A few more pieces of information...
First, the blackout was done by someone standing in a pit whilst the car rolled overhead. You can download the actual factory engineering drawing for the blackout process from the website mentioned in a previous post.
Second, seam sealer was applied to the inner fender prior to the fender being set into place. This sealer kept water/debris from coming up between the fender and inner fender.
Third, as mentioned in an earlier post, the car was assmembled and painted. This is why the fender mounting hardware and such is body color. Blackout was done after color. Note that some cars (maybe depending on year and/or color) did not have the cowl blacked-out. Also, different plants used different blackout processes (workers probably varied in what they bothered to black out). Note in the pics of the yellow '70 cuda that the core support and headlight bucket blackout wasn't very thorough. I think if you compare the pics of the yellow cuda with the engineering drawings, you'll conclude that the blackout on that car wasn't done per the instructions....probably not at all uncommon.
Fourth, as for the actual steps of painting the car in order to get a very nice result (not a completely "correct" result), I have attached a personal email exchange between myself and Resto Rick on how to best paint an E-body (assuming you aren't going the "factory correct route). I hope he doesn't mind.
Hi Steve,
The downside of painting the engine & trunk bays last is that you have to be more careful not to damage the outside paintwork as you paint of course...
Spraying the ENTIRE car including engine & trunk bays...
I did it in the past, but I can tell you it's crazy !...
way too much ground to cover and it's more difficult to control dust issues, etc.
Also you do a much better job focusing on one area at a time...
painting an engine bay while trying not to touch the flypaper-like fender in front of you
is pretty stressful...
You'll get almost as many opinions as there are painters about how to do this buuuuut... lol...
here's what I'd suggest:
1. Paint interior areas (if you plan or need to)
2. Pull the doors and paint their inside front faces.
3. Paint the cowl sides, door jamb front areas, rear backside of fenders.
4. Reinstall & align doors.
5. Paint behind hinges on deck lid and hood. Also behind ends of header panel.
6. Install & align deck lid and hood. (If installing engine from above, I'd paint the hood off..)
STRONGLY recommend installing from below, but that's another novel !!
7. Mask off the engine bay and trunk compartment to prevent excess overspray on these
areas from painting the exterior. This will save a couple hours of tedious sanding.
8. Paint the exterior including the trunk & door jambs. I like to spray the first coat into the door jambs,
apply second coat only on the exterior areas, then apply the third final coat into the jambs making
the jambs the last stop to minimize overspray dulling.
This method is more tedious because of door, etc. handling, but will give the best results without
masking lines.
9. To further confuse you and add more decisions...
On real high end paint jobs where I'm really going for it all... I'll put down 2 coats of clear...
wet sand that flat with 800# being careful not to cut through anywhere. Then carefully clean it to
remove every smear and contaminant that will show through...
Follow that with 3 final coats. This is how the sassy grass 71 Hemi Cuda on my website was done.
It gives a flatter final finish and reduces shrink back. A lot of extra work and truly a judgement call
if it's worth it...
10. Color sand & do an initial cut buff within the first 2 days if you can... will buff much easier and the
slight shrinkback you get will be addressed in the final buff.
11. Mask off the entire car less the trunk & engine compartments. I use the thin masking plastic and
basically bag the car. Also pay particular attention to sealing off the holes at the front of the quarter
panels and quarter window openings. Otherwise overspray from painting the trunk will find it's way all
over the door jambs and make a hand polishing nightmare ! (Don't ask how I know..)
Also the firewall openings need to be completely masked/sealed off from the interior side to keep
engine bay paint overspray in check.
12. Engine bay is pretty straightforward... I like to do the back of the hood at the same time too...
Trunk compartments suck... my least favorite area to paint for sure.
Very difficult to see what you're doing and it's difficult to get a nice finish up front... dust control can
be a nightmare too !!
Both of these areas are much easier to spray with a 2 quart pressure pot...the separate gun is way
easier to manuever and can spray in any direction without fluid loss. As I mentioned before, reaching
more of difficult areas like the front of the doors/ cowl sides possible.
13. Unmask and do your final exterior buffing.
There's a couple good painting videos out there aleady, but I've considered doing one exclusively for
Mopars showing the way I like to do it... ahhhh to have 8 days a week !!
Rick
On 9/12/06, Steve Hall <
shall36@earthlink.net > wrote:
Hey Rick,
Thanks for the reply!
I really hadn't thought of painting the bays last! I see what you are saying about the fenders. I was originally going to paint the entire car while assembled. My only concern was that hitting spots like between the door and the fender (on the cowl side of things) would be tough to do. I suppose if all of the panels were primed as pieces, there should be no concerns about future rust problems and such.
Is it feasible to paint the ENTIRE car (including trunk and engine bay) in "one shot". That is, lay down the color and then come back and lay down the clear? I imagine getting into the trunk with the decklid on might be a bit challenging…but, that's the way they did it from the factory, correct?
If you were me, and you were trying to produce a very nice car (slightly over restored) with many of the factory production cues (e.g. body color bolts and hardware), what would you do?
Thanks!
Steve
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rick Kreuziger [mailto:restoemail@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 10:30 PM
To:
shall36@earthlink.netSubject: Panel Painting
Hey Steve,
Most of the cars I do are done completely assembled as done at the factory.. I also use a 2qt. pressure pot to give more manueverability and better access in hard-to-reach areas.
however....
for a car where you're after the best possible door jamb finish, painting with the doors off does help. Reinstalling the doors is tricky of course...and the bolts will have to be touched up.
I'd recommend leaving the fenders installed.
Some guys will paint the jambs , reinstall the doors and mask off the jamb before painting the exterior. This requires very careful masking to minimize mask lines. (Not a method I care for).
Engine & trunk bay have nice clean break lines and facilitate being painted separately well.
On cars where the most original look is sought, I paint them first as originally done and let the overspray fly.
For the pretty stuff, I usually paint the exterior first, do a initial sand & cut buff, then mask off and paint the bays. This way you don't have any chance of overspray from the exterior paint process as you will get with spraying in the reverse order and you get a nice slick clean finish.
The bit of overspray from the bay painting will be addressed with final buffing.
One word of caution:
Be sure to orientate the panels as they are when installed on the car if the color is metallic. Solid colors are not as critical with this, but some poor hiding solid colors can have some color variation with different film thickess, so consistant spraying is important.
Rick
