Side Panel Fitment

Im really not sure how I forgot to add this to the blog and I think I have lost the photographs. I will post them up when I find them.

This process was completed many months ago and both side panels have now been fitted to the car. It is a lengthy process and takes lots of planning and lots of clamps.

For our car we decided to go with the stainless side panels instead of the dull aluminium ones. At the time GBS were not painting any of their panels so most of the cars coming out of the factory had either stainless or aluminium sides and hud. One example that stood out to us was a car that had been wrapped in vinyl. On further inspection we saw that it was a really nice job and looked professional. However I wanted to take it a step further and create a custom Decal that ran down the side of the car. My technical background allowed me to spend some time in Adobe Illustrator creating a custom Decals which incorporated both the Zero and Lotus 7 into one becoming Zero 7. Along with this some nice race flag squares were added.

We then approached a company called Beacon signs to get it printed out onto a yellow vinyl and wrapped onto the car. They did an excellent job and the print looked fantastic.

After it had been printed it was protected with a large covering of masking tape and offered up to the side of the car. We clamped the panel into place and marked on the back where the chassis cross members intersected the panel and marked it with a pencil. We also marked where rivet holes needed to be placed. We did three on the rear face (which are covered by the wheel arch) several on the bottom lip and some more one the edge of the large triangle section which overlaps the front section of the car.

The holes were marked and drilled with the panel on. It was then taken off and an entire tube of silicone was added on the panel. We both then carefully married the panel to the chassis making sure it placed on first time.

Once on it was held in place with hundreds of clamps, making sure that every cross member of the chassis was touching the panel. We used all sorts of daft techniques to accomplish this such as using brooms and bits of wood to push it in place.

Whilst everything was setting the rivets were then put in place.