LET THE PAINTING BEGIN

As soon as we were back home form our stint of house sitting, despite the snow on the ground I finished flatting back the red Hammerite paint from under the bonnet area. The weather warmed up just enough after the Beast from the East departed for me to consider painting the area. I don't like leaving masking tape in place for too long as it has a tendency to get properly stuck, but the weather forecast suggested that I had a big enough window to get the job done.

I only got the near side masked off when I ran out of masking tape, I thought I had another roll, but obviously not. Rather than waste the day, particularly as the sun was shining I decided to prime as much as the masking safely allowed. two large cans of primer later, I was very pleased with the result compared to the drivers side.

After a trip to Halfords and armed with three rolls of tape and another couple of large cans of white primer and plenty of newspaper, I finished off the masking and applied three coats of primer to the rest of the under bonnet area. What an improvement.

The next day was top coat day. I had five smaller cans of Rover White so I was prepared for another trip to Halfords to buy more, but to my surprise the coverage was very good. Again three coats allowing about twenty minutes between coats and five empty cans later the job was done. A few runs but as most of it will be concealed behind steering pumps, screen washer bottles etc, I was more than happy.

I waited until the next day before I carefully peeled aways the masking tape and newspaper, I was still happy! I decided I would wait a few more days for the paint to harden before I started refitting everything.