Colour me 'Yellow Gold'......

With the engine removed from the car I decided that this was the time to re-spray the engine bay.  'ANA' was re-sprayed during the late 1990s in the original 'Yellow Gold' colour but the boot interior and engine area was never done. 

I decided to invest in a compressor and spray-gun despite having no experience in the dark art of car finishing.......lack of experience never stopped me before.......I am a firm believer that you only become 'experienced' by actually doing it ( especially after making a few mistakes).

Interior of the boot floor had some fabrication with new metal in the past and I was a little worried about the bottom of the spare wheel well that showed some corrosion. As mostly the case with a Vauxhall Viva, corrosion on the surface is always just the tip of the iceberg and on close inspection the whole wheel-well needed cutting out and replacing with new.

 A Viva wheel-well is not surprisingly wheel shaped, with a radius and a concave curvature in the opposite direction. I find the best method of fabrication is to try and copy the original as close as possible. Original radius was copied and then tack welded into position allowing me to 'tin-bash' the concave curvature with a round mallet. After continuous welding the finished job I filled any surface indentations with a flexible filler and applied a white primer. I then prepared the whole of the boot area for re-finishing as the forty-year-old paint was showing it's age and re-sprayed it with the original 2YW code 'Yellow Gold' colour in cellulose. 

 

Boot area re-finished in the original 'Yellow Gold'

 

Carpets and trim replaced on completion

Next job whilst the sun was shining towards the end of the fantastic summer of 2013 was to spray the engine-bay whilst the re-built engine sat in the garage.  Everything was moved out of the way , such as master cylinder, brake pipes, etc, ready for the old paint to be prepared with wet and dry paper and a lot of elbow grease.

 

Ready for the refurbished suspension,brakes and rebuilt engine.

Everything was now ready for the refurbished cross-member, brakes, steering and suspension to be bolted back into the car so that the engine could be replaced before winter. Summer was disappearing fast and without a running engine I could not get 'ANA' into the protection of the garage.  Pushing it solo by hand up the steeply inclined drive was not an option.