These are pictures showing the unusual manor in which this 56 100M was painted in the engine bay, boot, and under the dash.

All frame member and engine bay were primed with red lead primer. This is an excellent rust preventative primer. The remainder of the car was primed with a very dark brown (almost black) dull chromate primer. This was done before the car was assembled. This primer is behind areas otherwise covered. The backside and edges of the shroud are also primed with this primer. This is a good aluminum primer.

The car was then assembled and painted white. The engine compartment, boot, except rear bulkhead and underside of dash were not painted. There is no white paint in these areas. These areas were then painted gloss black. Note small amount of black paint overspray on the underside of wheel arch, left of the shock tower in photo 581. You can also see how the black stops abruptly on the frame inside the transmission tunnel behind the front bulkhead in photo 589. The under dash kick panels are black on the left side and white over spray with no black on the right (photo 591 and 593). Also the top of foot boxes forward of the front bulkhead are dark brown primer on the left side and no paint or primer of any kind on the right box (photo 604) but gloss black on the side visible from the engine compartment. It was obviously painted with the front shroud and fenders installed and sprayed from inside the compartment. This is obvious in all areas.

The trunk area was painted black after assembly with no white paint being present with the exception of the rear bulkhead and shelf area which did have a very light coat of white paint and no black on it except for black overspray from spraying the floor and side panels.

Photos 595 and 588 show good overall views of the complete engine compartment. This is all very obvious factory paint leaving no question that this is original.

Photos 675 and 676 show underside of bonnet. It was originally white paint over red factory primer.

Note: The read lead primer that I referred to is not the typical red body shop primer associated to automotive painting. This would be of the type used on steel bridges such as the Golden Gate. This product is no longer available due to the extremely high lead content.