Well like many so many other  neglected Spits/GT6s, this one had massive paint damage from master cylinder fluid leaks.  This car even had the paint lifted over by the ignition coil!

    So the only thing to do here was strip the entire firewall shelf to bare metal. clean it, and re-paint it.

   Starting with ripping everything off the shelf, a regular wood handled wire brush was used to strip away all the loose and flaking paint. 

   Next came an initial wash down with Brak-kleen.  Yes.... the nasty stuff for cleaning off brake dust that will suck the oil right out of your skin.  WEAR HEAVY RUBBER GLOVES AND GOGGLES if you're going to do this.  I'm lucky enough to still be able to buy it in my area from a local NAPA Auto parts store by the gallon.  If you can only find it in spray cans, you'll probably need 3-5 cans to do it right.

    Next a variety of wire wheels in an electric drill were used to strip it all down to bare metal.  It'll take awhile to do it right , but you really need to get into every nook and cranny and get ALL the paint off.

   Then another wash down is essential. Actually, 2 or 3 times can't hurt.

  Since the battery box was in excellent shape with no acid damage, I only put down one coat of primer down in the box. I then masked off the dried primer and gave the interior of the battery box, two coats of rubberized undercoating.

   After allowing two days to fully cure, I laid down 4 coats of heavy black polyurethane enamel. I was going to try and color match the car, but have found that's simply too hard to do. Besides, the shiny black really sets off the cleaned up, shined up metal parts of al lthe gear that mounts on the shelf.

   Of course, this is only half the work.  Now comes ythe fun of cleaning up, repairing, shining, or repainting every item that mounts here. 

   The wiper motor was stripped and rebuilt, as were both master cylinders. The ignition coil and water valve brackets were sandblasted and repainted. 

  Everything else was either stripped and cleaned or totally replaced.

   The electrical harness was repaired as needed (connectors and crimps) and completely re-wrapped with the proper oem style harness tape.