Lyndwood

I will be spraying my vette in the spring, just prepping now but I have a couple questions I want opinions on. First is I see almost everyone removes their front bumper cover to paint. Mine is off the car as it is a replacement and needed to be fitted and massaged to match the car body. But what is the problem with spraying (jamming in) the inside edges of the front bumper cover and front of the car then re-assembling (lining up) the nose before final spray. I cant see any problem with that method and it gives me the freedom to line up my nose before spraying or possibly building up to much clear on the mating surfaces causing problems with the seams etc. the only downside I see would be laying paint & clear across the seam of the assembled nose/body when I paint it, maybe being a crack point? . whom ever painted my car the last time had the bumper cover off the car as the mating surfaces were not painted only primed. they sprayed the car with the front bumper cover and rear bumper cover on the car. Second question is do you guys prefer to paint the headlight top panels on the car or off the car then reassemble them after final paint. these i would also like to spray the underside and edge's off the car then reassemble and do the final spray with the headlights in the down position. If this makes sense and anyone wants to comment feel free, just fishing for advise.

NONN37

yeah. i think the term is bridging. the paint will fill across the gap and eventially crack because the 2 parts move and the lack of surface adhesion there.
You can loosely fit the bumpers on the car to create a big enough gap to get paint in there and not have a hard edge of paint build up or paint bridging. then when paint is dry tighten the bolts the rest of the way to bring the panels together. if you have to use washers do it every few bolts so you dont have to take every single one off again to remove the washers.

I painted the headlights with the doors on. because they are tricky to put on and didnt want to scratch the paint on install. I took them off and sprayed the undersides off the car first. then did final install before paint new bushings etc. and backmasked the gaps.