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When I dismantled the body on this a1 I noticed that under some of the parts there was a kind of primer or some other metal treatment.....like under the hinges on the hood and cowl and some of the plates on the firewall. This coating was almost white and sorta powdery. My question is.....when I prime and repaint....do I do all these pieces individually and then bolt them back on...or do I bolt everything back on and then prime and paint? Which leads me to another question.....if I paint all my hardware pre-assembly....how do I touch them up after wrenching everything back together? Any suggestions or helpful hints will be greatly appreciated.....thanks.

It's up to you. How complete do you want to be?

For my resto, I remove every part, blast, phospho, prime & paint. What the heck, it a Jeep so there's not that many parts anyway.

For the hardware you can clean, phospho, prime, install then paint with top coat when you spray the tub or paint each one as you go. I use flat paint so it really doesn't matter because the paint will blend easily.

I even hit parts up with the rattle can after they are installed.

same here-everything including nuts and bolts are blasted/primed/painted
separately. on nuts and bolts i always use well fitting sockets during reassy- not an open end wrench--less chipping of paint. the touchup
rattle cans available are so close nowdays just hit any scuffmarks
and its good to go. i got gillespie 23070 in gallons and rattlecans and
the color and gloss are identical.

Most external hardware was not painted at the factory. If you have really rough looking hardware and don't want to buy new cadmium plated hardware box up the old stuff and take or send it to a plating shop.

You should at least prime everything while your jeep is disassembled then finish paint or assemble first and then finish paint.

The white powder sounds like galvanic corrosion from dissimilar metals coming in contact with each other over a lond period of time. Probably unusual on a jeep but common as dirt for old Land Rovers.

In my area rust is a big problem so I like to finish everything then install and touch up if needed.

wesk wrote:Most external hardware was not painted at the factory. If you have really rough looking hardware and don't want to buy new cadmium plated hardware box up the old stuff and take or send it to a plating shop.

You should at least prime everything while your jeep is disassembled then finish paint or assemble first and then finish paint.

External hardware as in footman loops, etc? Screws and bolts as well? Thanks WesK.

I am referring to external hardware used to attach pr assemble the primary parts. Look closely at these photos taken at the Willys factory.








Note the fender attaching bolts and the grill hinge bracket bolts are unfinished.


Note the glossy MP paint job covers the fasteners up.

I've actually been toying with the idea of going back in with all stainless steel hardware during reassembly and leaving all the stainless stuff naked. My experience with stainless though is that its pretty difficult to get it to stay tight especially in a high vibration environment. And gold irridite gets sooo ugly over time...but it will stay tight.....and you can remove it just as easily in twenty years as you can in twenty days. I know.....when one spends all day grinding old paint they really have too much time to think. Shouldda done this twenty years ago.....at least then the subject of my thinkin might have been a whole lot better lookin....and way lots more interesting! Thanks everyone for the good advice.....I'm going to phospho/prime/and paint everything....one piece at a time.....and then worry about putting it all back together.....carefully.

Those windshield wipers on the MP jeeps are curious.
Can you comment on them?

Jim in Darkest Arkansas

When you install the hot water heater kit you move them to the top.

I bought a blasting cabinet at Harbor Freight. I know, it's made in china. But we don't have much choice these days. and the dollar doesn't go far either.
A nice size volume air compressor is a must also.
I blasted all the small parts in it. That included nuts bolts and washers. Another thing you can do is recycle the lock washers when they get flat. Just put them in a vise and bend them back out. Not too much or they could break if you go too far. A blasting cabinet is really nice to have.

Ken

I have one of those HF sand blasters and it works great. Just make sure you hook your shop vac with bad to it when using.

Yes a shop vac goes with the blaster for sure.