Side panels

As they say, anyone can restore a classic but it takes a real man to cut one up! So I attacked the original rear side panels with a saw to make room for the main loop of the roll bar.

The old plastic really emits a bad odor when cut or grinded.

Looks like a big hole but actually I tried to make it as small as possible, keeping in mind that the panel and the roll bar have to be installed as well. Of course this hole cannot be left like it is, even though the rear bench will not leave many angles to look at it once everything is installed back in the car.

So i formed a piece of plastic board to cover the hole. The plastic is easy to work with, you can form it under a heat gun, once cooled off, it retains its shape.

Almost there, now all i have to do is repaint the panel, but as it has already undergone a colorchange from brown to red I'm sure that will not be a problem.