A quick update.
The front slam panel has been removed. As advised by others drilling out the spot welds is quick and easy once you're confident in what you're doing. I bought a spot weld drill bit on Amazon for less than £10 which did a tidy job.
I took the panel to a local(ish) bead blaster who got it back to bare metal for me (£15). I etch primed the panel then used a couple of coats of high build primer finishing off with 3 top coats.
In between all the painting coats / flattening off I cleaned all dust away with Holts Brake Cleaner (£15 5 litres) and lint free cloths (acquired from work) and followed it up with tack cloths (79p each, needed 2 of them).
Inside the engine bay the crash struts? (I don't know their proper term) were keyed with 240 grit sand paper and small grinding wheels / brushes on the Dremel. There was quite a few patches of surface rust including under the seam sealer - which is where the Dremel was useful.
On the suspension towers I keyed the paint with 400 grit paper and used the Dremel to take any rust patches back to bare metal.
I found the trick with the Dremel was to use the finest wheel possible and only use very light pressure to avoid scoring the metal work too much otherwise you spend more time sanding out the machining marks.
I painted the crash struts with U-Pol rust inhibiter paint using a paint brush (I only used about 100ml). I didn't particularly like the application or coverage but 2 coats did the job reasonably well. Once dry I largely flattened it off with 240 and 400 grit paper.
All areas then had 2 - 3 coats of high build primer. Any raised areas were flatted off with 400 or 600 grit paper in between coats.
I've then used up two 400ml cans of top coat for the engine compartment and front slam panel. I need a third can to finish a few areas.
I sprayed some paint into the lid and used an artists brush to get the more awkward areas of the engine compartment.
The weather over the last couple of weeks has been wet, cold, breezy and close to freezing. I spent a lot of time meticulously cleaning all the panels to remove any dust or particles carried in the wind etc.
For heat all the spray cans were put in boiling water or left in the house to keep warm prior to spraying which worked well.
The slam panel being off the car was kept warm hanging in the kitchen (I got a lot of grief about that!), sprayed outside then brought in.
The engine compartment metal work was all heated with a hair drier from above, tack clothed then sprayed. To keep the panels warm I used the hair drier from inside the wheel arch to heat the metal, this way you don't heat the paint too much which can crack the paint and you don't blow any crud into the wet paint.
Lots of thin coats proved effective.
Overall I think the finish is excellent.
There is a slight difference in the paint colour. The old paint is a darker richer colour, the new is brighter and fresher - to be expected. I could take the bonnet off and make it all match. But then again...
Etch primer 500ml £6 x1 (50% gone)
High build primer 500ml £9 x1 (all gone)
Primer 500ml £6 x1 (50% gone)
U-Pol 250ml £7 (100ml gone)
Top Coat 400ml £15 x2 (all gone - need a 3rd can)
