Last time I updated this thread I'd just put the first coat of primer on the inner wing tops and engine bay. Before going on with the top coat I decided to paint the lower sides of the engine bay with Epoxy Mastic paint to protect the steel against oil and brake fluid spills.
Once that was dry I feathered the top edge in and covered the whole lot in high build primer.....
....and a few layers of satin black.
Just need to start the refit now, this is part way through threading the wiring loom back in. Lots of little brackets to clean and paint though which is taking ages.
After doing the painting, all the wiring and bonnet release cable etc and after much deliberation I decided that I couldn't live with the spare holes in the slam panel, the way the earth strap is bolted on or the bonnet catch spring that just hooks through a hole on the surface that you can see in the last picture. So I did this whilst I still had the opportunity.
The battery earth strap now attaches to a stud plug welded to the original hole.
And the bonnet catch spring now has it's own bracket on the underside of the panel.
So that the slam panel now looks like this. Just the holes for the radiator brackets and bonnet catch showing - much neater.
As the wiring was done and the dynamo refitted I started it up for the first time since October. I didn't run it for long as there's no water in it but it did feel like a milestone had been reached. It did throw up a charging issue though so I'll start a new post in the Electrics section.
Another delay to getting the car moving has been bleeding the clutch, I've spent quite a few hours trying to get it to work, and I've concluded that it must be the master cylinder that's at fault as the piston only returns very slowly once the bleed nipple is closed so I'm going to send it off to be resleeved.