As promised, back to the aluminum. So naturally step 1 is - plastic?
There's a design flaw with my frame, probably only one of many, but it has to do with how thin the front wall is (only 1"). I knew I had an unsolved problem as to how to deal with all of the angles but I ran out of ideas and figured I'd work it out later. Well later is now. There's this gap between the side panels and the square tube that makes up the front wall:
Might not look like much but I am concerned when I run rivets down the corner it will either pull in, or worse make a bad rivet/connection. Since I can't go back in time and make the front wall 2" thick like I should have with an extra angle to mount the skin to, I need to find something to fill the gap. After a lot of pondering I decided on Delrin since it machines/cuts well. I made a bunch of 13 degree angle 3/4" strips and here they are cleco'd in place.
And with countersunk flat head rivets.
Now with that same panel back in place everything sits nicely.
I need to repeat this on the driver's side, but I'm going to finish the passenger first. On to aluminum for real, building the remaining trim around the bottom.
That's as far as I made it today, I need to drill for all the rivets next and then make yet more trim.