Question about painting jams

Trevynd · Dec 1, 2020

So this whole restoration has been about what I have available to me and the schedule of others or shop space, etc.

with that being said it’s currently in a nice heated shop where I’ve done my body work in. I just laid the first round of polyester filler primer and will be blocking soon.

then I’ve got some 2K urethane primer surfacer to go on after that.

initial plan was to then get it back to my dads garage (not heated) to work on some other things during the winter months (interior and some assembly)

my body/paint guy suggested doing the jams now and whatever is necessary so I can begin doing assembly. His schedule is booked to do a full on paint job at this point and I need to move the car soon from it’s current location.

with this in mind how many of you have done this? Tips? Tricks? And most important, what areas are a MUST to get paint on before assembly of the interior. And once the areas are painted what’s the proper order? At what point to windows go in?
I would love to get this thing done body work wise and have my 2K urethane primer on there and then jammed or whatever to then be able to assemble and then do paint next spring.

any tips and or pictures would be helpful.

turtle5353 · Dec 1, 2020

To be honest, I never like shooting the jambs first and then the rest of the car. Many many people do it that way but its just not my preference. I like to shoot the shell itself. And I shoot the doors, fenders, hood and trunk separate. I like this way because then all your bolts and striker plates don't get paint all over them. Looks much more professional and nice. Always bugs me when door latches and strikers and bolts are painted that aren't supposed to be painted. Both ways has it advantages and disadvantages. If you do have to let the car sit for a time before paint, I would shoot it with epoxy primer. If you use the urethane primer it has more of a tendency to attract moisture during sitting if its not top coated. Epoxy primer doesn't attract as much moisture but when you do go to paint it, you will need to sand the whole car to get good tooth. Then re-shoot with epoxy primer/sealer then base then clear.

But if you wanted to shoot jambs you could. And shoot the window openings. And back side of doors. You then could pretty much install the entire interior and windows minus trim. But, when you go to paint the rest of the car you will have to be VERY careful taping everything off. Keep soft tape edges at the jambs. Wet sand the edges of the paint and that got on the outer shell, then sealer then base then clear. Its a lot of extra work. Would be really nice to just be able to shoot it now, but I understand your problem with having to move it and painters schedule.

There's a ton of different ways you can go about it. I'm sure others will have more info for ya. Keep up the great work, the car is looking awesome.

Here's a couple of pics showing both ways.

Fabrice · Dec 1, 2020

+1 with what @turtle5353 said, if you do not use metallic paint.

It doesn't really matter, aside the extra masking work if you paint bits by bits. Eventual mist at edges can be polished out in now time.
but if you do go for metallic paint, then I'd really ensure you paint anything you do not see when car is complete and all closed. Have some overlap painted at edges that you will once hard tape with soft tape at edges or simply folding regular tape to avoid sharp lines. Similar as on above picts.
Then paint the entire car with all on after that, If you do not, you will hardly have the same angle for the aluminium particles and you will notice difference of light reflection once in the sun on every panels. If you paint for the ease parts not on the car, ensure they are oriented as if they'd be on the car.

If you mix your paint yourself as I did, the finer the particles are and a higher amount of chaos agent can minimise this, but you also get a paint that doesn't plays as much with the light, which is a bit a pity as it's the whole idea of a metallic paint.

69 Rustang · Dec 1, 2020

A person skilled at back-tape application can make a paint line nearly invisible. On the ‘73 I used to have I painted the insides of the doors off the car and the jambs at the same time, then put the doors back on. I had also painted inside the trunk, but didn’t worry about the top side of the trunk jamb. When I was ready to apply the exterior topcoat, I had the fenders bolted in place with about 3 bolts just to line up my lower black body line. Once the black was applied and masked, I pulled the fenders off and painted the red. One of my co-workers was a genius of back-taping and took care of the door jambs. The trunk lid was off the car but the bottom side masked to protect it as it was already painted. The trunk jamb was painted with the body and the fender edges were painted with the body. It turned out way better than I expected and I am quite picky.

My ‘69 was painted as a bare shell. The only part bolted on was the hood as I needed a place to put it while I sprayed it and I also needed to mask the hood to cowl panel blackout. Painting as a bare shell is my preferred method if you have the windows out and everything else off the car.

If you plan to put the interior in, including the headliner, the rear window pinch weld/jamb needs to be painted. The headliner technically is supposed to wrap around the pinch weld and the gasket applied over it. And we wonder why the rear windows leaked—right? Painting the windshield pinch weld is a matter of debate. On modern cars, it is a no-no as the adhesive must have a strong bond and proper tensile strength to support the deployment of airbags without blowing out the windshield. With our older cars, I am comfortable with painting the windshield jamb and using adhesive directly on the paint, but sticking the windshield to primer would probably be a better idea.

midlife · Dec 1, 2020

I prefer to paint my jams with peanut butter on toast.

You can follow the other's advice for painting jambs.

Respectfully, the Spelling and Grammar nerd.

mach71351c · Dec 2, 2020

When doing my car we did it both ways. Mostly do to time and space. We sprayed most of the parts at my house and did the trunk jam and hinges in the booth. If I had access to two spray booths we would have sprayed it all in pieces .

I would do what works with the flow of your build.