Most of the last two days have been taken up with fitting the replacement steel stress panel to the front of the boot framing.  To get this in place was like doing a chinese puzzle,  since it was too long to be inserted through the wheel arch openings it had to fed through from the boot.  Having removed both NS and OS wheel well covers made this a little easy, providing the odd half an inch here and there of maneuvering space.   Getting it in place and ready for fitting took the best part of a day, then it was necessary to drill the holes in the frame for the carriage bolts (upper frame and floor cross bearer) and the ordinary bolts that go through the flitch plated from inside the boot.  The stress panel was attached central cross frame with ordinary stainless steel round-head wood screws.

I mixed up some red undercoat and the brown I got from Ridgeons to make approximately 2 litres of brown gloss to match the cab and boot interior finish.  I then used a roller to apply a coat of this to the boot stress panel and am pleased with the result and coverage of the custom mix.