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For those who have painted (or had someone paint) your CJ body

3K views 27 replies 11 participants last post by  Renegade82 
#1 ·
I am finally at the point in my project where it is time to have the body parts painted. I have found a reputable auto body and paint guy locally, and have no doubt he will do a great job.
My question is to those of you who have painted, or contracted someone else to paint your Jeep tub and other parts, how and in what order was it done. This is my first time doing any sort of project like this so any input is and greatly appreciated.

To clarify, the body has been completely assembled on the frame, and all holes have been cut or drilled. The only thing that may need to be adjusted is the size of the tunnel hole. Body mount, roll bar and seat bracket holes are all done. This will all be removed from the frame and delivered to the painter

My plan is to bolt the fenders to the tub, bolt on the grill and bring it to the paint guy that way. I am very happy with the way the fenders, frame and grill fit. So my thought process was to paint this as one piece, and this way all of the seams would get painted bolted together. The hood will be painted separately.

Then I was going to bolt the hinges to the windshield frame and bring that as one piece.

I will bring in the roll bar, dash panel and other small parts (glove box door, windshield frame adjustment plates) together.

I am concerned about the bolts, those that hold the body to the frame, and those that hold the roll bar to the body. I would really like these to be body color, but I am curious if I will be able to install these bolts without tearing off the paint?

Am I on the right track? Or even near it? What have others done?
 
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#2 ·
The best way is to have the tub, fenders, grill, hood, tailgate, windshield, and roll bar completely disassembled and painted separately. Then reassemble everything.

That way you have a protective coat of paint on every square inch.

One of AMC's biggest mistakes was assembling the entire body and roll bar, then painting. This left areas of bare unpainted metal, that were prone to rusting, where all the pieces connected.

Matt
 
#3 ·
Matt-

Thanks for the reply, I should have pointed out in the original post that the tub and fenders of my project are fiberglass.
I seriously thought of sending it out totally in pieces, but I can not see how one could put it back together without scratching it all up
 
#5 ·
Like Matt said, people do it all the time. I completely disassembled everything from my jeep. The body was still on the chassis, but everything else went to the painter separate. I'll admit, I was nervous transporting all the painted pieces back home for assembly. I used a LOT of the wife's blankets. It's a slow process but well worth it.
 
#6 ·
Been down this road a few times and if it were me, have the tub primed first with etching primer and then get it back to YOUR shop and use body sealant around every freeking seam there is. That is, where ever two pieces of metal meet, overlap or butt up together, use body sealant.

I would then mount the windshield frame to the tub, using body sealant again on the hinge mating surfaces, mount hinges to steel doors if you have them, again with body sealant. Hinges to body using sealant and the hinges mounted to the tailgate after fitment on the body. The reason being is the flat head torx bolts used for these items will chip the paint and cause paint to chip in the hinges as well. Hood, fenders, grill can and should be all separately painted. The bolts are hidden inside and the hood bolts are hex which won't chip if you allow enough time for the paint to cure and use painters tape on the heads while tightening them.

Tough decision on what to do with the roll bar mounting hardware but paint the roll bar separate, you need paint under the mounting pads and on the floor and wheel houses. I had all my original OEM Torx bolts Nickel plated for cheap and they look like brand new stainless hardware. hard to tell the difference.
 
#8 ·
Heads of the bolts that are painted will need to be tightened with careful, slow turns. Put painters tape on the heads and slip a box wrench over the head. Don't use a socket or open end wrench and you may need to use a metric wrench due to the tape being there. Just makes sure the paint has cured BEFORE attempting to tighten the bolts. Uncured paint chips and is soft which will wrinkle the paint below.

Forgot to mention that I typically use grease under the washer head bolts so they slide around the washer and act as a sealant against fresh paint.
 
#10 ·
I agree 100% with Keith, it sucks to bolt beautifully painted parts together and have paint pop from the bolt heads and where the bolt heads contact the paint below. If refinished another CJ, I would spray it with epoxy as before, and bolt everything together and paint it as an assembly including the tailgate, doors and hood. The grill and fenders could be painted separately and have minimal issues during assembly. There is an advantage to painting it this way beyond damaging the paint, the paint seals the bolt heads and hinges to the body.
 
#15 ·
I'm a long ways from painting but this is the method I was thinking of but was concerned if the epoxy primer alone was good enough under the hinges. Is the epoxy that good?
 
#11 ·
I used washers on every bolt. No paint popping here.
 
#13 ·
Tough decision on what to do with the roll bar mounting hardware but paint the roll bar separate, you need paint under the mounting pads and on the floor and wheel houses. I had all my original OEM Torx bolts Nickel plated for cheap and they look like brand new stainless hardware. hard to tell the difference.[/QUOTE]

I'm in total agreement here. No mini strokes trying not to chip the Many bolts. A slow & tedious job if done correctly. Depending on the color, they will blend nicely or pop for a cool contrast.
You may want to have the painter cure/bake the paint at a slightly lower temp, but for a longer duration.
Btw, what color do you have in mind?
Myself, I'm partial to to Fuchsia w/safety green trim.
Good luck & please post some pictures
 
#16 ·
Ernie, I think the epoxy primer is a great product, but on future projects I will treat the metal before priming with some type of rust inhibitor or converter to limit the chance of rust growing in the pits of the metal.

