noskillz

I am starting to map out painting my vette. I would like to paint it with the doors on as I don't want to risk scratching things up putting ht edoors on after I paint. Is this feasible? At first glance it doesn't look like the hinge area can be painted well with the door in the way.

BTW - Aligning the doors after removing the front and rear clip can be a REAL pain. I never realised a build up of glue at the seams would be thick enough to throw things off!

lbell101

You can usually do a better job painting with the doors off. But I painted the 69 with the doors on. It was reletively easy to get in there with a gun. Some cars are just really hard to do in there.

Larry

stingry

You can put the doors on after the interior pieces near the hinges are painted then finish the rest of the car.

USE CAUTION when painting in this area. The hinge uses a CAM arrangement to roll over the spring. We just had to pull a friends door off, strip, lubricate and paint the hinge. If the two "rollers" don't roll over the spring then it will catch and wear the spring. In our case it wore the spring so much that the roller would catch as the door opened. (because the rollers were painted in one position and did not rotate) so the door could move an extra 1/8 of an inch. The door edge then caught on the sharp edge of the hinge and chipped the door paint.

I would remove doors via the bolts holding the hinge to the door. Then pull out bushings and clean up rollers, etc. Let you painter paint the area while YOU clean and paint the door side of the hinge. Then get a new door spring and a bushing kit and put the hinge back on. The next step is your choice. Depending on whether you are stripping the door completely for a full respray or going for a simple rebuild. You can put the door back on and use the opportunity to align it or let the painter paint the door of the car then do it.
This is a great opportunity to get the doors opening properly and swinging freely. We could not beleive the differnece it made when we did ours. Feels like getting in a new car.

You won't need new hinges just a bushing kit. GM made the hinges out of solid steel but the bushings are brass.

Good luck. Excuse the typos on the way to work on my engine!

sray454

Just to mention it ... your car was originally painted with its doors in place. I'm also planning my painting sequence and it will definitely be with the doors ( and headlights and hood ) in place ... I can not imagine me NOT chipping or scratching either one ...


[Modified by sray454, 8:38 AM 1/2/2004]


[Modified by sray454, 8:39 AM 1/2/2004]

noskillz

Pletty of good advise to consider.

Well, I am off to try and bring the front bottom of the door opening in about 1/4 of an inch. I noticed the hinge bolts are very short and any spacer over a 1/4 inch and the bolts don't have much bite.