Where to start applying paint?

[KG78Z]

My buddy and I have a car ready to paint and we were wondering where you start to paint? We were thinking from the top down but what about fender wells and door jams and over spray. Which is best top to hood, top to trunk, or top to sides?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

KG78Z

[Guest TKR514]

If the car is fully intact, I usually go top down.

 

My 280ZX is completely apart so I'll do all the interior, jams, seams, doors, hatch, fender wells first. When the car is reassembled, I'll then paint the whole thing top down.

[Guest Anonymous]

Do you do the outside door skins, rear hatch, hood, etc. then assemble? Someone told me never to paint when apart since when assembled there is a good chance of chipping on the door seams etc.

Steve

[RPMS]

When we painted my car, my buddy (who knows what he's doing, unlike me!) shot the car in the following order:

 

Right front fender

right door

right rear fender

right sail panel

right roof

left roof

left sail panel

left rear fender

left door

left front fender

 

The hatch, and hood were off the car, and were painted separately. The door jambs were all painted previously, and were masked off for final painting.

 

I asked my friend what his rationale was, and he said that he wanted to paint so that he always had a wet edge to blend the next pass into. Makes sense to me.

 

Like RacerX advises, he varied his pattern slightly from coat to coat to reduce the chance of missing anything.