, it most definitely looks better than the alternative.

[astroracer]

Spray everything off the car then have your bodyman friend come over to help you assemble it... And put tape on all the edges that you may nick.

[MARTINSR]

I have to say, of course painting the car apart is the "best" way. But really, what is "best" for your car? What is "best" for you? Those are two completly different things.

If you are building a "driver", not a show car, but just a nice car to have fun with. I would say jamb it, assemble it and paint it together. If you have a lot of time, you are reasonably skilled and just want that knock out car, even when the doors are open knock out car, than paint it apart.

Also, is this color a metallic? If it is, unless you have a painter that is very confident he can pull it off, PAINT IT TOGETHER! If you are going to paint it yourself and you are not very experianced, PAINT IT TOGETHER, even if it is a solid color. Even a solid color will produce a number of different colors if you don't coat it exactly the same from panel to panel. The metallic color, I see pro painters who can't pull that off. A TINY bit different gun speed, distance from the panel, different temp in the shop, that is all it takes to have a checkerboard.

This paint you are refering to, what exactly is it? Are you taking bc/cc or are talking about a SS that you will put clear in for a final coat?

[Ron M]

As usual Martin, you hit it right on the head. First of all, I am just looking for a nice driver, not a show car. I am painting it myself and I am using MTK, PPG urethane single stage. I was wondering if there was a possibility of getting diferent shades if painted at different times. I have a few cars and other paint projects under my belt, but I am any thing but an accomplished painter. In fact, I rely more on my ability to do some after paint finish work (cut and polish work) to get things looking decent. I feel more comfortable rubbing out a finish. Probably from the lacquer and single stage delstar jobs I have done.
The MTK will be a new system for me, but I am thinking it is a good candidate for rubbing out afterward. Would you agree? In my painting, I always seem to have some orange peel or contamination that needs a clean up, plus I don't know why, but I like the look of a cut and polish look. It seems to be deep and yet soft in the look to my eyes. Probably comes from my early days of everyone doing hand rubbed lacquer jobs. That was the rage when I fell in love with old cars. By any chance, are the lacquers of today good enough to warrant their use?

One last thought. I am down to two colors. Either a burgundy or maybe even a yellow. I think the body is straight enough for burgundy. I have sprayed the body work areas with black spray bomb, and they look pretty good. No waves or inconsistency seem to jump out at you from any angle that I can see. Ofcourse the finish is not a deep or wet looking soooo? I am thinking a yellow would be more forgiving, is that true. And would a yellow hold up better for UV problems? I have seen a 49 Chev with a black dash and interior and yellow exterior and it looked like a 60s custom. This car has the flavor, infact it was a yellow 60s hotrod at one time. The color would be a solid by the way.

[MARTINSR]

Ron, unless your car is going to be stored out side in the sun I wouldn't be worried about the difference in UV resistance between the two colors. Just paint it the color YOU would like. Now, that is quite a jump from a burgandy to a yellow. The burgandy will show more of any waves in the flat panels, that is true. But it will also hide body lines and body fit. The yellow on the other hand will show off the body lines of your Chevy and show the panel fit that we are discussing to all.


I know nothing about the particular paint so I don't have any advice for you on that. And IF you can find any lacquer today, I have to assume it is only as good as it was a few decades ago being they are not going to spend any money to improve it. However, it could have been degraded, that would make more sense. The last time I used Lacquer was on a Model A street rod of a buddies. I had did the car completly back in 1982 or so and he wrecked it around 1996. I had forgotten what a PAIN that lacquer was! There are some new things available like the 15,000 grit paper I was given to rub it out (yes you read right, fifteen thousand grit) but the paint it's self was a LOT more work than I remembered.

On your body work, a black rattle can isn't going to tell you anything. Have you guide coated it and blocked urethane primer on it?