The rear panel has been on twice & I was planning maybe one more off-on, if I had to, to get the wiring into place;
Hokey-cokey
- First fit - to offer up the panel with shroud and drill rivet holes
- Second fit - came off to clean up the rivet holes and glue the trim to the shroud
- ...
I was making ready to start permanently riveting the rear panel, spare carrier fitted, drilled the holes ready for the fuel filler & cut the filler hose to size, started to route the rear loom - there wasn't quite enough room to get my hand in to thread the fog/reversing light cables through the panel holes;
Plan - remove the bottom clecos holding the panel and temporarily rotate it a little to give me some room to get the wires in.
When I removed the bottom clecos the panel slid home - tight against the bottom chassis rail - ie. about 5-10mm towards the front of the car - the position it should have been in all along! I had used the bottom edge/underside of the panel as a datum when originally marking out & it turns out this datum edge is slightly too long :)
You can see the panel sitting slightly off the chassis tube through the hole highlighted in this picture:
Options
I could leave it as was - which would mean drilling a couple more bolt holes on the spare carrier & might also cause problems with the defuser later.
-or-
I could re-fit the panel, cutting a little from the bottom edge and have to re-drill the underside 12 rivet holes & some of the side rivet holes. On the plus side - the back of the panel will sit tight against the rear chassis rail & I know there will be no problem later with the diffuser. The panel needs to come off move anyway to allow threading of the rear lights wiring. <- This
Adjustments
The edges marked red were cut back around 5mm along their length, this lets the panel sit slightly more forward against the underside chassis tubes & the back corner sit tight on the back chassis rail:
Lessons
Don't use the bottom edge of the rear panel as a datum, use the pre-drilled holes where it attaches to the roll bar braces & adjust so the back corner sits tight on the bottom rear chassis tube.
I'm aiming for this to be the last time it comes off!