When I had the roll cage in my car fabricated 7-8 years ago I removed a lot of the interior, took the car to the fab shop where they built the cage, and then I painted the cage and reassembled the interior. I spent a lot of time trying to mask off the dash, headliner, and other interior bits that hadn't been removed so I could spray the cage. I found it extremely difficult (OK impossible) to get everything masked off and try to figure out a way to spray the cage with the windshield and rear window in the car. It just couldn't be done. So I ended up painting the cage with a brush Using PPG DBI (base coat with activator) then sanding the brush marks smooth, then sanding, then painting, then sanding, and painting again until I had several coats on. The DBI is for use without a clear coat. It came out fine overall but it just didn't look the way I envisioned at the start. There were brush marks and other little things I'd notice that bugged me although probably no one else ever noticed with all the roll cage padding etc. in place.
Since I've got everything out of the car except the headliner (bow type), shifter, and some wires this was the time to spray the cage since the dash windows etc. are all out. So I sanded down the previously applied paint and shot it with the same color PPG Deltron Silver Frost base coat followed by PPG Global Matte clearcoat. For those of you who've never painted a cage, it sucks. I don't remember it being any easier when I was 40 years younger and although I'm still slender and agile, a contortionist I am not. However the cage came out the way I wanted it to the first time and I'm happy with the results.
