I completely assembled my A&C before paint and put everything on the body. It was essentially done except for the paint. Then I completely disassembled everything and removed the body and sent it to be painted. Yes it was time consuming, but the paint came out great and there were no issues with drilling holes or mistakes during assembly that would damage the paint job. This approach is used by a lot of high end car and bike builders and it pays off big in the end.
--Mike / Turn Ten Racing, Inc.