One advantage to not working on the vehicle for a while is that I have been able to simply think about the project, and as a result I have decided to slightly diverge from the plans again.

A couple of months ago I purchased some Cabriolet tail lights, but did not look at them closely. Upon looking at them it quickly became obvious that mounting them would not be all that simple as they are contoured and do not mount against a flat panel and started doubting that I had the correct units.

In searching through the Vortex plans I finally came across the mention that the lower mounting bolts required a spacer to mount them. It was pretty difficult to find but when I did I realized that I had in fact the correct units. You can see that the bottom edge of the lights curve out as well as angle, this locates the mounting bolts further away than the top ones. The water seal on the back side of the lights is redundant as they are not needed as the lights don't go into a trunk area and it is ok if water gets behind them as it is simply open space..

It also took me a while to find the dimensions that the B-1 (rear tail light support) should be, and saw that the holes that the lights recess into for my units was slightly different than stated and I had to cut an additonal area for clearance. The following picture shows the support, you can't tell but the vertical supports are notched so that the tail lights can be inserted into their holes and not hit the wood.

Next cut the 61" x 24" deck cover from 1/4" plywood and used some 61" long 3/4" x 1-1/2" strips of maple, these would be used to support the deck cover, I then glued and screwed them together these supports get glassed in. Next I made up the rest of the supporting framework and screwed it down to the body. Where the framework goes over the engine chassis mounts you have to cut a bit of wood away so that the bottom frame rails have some clearance. In the end all of this other supporting framework will be removed prior to glassing the inside of the rear canopy.

Next I cut out the vertical pieces from 1/4" birch plywood, located them then glued and brad nailed them to the maple strips along the deck lid and glued them to the hinge support.

This assembly should be extremely strong once fiberglassed. The remainder of the rear canopy will be made from foam per the plans.

I also cut some 1/4" x 1/2" shaping strips. Initially I tried using some pine for them but found out that they kept braking when I attempted to bend them, so eventially I used some sassafras as it is far more flexible, the pine might have worked had I soaked it prior to trying to bend it. The picture above shows the shaping strips, I made them so that they go from the front of the vehicle all of the way to the rear.