I had read a few horror stories and complicated blogs about the rear panel, it made me nervous, actually I found this easy and also enjoyed it. The fact that you only get one chance to put the bends in made me nervous, I managed to take over the dining room so I could lay everything out and do the job in the warmth. A freezing cold cramped garage wasn't the place for this one. So, first I set out shop:
In prep I had all my hand clamps (around 20!) G-clamps, clicos and half my tool kit just in case. Coffee on and a quick refresh from the few blogs I had read.
The best method seems to be bend all tabs using mole grips > then put in the fold each side. I remember when I was at the factory they mentioned that the fold will almost put itself in, but I was still nervous and question whether it truly would be that easy. A quick look and there's a pre drilled hole each side which I can use to line everything up. Great, lets get cracking!
Maybe overkill but I decided to mark everything up - I didn't want to bend each tab at different points, to make sure I got a nice straight edge I simply drew between each tab and used the mark as the point where I would create the bend, like this:
I used my pliers rather than moll grips as they gave a straighter, tight bend:
All done on one side:
Note the towel - it makes it easier to apply even pressure, I read that on Richards blog and it definitely helped. The bend also almost formed itself, just as the guys at the factory said.
Repeat for the other side and a small bit of sikaflex at the bottom corners, my thoughts were to stop any water ingress but I suspect its overkill but I had the tube out anyway so may as well use it:
I did move onto the top trim and also the tadpole trim, but that was a disaster as I glued it on and it looked awful. After a post on the rhocar forum it turns out glue isn't needed and I now have the fun task of removing all the glue off to try again....
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