Paint the body on or off

Steve Miller

Steve Miller

Member
I put the body on my truck to make sure everything fit and was shimmed properly, it's in primer now. The fenders are painted already. Does everyone paint their body off the frame, or do some people paint it on. It's a pain to get that thing on and off and shimmed right and I don't have a lot of help to lift it, so I'm thinking about masking everything off really tight and giving it a go on the frame.
Thanks
 
Hey Steve, I was having the same thoughts with my 29 tudor when I was getting ready to paint, I painted it with body on but with just about everything else apart hope this helps which ever I am sure it will turn out good looking if you are like me I am harder to please than everybody else looking at it. Good luck how ever you do it! Robert DeBord
 

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Have you painted the underside? I can't see how you could properly paint an A body with it on the chassis.
 
If you have everything fitted well you can put it back together the same and everything will fall nicely into place. Been there, done that.
 
The effort of lifting the body off will be well worth it and as Marco said, mark everything and put it back the same way and it will fall into place, after all, you've done all the hard work. When I owned Classic Auto Refinishers all our jobs were done this way.
 
This is my Victoria after it came out of the booth and i'd fitted the gas tank
 

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I was in the same position as you Steve, debating if it was worth the hassle, and also 'working alone' on the project. I purchased an adapter for my engine-hoist (cherry-picker) that made it possible for me to take the body on and off all by myself. Had it on and off three separate times during the final stages, because it was so easy to do (ie: put the body back on to install the top wood, took it back off to do the body-work, back on for fitting with fenders, back off for paint,....). Here is a photo. Best $300 I ever spent!
 

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Found it!!, I got it from
Accessible Systems, Inc.
104 Minga Dr
Johnson City, TN 37604
423-975-8907
FAX: 423-975-6602
sales@accessiblesystems.com

I recall he customized the adapter so I could get a Model-A body high enough (the first one he sent, standard for "modern car' shapes, wouldn't get the Model-A body high enough to clear the 19" tires and frame of a Model-A, so he made a 'crooked adapter" to replace the straight one. You can see it in my photo). Real nice guy, easy to work with and SMART.
 
If it is a truck the individual pieces i.e., cab and bed, should not be too difficult to handle with some ingenuity. At least paint the bottom side and the firewall before setting it on the frame.
 
This is how I am lifting my 28 special coupe body on and off the sawhorses and the frame. I am using a 2" heavy duty nylon strap with the engine lift extended all the way out (1/4 ton capacity). I put padding under the strap to protect the subrails that are already painted. The only thing is that you need is someone (my wife in this case) to balance the body. The balancing is not a heavy lifting task, but is sometimes a little tricky.

Rusty Nelson
Lakeville, MN


Usingliftonbody1.jpg
 
Cheri pickeris how I move all my bodies around. I`m working by myself 99.9% of the time. You should hear some of the convesations! Monte
 
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