Has any ever sprayed their truck with the box and cab mounted to the finished frame? I ask since I'm used to spraying unibody classic cars so this seems more natural to me and that is how I spray those.

On my 55 F100 I was contemplating the following steps ... would appreciate input:

Step 1) With Cab still off the truck:

• final body work prep on bottom of cab, firewall, doors jams, inside, back of cab
• Spray bottom side of floor (w/ bedliner or other)
• Spray body color / clear on firewall and back of cab (area covered by box)...since mine will be two tone I could spray up to that two tone line line
• Spray body color / clear on inside side of cab

Step 2) Install Cab on frame

• Mask off firewall, door jams, rear of cab

Step 3) With Box still off the truck:

• Still unassembled spray bottom of bed braces (w/ bedliner or other), spray back side / bottom of front box panel and side box panels with bedliner (or other)
• Assemble box
• Spry Final body color / clear on front of box (area cover by cab)
• Spray Final body color / clear on outside side panels where rear fenders would be
• final body color / clear on the inside of box panels, tail gate jams inside of tailgate / tailgate edges

Step 4) Install box on frame

• mask off sprayed areas.

Once the cab & box are mounted, I'm thinking I could fit the rest of the body panels (spraying underside of hood, spray bedliner (or other) on backside of fenders, inner fenders, valance, inside of doors, etc. before installed on truck.

Then install all panels, do the final fit / body prep (body filler, blocking, primer, blocking, final sand) and spray the whole body at once without having to remove any of the body panels again.

Yes, I know there are other steps involved in body work, I was just laying out the big picture. And yes, I know there would be a ton of masking off the frame (areas exposed) and other areas sprayed with final body color / clear to guard against over spray but I'm wondering if all that prep / work is still easier than spraying individual items off the truck, then installing them on the truck risking chipping the paint due to extra handling, fighting clumsy parts, setting gaps, etc.

Thoughts? Sound crazy?....

 

If any, the over spray is what would raise my concern. But any area accessible for overspray to settle you should be able to wet sand and polish if required. So, it's only your time in the end.

Aligning stubborn finished body panels with a rubber mallet sure hurts, I know.

The only complete paint jobs I did so far was on motorcycles. And those you spray strictly torn down to pieces.

 

I too have very rarely painted panels off when doing a complete paint also because of mostly unibody cars . IMHO the downside = allot more masking , tapelines on jambs , more difficult to cut and polish and access to some areas . The upside = far less chance of damage to panels when installing and a much easier to get a uniform finish . The uniform finish is much more dependent on type of paint and skill level . Heavy metalics , pearls , candies and others are very dependent on air pressure , gun speed , gun angle , settings , environment , uniform mixing and reducing among others . As a longtime bodyman - painter it's not uncommon for me to pic out panels that have slightly different tint or flop . JMHO

 

I don't like handling parts once they are painted. Way too much chance of scratching the paint.

When I painted my truck I did all of the body work first, made sure everything fit together, epoxy primed everything. I had the frame cleaned up and painted. I paint the underside of the cab with undercoating and mounted it on the frame. I painted the area under where the door hinges mounted to the cab and then mounted the doors, again making sure they aligned and shut properly, all still in only primer. I sprayed the interior of the cab and doors. After drying I taped off the inside of the door openings and the inside of the door edges and door jams to prevent overspray and the sprayed the outside of the cab. I didn't have the box ready to paint or I would have sprayed the front panel of the box at the same time as I sprayed the outside of the cab. After I had the cab completely painted I mounted the inner fender panels and grill panel, which I had painted separately. I sprayed the inside mounting surfaces of the front fenders and loosely bolted them to the truck and painted them. After they dried I inserted the anti squeak material and tightened the bolts.

Later when the box was ready I sprayed the front panel, the inner lips of the rear fenders and the area on the box where the fenders mounted. After drying I loosely mounted the rear fender and sprayed the box and fender together. After drying I inserted the fender welting and tighten the fender mounting nuts.

While doing all of the body painting I tried my best to mask the frame to prevent overspray, If there was any I just spray some black paint over it. I wasn't doing a concourse restoration but it turned out pretty nice. I didn't worry about the inside of the fenders because I spayed chip guard on the insides after I was done painting the outside of the truck.

I have seen a lot of guys post on here that they took individual parts of their trucks to a body shop to have them worked on and painted. I would never do this. First, I would never take part to a body shop, I do all my own work. But the biggest problem is the assurance that the parts will fit properly, the color will match. The way paint is sprayed and the different ways different people spray it can affect the look of the paint. Also, I just don't like loading and unloading painted pieces, again, way too much of a chance of damage.

Another thing, I was talking to a guy who restores Cameros. He told me the first Camero he restored and entered into a show he made sure he masked everything off before painting. He painted the firewall and undercarriage of the car before painting the body, hood and front fenders. He got points taken off of that restoration because on the assembly line the undercarriage and firewall were painted black and the car was assembled and the paint was applied to the body, hood and front fenders without masking anything off and their was overspray one the black parts. The judges wanted to see the overspray, not crisp masking lines. These old trucks were tools and no real quality control was used to assemble and paint them. I have a cab on my F-2 I got off an F-7 firetruck with 3000 original miles. The doors fit like crap and the paint looked like it was applied only where the painter would reach without bending over too far. There was no paint under the dash or inside firewall, all bare metal. The paint on the cab was very poor quality, it came off in big flakes when I hit with my DA. These trucks were meant to be used as tools, to be used and abused and tossed away in ten years, at most, and then buy another one.

 

Your plan is the same as mine basically. It will take me 3-4 years to do mine. (at least)