Painting Panels separately or assembled first - metallic paint?

Hello all,

I am ready to paint my 67 GS. Currently, the front clip is removed. The doors are on the car. I am leaning toward removing the doors to spray the jambs and then reassembling all the panels prior to all over paint.

Alternatively, I am considering painting the panels separately and then assembling. It is my understanding that that is how the factory did it. I am concerned about color mismatch. I know that with metallic, orientation of the parts is important and that they should be sprayed "as they will hang".

Third option would be leave the doors on as the gaps are adjusted pretty well already and spray the jambs that way. Then install fenders, etc. before all over paint--but then how do you get the fender ornaments on? (FYI, all glass and hardware is removed from body. Your thoughts? Thanks for the input.

Paint color is Shadow Turquoise if that factors into the equation. (PPG Deltron basecoat/clearcoat)

 

The factory painted the car with the doors and trunk deck on and open for at least part of the painting process. The entire nose was not on the car and it was not on the frame. The fenders and hood were painted somewhere else in the factory. Door and trunk attaching hardware was painted. Fender/hood bolts and hardware were not painted. A common mistake to paint front end hardware. It’s sloppy.

 

Watch this video at the end. Shows no nose on car and doors adjar. You can always do jams before doors are on then paint bottoms of doors off the car then attach doors and paint them on the car with another coat in jams to get paint on bolts. That’s the way I usually have it done.

 

When we did frame off we painted all the parts separately, assembled the car and then paint the whole car. That way nothing is missed and rest of car matches. More work but better results.

 

Exactly. Get all the hard to reach areas first. The black /red primer on floors and firewall was done before body color.

 

Its always the safest bet to paint it all together. Or at least if its apart to spray it at the same time if all possible. Just base it all and you have 24hr window to clear what you couldn't get in the booth

 

Thanks for your replies. I am leaning toward painting factory style. I will also plan to shoot everything in the same session.

 

I have read paint came from same batches so parts on cars could match as much as possible.

 

Brad, you have done it now. I am going to have to hunt down where I found that info.

 

You are probably right.

 

Ok Brad I found it. I know this is Chevy but it is still GM and Fisher. Scroll down to Paint System Information 2nd paragraph. That is information I was looking for Fisher for Buick would have handled paint the same way. It’s an interesting read.
http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

 

But Brad, what if you are color blind?

 

Do we know for sure the front end pieces weren’t painted at Fisher too? Then shipped to Buick? Also plenty of Buick’s are GMAD built.

 

The paint companies, for the car manufactures, produced paint in "mill run" such that probably thousands of gallons of each colour & its formula. So if a car say needed the hood repainted, the repair shop was able to, I think thru the car dealer, obtain the formula for the mill run used on the car.

 

So, if I am filling my spray gun pots from the same batch of mixed paint, am I likely to encounter variations in color due to small fluctuations in temperature and humidity? I plan to keep reducer and hardener measurements as precise as I can. Factory practices and resulting color mismatch for these 60's cars pertain to acrylic lacquer, not the deltron base clear I am using.