09-03-12, 09:15 AM
painting in a garage should be fine, so long as it's not too dusty. a clear out, good sweep and ceiling paint (if applicable)normally leaves a good dust free painting atmosphere. (an annual task for me.) if dust is a problem try painting under a suspended board and/or put some water on the floor an hour before painting to settle any dust.
re-fitting the clutch cover is not difficult, a small torch, the haynes manual advice and a bit of patience sees the arm line up with the puller. the trick (for me at least) seems to be to have the pulling arm recess pointing forwards and up slightly, the cover arm pointing forwards and out slightly, push the cover nearly in place, shine a torch down the filler hole to ensure the puller is going to engage to the cover hole and then pull the actuator arm outwards slightly while pushing the cover home.
in the posts above i've assumed a silver casing and engine. (it might be black) the simoniz paint claims not to need primer but i tend to use it anyway. personally i would prime any area that has been sanded, particularly if it's down to ally. (which it will be.) don't worry about heat, the clutch cover doesn't get particularly hot (relatively) and any standard primer will bake on with the heat nicely. the bonus with primer is that, once applied, it will show up any areas that need more work i.e. sanding and/or filling before colour is applied. primer/filler is wonderful stuff at this stage, the pro-xl range is terrific stuff, i've had no joy with the u-pol range.
if there's any vehicles in the same garage as any painting then they need to be dust sheeted over. over-spray goes a surprisingly long way in every direction! i don't need to advise a (ffp2 minimum) mask do i?
is it clean enough?