Anyone take the time to smooth and paint under the grill opening

I painted it black.

I started to, but quickly realized that it is almost impossible to make it look perfect.  You can't really get around the edges and trying to get the radius just right is difficult.  I smoothed mine out some and then sprayed it with flat black bed liner.  With the flat, textured surface, I think it looks much better.

Spray it rattle can flat black and you won't even see it.

After my carb fire in 2017 I had to do some cleanup of the engine lid. I removed the grill and hand sanded the area underneath the grill as smooth as I could. I epoxied some washers into place for my luggage rack, and when everything dried I rattle can painted it flat black. It looks a whole lot better. Hard to get pictures with the grill badges in the way though. I'll what I can do when I get home. 

IM painted that area and the luggage rack mounting frame the same colour as the outside of the car. It's not something remarkable that you would notice. On my older IM I installed a shallow, rectangular cake pan upside down in that area to cover up the grief and painted everything flat black. I figured my Wife had too many cake pans and did not notice this one went missing. 

While you're at it Scott, with the engine lid closed a fun test is to pour about a quart of water into the deck lid area as if you drove through a heavy rain. Then lift the deck lid up as if to check the oil and see where the water goes. You then may want to drill a couple of holes to prevent spilling all that water onto cylinders 1 and 3. 

Yeah, you really need a couple of 3/16” drain holes at the rear/bottom of the rain tray on both sides to direct the rain water to the back of the engine compartment and not right onto your carbs when you open the lid. 

David -

I was literally just on google looking at aluminum trays! Ha!

I think I may have a plan along these lines, using a pan or aluminum sheet and some screening - kind of like the picture below, but not open to the elements.

I also like the look of the louvred panel under the grill in the second pic. We'll see.

Thankfully Kurt did drill some small holes in my rain tray that allow it to drain! 

Scott S posted:

...I also like the look of the louvred panel under the grill in the second pic.

 @Terry Nuckels added louvers after he cut out the fiberglass panel for better engine compartment ventilation. Believe it or not, I think he found the louvers at Home Depot.

Here's a link to some more photos.

On my Spyder project I smoothed the undersides of the rear deck ("clam") and the front lid. Both turned out to be more hours than I planned, and neither is perfect, but I think it will be noticeable whenever I lift the lids in public. 

I started out by sanding the mesh and cleaning it with acetone. Then I skimmed on Upol Fibral (like kitty hair but better) very thin to fill the mesh as well as possible, and followed that with 80 grit, acetone and regular body filler, mostly. In the front I actually skimmed the second coat with a product called All Metal which is aluminum mixed with polyester resin. The All Metal finish is enough like bare old aluminum I thought I could maybe get away with not painting it, but that was folly. Both All Metal and Fibral set up very hard and cannot be sanded into shape as easily as regular filler. Use them sparingly.

Anyway, three or four goes with the regular body filler, down to 220, then 2k primer and paint.

(and 550-0051, pre-paint, for comparison):

So, here is what I built. It took far less time than trying to smooth everything out, and it cost zero, as it is made of scraps. Its just some scrap steel, wire mesh and plastic u-channel.

Just waiting for the paint to dry and i will get it re-installed.

Scott that looks like a winner! Is there a second sheet overlay that is covering the exposed screws?

Brian

To hide raw fiberglass areas, I found this suggestion below. Sorry about the ad, but it was a screenshot ...

Hi Brian,

I went back and forth on how to install the screening. initially I was going to just tack it on with the mig. However the screen trapezoids pretty easily. Using fasteners allowed me to make adjustments. In the end I also decided I liked the exposed fasteners. In the pics I have been able to find, it appears the GT/GS cars had exposed fasteners as well.

Here it is painted and installed. I left the stainless mesh raw. I am pretty happy with it. looks like I need to straighten that lower grill badge...

If could just get the time to move that damn parking brake to under the dash, I would pretty much be "done" with the car.... 

It looks good Scott. Great job.