Body Rebuild

Hood,fenders an doors are ready to be installed. Every thing has been repaired or replaced with new,Primed an ready for paint, my ? is what part do I install first so I can square up every thing else?  

first install the doors, to get the correct gaps there, then the fenders, then hood and check for fit of all the parts and adjust as necessary, once every thing has been  checked and made sure it fits correctly, take it all apart again, and paint all the removable parts seperate, or you will not be able to paint the inside of the fender lip where the door meets up, or painting the bottom edge of the doors is also a pain when they are hung on the car. paint the inside of the doors first, then mask off 1/2 the width of the weather strip, then paint the outside the body colour, if they are different, then the weather strip covers the paint line completly.  

I would also add that it is a good idea to blow some base color onto the cowl sides when doing the loose parts as well. Then when you bolt the doors on you won't have primer or sealer under the door hinges, you'll actually have color. Door hinge bolts are supposed to be body color too. So after painting the doors you would install them, align them, and then blow a little more color over the hinges to cover the bolts.

If it is a metallic paint job be aware of metallic "flow". Meaning make sure the fenders, doors, headlight buckets, etc. are sprayed in the same direction or they won't match on the car. Generally we bolt the hood, fenders, etc. on loosely for the last coat of base so the flow matches, then remove them and do finally clear coat of the parts separately on work station stands.

HTH...
Mark
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Mark Houlahan
Technical Editor for:
-Modified Mustangs & Fords Magazine
-Mustang Monthly Magazine

1965 FFR Roadster 427W/TKO-600 5-speed
1966 Mustang 289-4V/C4 Auto
1968 Mustang 4.6L Three-Valve/5R55S Auto
1990 Mustang 306/AOD
2001 Ranger SuperCab 4x4 3.0L V-6/5R44E Auto
2002 Explorer Sport Trac 4.0L V-6/5R55 Auto