A lot of repair work had already been completed to the front of the vehicle during the right hand side renovation. All but the Cross Brace panel which had suffered the same repair work (viz. being knocked back into rough shape with a sledge hammer) and much of the rest of the RHS. The purchase of a new panel emphasised that the panel in situ was curved whereas the new one was straight. This also explains why the cross brace assemply (the big X) was buckled to such an extent. As this is not actually broken it will just require bashing straight again.
What started as a simple 'cut out the old panel and replace with a new one' needed a little more thought. For the bonnet to fit properly, the bonnet pin would have to align with the bonnet catch exactly. Therefore the new panel would have to be in the same position as the old one, even though this had been bashed into shape to accomodate the (now) curved cross brace panel.
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After much deliberation, and asking other owners on ahexp.com to measure theirs, I took the decision to just weld in the new panel onto the 'straightened' front wheel arch extension panels as, geometrically, these have not changed in dimension so it should fit. The fit was remarkably good. The cross brace assembly was bashed back into true shape and "the job's a good 'un".
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