Just a little bit more

The recovery from my three nightshifts and fair weather saw me set too with some more restoration.

I managed to get the pedal box and Vacuum cover back on easily enough with wifeys help ( I only swore once) and all the bushes, washers, split pin and screws back where they belong plus the Brake pedal.
I left the Clutch pedal since this has to be done from under the car as both pedals won't fit through the nasty hole in the engine bay as well as many wires and pipes have to be "persuaded" to move even with just the Brake pedal attached. It has to be done this way as access to the brake pedal bush, screw and mechanism are impossible to attach solely from the top access of the pedal box.

Then the bit I was dreading, cleaning the engine bay.

These are these slightly after shots, as I think its going to take a lot of effort over the coming months.
I put these on as inspiration, comparison and achievement for when its complete. Hopefully !!

The four below are general shots of the current state, alas with no garage to work in its a case of two steps forward four back.

This shows the pedal box hole after setting too with white spirit, scraper/screwdriver & wire wool.
Look at the shine of the LH wiring loom. Good Ole WD40. Bet its back to cruddy next time I look though.

I think I may remove the heater box too and re-paint it the Peugeot black I used on the vacuum cover. I did it some years ago in "Pound shop Gloss black" but it looks weather beaten and dull now, besides the heater core is leaking so that's another for the list to buy, at some point !.

The big question is though What colour do I paint the engine bay ?

For those of you who can't be arsed to read from 10 years ( yes 10 years !) of restoration the car was originally White ( which White though, for a  77 model ?)   but had a thorough re-spray early on in its life to Black. Its now mostly several shades of primer grey. Wifey wants "Old English White". I'm afraid this will show up any imperfections, poor filler repairs ( with rust surfacing) and crap shut lines.

I'm thinking a slate metallic grey, very similar to my current Renault, which I think will look good against the Black sunroof and chrome finishings. Let me know what you think........please. The comments appear to have stopped.

Well. I've been at it again. Today was my last day of bank holiday fun and spent most of it with Wifey at Carsington water and Bakewell.

Later on I set to with new workstand ( £10 Lidl...bargain !, the B&D one only lasted 18 years) electric drill, wire brush cup, curved hand wire brush and white spirit plus my old fave..autosol grey primer ( £1...poundshop) I'm often seen carting five of these round town Saturday mornings.
Here it is after its first light coat.

 I then set too cleaning the pedal box and cover. The pedal box was too complex and internally greasy to do too much with so after a clean on the outside I gave it a light dusting of Peugeot black gloss left over from the previous chariot.

The thing didn't half look bad to say its not really visible. The diaphram looks brand new  and a quick wire brush on the back half of the vacuum cover and all was good to go.

So the I gave the main cover a couple of coats of gloss black. It looks bloody marvellous and brand new. the pedal box cover too gave the same result as did the 8 screws holding it on.

Overall for very little effort, paint and time the results are not in proportion. See the previous post for the state of the cover before I removed it. I've still to try to assemble the cover back on yet with its giant conical spring but a least today has given me renewed optimism.

What to do about the big hole and area where its come from though. It looks very fiddly to try and look reasonable. What colour should I paint it ? Will all the pedals, bushings and pipes all go back together ?

That's for next time, anyway back to irradiating the ill and accident prone folks of the east midlands for the next five days including 3 night shifts...ho hum !