John, I have asked a lot of assembly/mechanical questions on here, so this may be my opportunity to provide help. What I have done in the past on other projects and applied to my current AH project is to remove everything (document as much as you can); find and fix all the rust and/or damage (you may already have done this, however, there are always surprises and now is the time to fix them, correctly), a rotisserie helps so much to us older guys; Do all the panel fit/adjustments/welding, etc. (spend the hours here. I had panels on and off so many times I lost count); Once you are completely happy that panel fit is perfect and not until then, remove all the panels and prime/paint the scuttle; If you are sending the work out, you will have a zillion mechanical parts to clean/replace/rebuild so that once the scuttle is painted, you can start the reassembly process. Hope this helps as a summary. Books can (have) been written about this so I attempted to summarize (and I know this is obvious to many, but not to someone new to the restoration effort) fyi, my Camaro took 8 years and the AH is going on three years. The point is you have to decide how far you want to take it based upon time, skill, and most importantly, money................good luck. Doug