Painting

Chuck, with the doors off it will be much easier to paint the hard to reach surfaces, and as you are seeing control where the paint goes (doesn't go). But as you also point out you then have to contend with scratching everything when you reassemble. To avoid this , I believe painting only the hard to reach areas with the doors off will give you the best result for what you want to achieve. Then after you put the doors on painting the outside of the entire car with the doors closed will be easier.
 
It's easy to overthink the potential reassembly issues but in reality a bit of padding and a helper take the worry out of assembling painted parts. The key is to address all alignment matters before refitting painted parts.
Looks to me that you are going for perfection so don't let worry affect the process.
 
I would put it together if at all possible. True, there is a good chance there will be no issues and it will match spot on. There is also a chance it might not. Reds are very transparent, so one panel being sprayed just a little bit heavier than the panel next to it, might be enough for the color to be a shade off. It does take longer to do, but it's the route I'd go. I think your plan of jams first, then assemble the body, spray the body together, then if you want, take it apart to sand and buff it. And it doesn't need to be crazy, it's not like you need to spend days aligning the body. You might be able to just set the fender on the cowl, and something like a saw horse to hold the front of it up. Just set it up so you can spray easily from panel to panel. You don't want to regret the extra day or two, when the car is all done and it looks like it was panel painted. Just my two cents!


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Be sure and spray 4 coats to give you enough thickness to color sand. Not enough paint on some panels and more on others won't match either. I'd recommend 2 gallons of paint and mix both together. Not a good idea to run out of paint. Running out can cause paint not to match as well.
 
Given that you're using a solid color - I'd definitely take it apart. Mask the outside of the doors off - lay them flat (about waist high) and paint all the jambs. Same with any other panels that need the undersides painted (hood, truck, etc). You might consider shooting a couple coats of clear on the bottom sides/jambs of the doors, hood bottoms, etc.. This can give you a decent shine - as it is doubtful you'll be rubbing out all these areas. :)

Then - let things dry well . . . and mask off the underside/jambs and flip the doors, hood, trunk-lid, etc - over.

Then you'll be painting the top surfaces that same time you paint the rest of the car. having all these large pieces laying flat will help you see the amount of paint you're applying (wetness), will make it easier to judge the overlap between passes and will reduce the amount of runs, etc..

You'll get a much better result this way, then having all the doors on the car - dealing with over-spray in the jambs, runs, etc.. I've done this a LOT - it is by far the easiest way for a non-professional to paint. Even for a pro, I'd rather have everything laid out like this - and be able to do the body jambs when I do the rest of the body - than any other way. It is up to me to know how to spray metalics, pearls and other fun stuff . . . regardless of where the panels are lying.
 
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