I have just read through a lot of project posts looking for the answer. I am in process of doing a front clip restoration & complete paint on my 67. I have completed the first pass of body work, all paint removed, and first & second coats of primer. I have removed the engine & tranny, and interior. Next major steps are for me to rebuild motor, rebuild front end and get the body to a real body guy to make her look nice. My question is, should I rebuild the front end first, or have it painted first, or does it make any difference? I need the front wheels on to get her trailered and to the paint shop. I planned to rebuild the motor while the body work was completed. Any experienced advice would be appreciated.

 

Do all your work first then paint, nothing hurts more than the first chip in the new paint.

 

I agree with hotrods1, get all your work done first then paint.

 

Like the others have said do all your body work 1st then the paint job. Once we had the car torn apart and old motor and tranny out we sent the car to body shop where is got restored. Half way through we had the subframe sent home for clean up and rebuild. Sent the subframe back to body shop with the new tranny mounted and then car was finished, primered and then painted. We built the motor at home and put it in once the car came back home from body shop. Please check my project thread in my sig if you havent already.

 

I spent the majority of an NFL playoff game today going through your project post. Very well done and very informative. I was not 100% clear if you had the front clip reinstalled before the paint or afterwards. I did see that they painted your firewall initially, then installed the front clip, and assume then painted the car. I was hoping to do a little parallel work and get the body to the shop while I finished up the engine, to shorten the timeline. Thanks again for all your input!!

 

Actually we had the block and the tranny on the subframe when it all went back to the body shop.

 

Nice!

 

How do you move / transport the front clip with engine & tranny on it? I see casters on the trailing arms of the clip. Are those something creative you did or purchased for that? If I can get the body to the shop, rebuild the clip and then get that to them as you did, I could shorten the time line.

 

My husband gave the idea to our body guy. We went and got the biggest ones we could find that would hold a good amount of weight. The body shop tack welded them on. Made it great for moving the subframe around. Then he just cut them off when the sub frame was mounted back onto the car.