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I fitted my club GRP panels with Tiger Seal (ask any body materials supplier) and tapping bolts which was very successful. Tiger seal is a sort of cross between seam sealer and extra strong glue, comes in a tube like bathroom silicone and is applied the same way. The tapping bolts I used are the sort that have a mini drill bit on the end so you dont have to pre-drill, just whack them in! (I made a driver from an old 1/4 drive extension and an 8mm socket to use in my electric drill)
The order for fitting the panels is not obvious. I was replacing the inner and outer front panels, both wings and a doorskin on my car and cut the lot off together. (BTW it is near vital to take the front doors off to get the wings off and the bonnet must come off to get the front panel off) On reassembly, get the doors try fitted first, this gives you something to align the back edge of the wings with. Then lay the front panel in place (after drilling for the bonnet bolts) and fit and align the bonnet and the rear edge of the front panel. Now try fit the wings with a couple of bolts in the top edge and get the wing to bonnet and wing to door gaps to your satisfaction (NO sealant yet!) they may have to go on and off several times to be fettled, likewise on the front panel where it meets the wings. This may not apply to your car but on mine I had to put considerable downward pull on the front panel to make it fit properly (by comparison the wings were near perfect,needing only minor adjustment)
Finally when you are happy with the fit and everything is in the right place, take it all off, run a good bead of Tiger seal over 1 side of all the joining flanges and reassemble, firing enough tapping bolts in to hold it completely, then walk away for a week to let the sealant set!
Thats about it really, some of the bolts behind the grille may have to be removed (or the heads ground off) to allow the grilles to fit snugly but this is ok as the sealant is doing most of the work anyhow.
The only other thing I MUST stress is these panels are GRP and WILL need fettling to fit nicely! No matter that my body man says they are the best he's ever dealt with, they will still need help to fit! Paitience is key and will be rewarded with a finish that looks like new, rush it and you will not be happy with the result.
Best of luck and well done for saving Terry!
Steve
Thanks Steve, I am rather taken with your way of fitting panels. Sounds a bit more sophisticated that my drill hole rivet plan. What sort of self tapping bolts did you use? I did consider bolts but I wasn't sure if I could reach both sides at every point to position a nut. What would be really nice is the ability to take off the panels for maintenance, but I am a bit worried about security of panels and possibility of water ingress.