Gap filling part 2

 The first step for this was to 'put a piece of wood in there' and work from that. Fortunately the piece of wood got me 95% of the way;

A section of standard sized CLS actually got very close to the required height. It also made it very clear that a right angle will work so much better than a curve, it'll fit better in the corners.

To prove that theory, I got some thinner timber to replicate the top service, and profiled it round the roll bar and the bodywork;

Now I have a pattern for the aluminium. I'll need to add curves to the corners but I expected to do that anyway. And I need to trim the transition corners too, here's some rough marks I added;

Because the fill gap was very close to the size of the timber, it also means I can use the same timber to shape the panel. It'll need two long folds at the top and bottom. The bottom will be about an inch deep and will form the chassis fixing. The top is maybe three inches deep and will be shaped round the roll bar, then I'll use rivnuts to fix to the body lip.

The only thing I need to consider is the gap filling in the corner. As you can see from the above close ups, there is a gap that needs to be taken up by the front face. But I only have about 5mm to play with. What I will need to do is get one side in first, push it further in that needed, then get the other side in and shuffle it to the right position. It will literally be just a 'tuck but it'll be enough to hide the corner. It doesn't need strength, the side panel is rivetted and glued to the chassis frame that is just under the body. 

Oh, that frame... I found an issue last night. The screws I used on the underside of the body edge has actually lifted the body slightly, such that it's no longer sitting on the frame. It's particularly noticeable on the passenger side dash panel, if you put your hand on it the bodywork visibly bows. If an unsuspecting passenger were to use that location to balance against, it's not going to be a good outcome.

It shouldn't be too much of an issue to fix though, I just need to add some rubber to the relevant sections to tighten it up. To be fair it would have been a good idea anyway to stop any squeaks or movement in the body. 

So tonight I can start cutting a suitable length of aluminium and forming it to shape.