Just after people's thoughts on whether to panel the chassis before or after painting.
My view is that if I paint first then use Sikaflex/rivets after, it will give another barrier to help prevent corrosion.
Truth is, I want to get the chassis on it's wheels so at least I can feel like I'm progressing 
Seems a million miles away from finishing and everyone seems to agree that once the chassis 'bit' is done that's the worst part of the
build??
Cheers,
JB
I painted the chassis first then put the panels on afterwards.
Quite a lot afterwards actually, there's plenty to do that is much easier with no panels in the way like running your brake/fuel lines etc. My
car was on its wheels long before the panels were put on.
Depending on how you panel around the front suspension (I left mine open) you barely need to undo anything to do the panelling. I think I only undid
the top balljoints to move the wheels out of the way then did them up again.
you need to paint the chassis first before panelling it, otherwise the aluminium will corrode next to the bare steel, as above get the car full
running and drivable (wiring too) before moving onto the bodywork, unless you like squeezing down tiny footwells to sort the pedals etc etc
[Edited on 13/3/09 by Mr Whippy]
Cheers guys.
As I'm building a barge anyhow (+442) I should be fine for the footwells 
Right, better get on and rebuild the diff so I can get the wheels on then 
JB
how about rebuilding the engine!
Other option is to panel the chassis first but just use Clecko fasteners. Remove all the panels and then paint the chassis. Reduces the chance of scratching your freshly painted chassis while doing all the panelling
quote:
Originally posted by omega0684
how about rebuilding the engine!
quote:
Originally posted by Paul TigerB6
Other option is to panel the chassis first but just use Clecko fasteners. Remove all the panels and then paint the chassis. Reduces the chance of scratching your freshly painted chassis while doing all the panelling
.....a friendly word of warning if you decide to fit the panels after assembling the car - dont forget that when the car is finished, you would
ideally like to remove bolts etc without having to remove the panels to get to them!!
As an example, I recently encountered a car where the top wishbone could not be removed because the rearmost bolt fouled the body side panel (oh yes,
that's the long one!!) when you tried to remove it. These are things you're just not thinking about when putting the panels on afterwards.
In this case, the panel was removed, the bolt replaced the right way around (ie the threaded end pointing to the rear of the car) & the panel
re-fitted.
To the original builder at the time, it did not matter which way round the bolt went, because the panel was not present to prevent it being fitted the
wrong way. To the poor guy having to remove it - well there was lots of swearing involved & let's leave it at that
Best of luck with the build bud,
ATB
DB
.....PS when I say "encountered", I do not mean "built"
For my build, I trial fitted & removed all the parts, then fitted my panels & assembled the car last. This worked fine for me, but for sure
did involve some serious acrobatics!!
ATB
DB
[Edited on 13/3/09 by blackie]