Paint and Body Cowl Pan

For the cowl tray, there is some slight surface rust in the edges towards the front of the car. I have read that using a medium grade steel wool or red scotch brite would be good to knock it down/clean it off and then a good degreaser to clean it out. Then I would use some sort of epoxy primer to spray on there. After that, I’m getting mixed information. Do I spray something like SEM trim black over the primer, VGG Rebuild Black, or does it need to be a can of the actual factory black 93 cobra paint?
 
Most I remember seeing were not painted, may have some coating from the factory but honestly don't know, I know a member here would prime, block sand a color/clear, buff and polish that area, I'm a hack so when I got in there I scuffed around in there the best I could, vacuum and blew in there with compressed air, wiped it down as best I could with thinner then coated with ospho, waited a couple days sprayed around best I could with paint. Was only dirt and surface oxidation in there.
I will say if you hose that area out with water better make sure the corners and lap joints are dry before applying cover.
Remember I'm a hack so for what it's worth.
 
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Having recently been painting the cowl area on my son's car, it is not easy to get a full complete even coverage down in the cowl area. A spray gun just doesn't get in well enough. Even a mini touch up gun would have limitations. A small rattle can might get in easier but as mentioned above the cowl panel covers this area so not easy to see a complete paint job down there. The main area under the openings is okay to get at, but getting paint under the covered areas is the difficult part (and getting even complete coverage).

If I recall when I started working on this area, I think it mainly just gets overspray from the factory.

20250921_131730.webp
 
Having recently been painting the cowl area on my son's car, it is not easy to get a full complete even coverage down in the cowl area. A spray gun just doesn't get in well enough. Even a mini touch up gun would have limitations. A small rattle can might get in easier but as mentioned above the cowl panel covers this area so not easy to see a complete paint job down there. The main area under the openings is okay to get at, but getting paint under the covered areas is the difficult part (and getting even complete coverage).

If I recall when I started working on this area, I think it mainly just gets overspray from the factory.

20250921_131730.webp
Thank you for the response!
 
When I repainted my car years ago, I sprayed that entire area black, with a flat clear. I didn’t want my brand new white paint to be showing through the cowl grille.
 
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I think the "overspray" from the factory is the best description of how this was originally painted. My Calypso green pain is very thin in that area, and the same surface type rust is rearing it's head down there. Even on the green car, I would probably paint it a flat or satin black, not sure I'd use the VGG Rebuild for it, as I'd want more "proven" rust protection.
 
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