Fitting!
Get the panel on, clamp it in place along the seams starting at the top, don't worry about the boot floor yet, it will pull round.
Make sure everything lines up, close the boot as well and make sure that lines up.
Then starting at the top I plug weld the seam down each side making sure that the panel remains aligned.
Then I use a jack with some steel box section to lift up the bottom of the panel to meet the boot floor. This is where it pays to be careful and not distort the boot floor when removing the old panel.
Then you can clamp the outer seams in place.
The first thing I do is make sure the centre reinforcer is aligned and then weld that back on, this helps support the boot floor for the next stage. I had to cut out a section of the boot floor to repair here...
Then working inside I just plug weld the boot floor to the rear panel then lastly plug weld (or spot weld if you have a spot welder!) the outer seams on. Followed by the joints around the boot corners.
Thats the outer rear panel on! Now to the inner.
Again, prep the seams, I have a hole punch and use that for my plug welds. The panel can then be bolted to the outer panel to align and secure it.
This is critical, if you mount the panel too low then the boot striker won't align and the boot wont close, so the lip has to be flush with the top of the panel.
What I do now is plug weld the panel closest to where the boot latch striker fits. Fit the striker and close the boot to make sure it engages properly. Mine is tight because the boot seal is quite thick.
If that's all good then go ahead and plug weld the top of the panel to the boot seam.
You can then weld the centre bracket to the panel followed by the lower seam to the outer panel, sorry no photo of that!
Then I fit the boot reinforcer corners...
And you are done! I have just dressed some of the welds that were a bit messy and protected everything
This is an early car so I don't need the later holes that were on the panel
Final thing to do is to coat the seam with some seam sealer as per the factory.
Done, ready for paint!