There are a lot of great builds on the forum and well worth looking at, and listening to the experience of others, this is just my opinion.

I don't think my CJ looked better than it did in this photo, prior to the installation of the doors, hood and tailgate.



It was issues like this that were so disappointing after years of hard work. By the way, that is blue tape that I used to prevent scratching the paint while adjusting the hinges that was trimmed later. In my opinion, the entire project would have been a better quality with the parts bolted in place and adjusted prior to paint. The factory did it right, but the the finish under the hinges should be addressed with a good primer.

 
#18 ·
Ernie, I think the epoxy primer is a great product, but on future projects I will treat the metal before priming with some type of rust inhibitor or converter to limit the chance of rust growing in the pits of the metal.

There are a lot of great builds on the forum and well worth looking at, and listening to the experience of others, this is just my opinion.

I don't think my CJ looked better than it did in this photo, prior to the installation of the doors, hood and tailgate.



It was issues like this that were so disappointing after years of hard work. By the way, that is blue tape that I used to prevent scratching the paint while adjusting the hinges that was trimmed later. In my opinion, the entire project would have been a better quality with the parts bolted in place and adjusted prior to paint. The factory did it right, but the the finish under the hinges should be addressed with a good primer.

Thanks, I remember your build thread, lot of good info. It's a shame you had to take it down.
 
#17 ·
First of all, don't give me any crap about how dirty my jeep is!! LOL!!
Any place that uses countersunk head bolts, I used stainless. Those particular parts were powder coated and There was no issue with breaking the paint. Most everywhere else I used grade 8 bolts and washers because they are zinc coated (I believe). Yep it's way overkill on the bolts but I liked the "industrial" look. The pics give a lot more info than I can type.
 

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#19 ·
Thanks for all the info and suggestions, at this point I will send all the body parts to be painted separately and reassemble once paint is finished. I do like the idea of having paint on every surface. I have looked at a number of build threads throughout this process, and I am still uncertain on how to address all of the body bolts.

Currently I have placed all of the bolts (body to frame, roll bar to body, all hinge bolts, dash panel bolts) through a piece of wood that could be painted all at once. I have chosen all stainless steel bolts with the exception of the torx heads for hinges and dash panel. The bolts holding the tub to the frame are a carriage style, and the bolts holding the roll bar to the tub are hex heads. All the non-torx bolts also have washers.

As much as I like the look of contrast with SS bolts against paint, I think I would like to paint all of these bolts body color. I guess I'm just nervouse about being able to install all of these bolts without the tearing all of the paint off the bolt heads.
 
#22 ·
Thanks for all the info and suggestions, at this point I will send all the body parts to be painted separately and reassemble once paint is finished. I do like the idea of having paint on every surface. I have looked at a number of build threads throughout this process, and I am still uncertain on how to address all of the body bolts.

Currently I have placed all of the bolts (body to frame, roll bar to body, all hinge bolts, dash panel bolts) through a piece of wood that could be painted all at once. I have chosen all stainless steel bolts with the exception of the torx heads for hinges and dash panel. The bolts holding the tub to the frame are a carriage style, and the bolts holding the roll bar to the tub are hex heads. All the non-torx bolts also have washers.

As much as I like the look of contrast with SS bolts against paint, I think I would like to paint all of these bolts body color. I guess I'm just nervouse about being able to install all of these bolts without the tearing all of the paint off the bolt heads.
I hope you don't get frustrated with the painted bolt idea. Otherwise, it sounds like a good plan.

Just don't be in any hurry to reassemble things. Many auto paints take up to 30 days to fully cure, and will chip easier until then. That includes the painted bolts.

Matt
 
#20 ·
My only suggestion would be to NEVER use a Torx bolt unless there is an accessible nut on the other end. They really should have been called a "Lack-Of-Torx" bolt.
 
#21 ·
I got a can of paint from paintscratch in the proper color, primed and painted the backside of the hinges and under the hinges, then installed them before sending the Jeep to the painter. That way the Jeep was painted whole, but there weren't any backside areas that were lacking paint where they would rust.
 
#24 ·
What I did to address the assembly hardware, and oddly I couldn't find a picture of it, was to take a 2'x2' square of luan board (or hardboard), cardboard is too flimsy, and drilled holes in it just slightly smaller. Then screwed every bolt into it enough to come thru the backside, and misc bolts thru from the backside to put any painted nuts on. On the backside draw a line around these groups and write what they are for such as hood hinges, tailgate hinges, windshield hinges, etc. Then, and this is key ;), be sure to tell the painter not to get any overspray on the backside.

As for the process, I had mine all disassembled for primer and paint, so hidden sides were painted also. And on assembly I used a lot of either rtv silicone or Eastwoods flexible seam chaulk which works great for making shapes and will squash paper thin when bolts are tightened, allowing some adjustment without paint to paint contact. Ideally the tub gets painted first but in my case the body guy was slow and to keep things moving he painted other pieces first and I stored them out of harms way. You can't assemble much without the tub as a starting point. Hood, doors, and tailgate can be last.
 
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