Hi, I have a 68 firebird 350 4spd car now with a 400. The car is stripped down, wiring is out, windows, ect. i have replaced the whole floor, truck pan, rear quarters,tail section and metal dash and some other minor patches. The car was sand blasted on a rotisserie and sealed with a two part epoxy primer. theres no bondo in the car at al its completely sealed. There is a new disc brake set up on the front, all new front end, every bushing is new , all stainless bolts, gas tank is painted, new susp and the list goes on and on.. Well now its time to start putting it back together. Where would you start? The car is NOT painted or finail metal work done, I dont think i will be doing that so i will have to get a friend to do all that. Would you put the wiring harness back in and get the car running again? Right now i dont have the money to pay for paint and body work as i just build a huge shop and im restoring a old 72 gmc i have had since highschool. On the other hand i have most of the parts for the firebird so i can do work on there that wont cost too much. Wheres the best place to start or am i stuck until i want to do paint? any pointers and a direction to go would be great, I have pick up books that will help with the reassembly of the car like "body by fisher service manual, 1968 chassis service manual, and 1968 camaro factory assembly instruction manual" thanks for all your time and knowledge guy!

If I'm understanding your question correctly...

In my opinion you need to do some paint work first. But not all.

Unless you're building this into a rat rod and leaving it in primer forever (doubtful), IMO you gotta paint the full unibody now (skipping outside of quarters, pillars and roof if you want), and the inners/edges of every body panel, door jambs, inner pillars, underside of hood/decklid, etc. In short, you need to paint every last painted portion of the car that is going to be covered up by something. This is because it is simply not possible for you to properly paint a part later, that has already had parts bolted and attached to it.

If you took it this far, don't start skipping steps now or you'll hate yourself. And your friend that is helping you with the final refinish will hate you even more. It is time to paint first. Basically paint everything that will be hidden...so you can skip all the outer surfaces if you want your friend to do all that later. Then you can assemble the car, excluding trim, lamps, bumpers, and moldings. At that time it is your choice on how far you want to go into the final metal work/block & prime process for the final exterior refinish, to reach your chosen level of perfection in body panel alignment. Then your final exterior trim gets bolted on last.

At the very least, talk to your buddy who is going to help you with the refinish, and develop an agreed plan before going any further. He may make you undo a bunch of stuff you want to do now...

First off, I agree with the above regarding painting areas you just can't get to later such as underbody, interior shell and firewall because they now have parts attached to them.

Regarding the exterior - this is the subject of debate with no correct answers, just personal preferences.

The factory and every professional nut and bolt restoration company I have seen paints the shell inside and out before any assembly.

Me? Paintjobs are major expenses these days. Having to tow a body shell to a shop and then to require them to move it around on a dolly while they do the bodywork and paint is only going to make it even more expensive. My preference is to be able to drive the car to the body shop myself.

Then there is the sub-question about exterior paint with the front clip on or not - another debate without a "correct" answer. I am leaning toward front clip off the shell and reassembled after. Kind of a compromise with "paint the bare shell 1st".

Regarding how to put the car back together - I highly recommend this website that narrates how GM put these cars together. The Factory Assembly manuals are not arranged in assembly order.

1st Gen Camaro Assembly Process

ok thanks for the advice guys, i wasent planning on putting the interior ect in before paint, but i get what you guys are saying.I would like to be able to have the car move under its own power before its all painted but thats as far as i would take it before paint. The bad thing is im not 100% sold on any color so i cant really move ahead until then. Ill take a look at that site and talk with my body man and figure something out.

Sorry that I was not more clear.

What I should have said was that I install the VERY minimum I must have to be street legal to get the car to the body shop.

My interior has the 2 front seats, the seat belts and the center console (needed to mount the OEM auto shifter) and that's it.

No carpet, no insulation, no interior panels, no rear seat, no side windows...

I have my color and body shop choices all set. It's just trying to scrape together a paint budget in this lousy economy.