[Arrowhead]

I'm thinking ahead to how to to do the body work on this Mustang. Right now it torn down to a rolling shell. I'll be repairing the floors first then detailing the engine compartment and undercarrage.

The bodywork should consist of some minor rust repair, new door skins and a full paint job. I guess I'm confused about how to deal with the bolt on panels. When the chassis is done should I bolt everything on and line up gaps then do bodywork? Or should I do the body work with the panels off and then install to paint them. Should I paint the door jambs first, then install the doors then paint the whole body at once? Then I've seen people paint all the panels off the car, then assemble. But what if things don't line up? I'm assuming they mock up all the panels first for bodywork and alingment, take off, paint then reinstall? (I think that's what I might do.)

These aren't all the options, but you get the idea. Any ideas? Thanks

[firebird_red]

Line everything up with the original doors installed on before you reskin the doors. You need the adjacent panels located correctly so you can set the door skins correctly on their shells. The door skin needs to be checked against the opening. If you take everything apart, you won't have anything known to be correct to reference to.

The entire car should be trial fit before painting even if you will paint it in parts. You don't want to be correcting fit issues on new painted parts. Blocking should be done with panels set in final position.

[baddbob]

Strip the car down to bare metal and prime with epoxy, do your bump work and panel replacement and assemble the car for test fitting and blocking, get the panels fitting good and blocked straight then take the car apart again, now shoot the underside, firewall, interior, jambs and panel edges and reassemble the car, final sand the car and shoot the exterior.

The car can easily be panel painted while disassembled if it's a solid color but with metalics I always spray the exterior assembled for a perfect match.

[Arrowhead]

Thanks for the input. I thought this might have generated more interest.

The trick where you drill a little alignment hole after you get all the panels fitted so it's easier to put back together worth doing?