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Presumably Ford painted everything after assembly. When I took my car (a '31) apart, I found bare (rusted) metal where the different pieces of the cowl and gas tank were joined.
It's probably technically better to paint everything before assembly, to minimize un-painted surfaces. But of course you will spend weeks doing what the Ford assembly plant needed 15 minutes to do.
It's ultimately a matter of personal preference, and may depend on the color combination you are using. My car will be maroon/black. Last September I painted the gas tank maroon separately. Then I installed it when the body was in primer-surfacer, but first I sprayed a bit of black DP epoxy primer around the top edges of the cowl panels, so that there was no chance of the light gray primer-surfacer ever showing. (I installed the welting unpainted.) In the next few days I will be doing the body finish coats, and first I will mask off the top surface of the gas tank. The welting will get painted black along with the rest of the upper body. This may have been more complicated than necessary, but it allowed me to properly paint every bit of the gas tank, and also get it installed and hooked up six months earlier than if I had waited for the body to be all painted.
Doug