Continuing with the Cover...

The idea is that I will make a cover where the original panel sits into and flush with the chassis spine. Then a raised lip around the edge will prevent it falling in and allow some form of sealing (probably a thin foam strip). First thing was to cut some sheet steel to size.

I left the ends a bit long so I could play around with exact length afterwards. Edges of this panel were joggled to give me the raised sealing lip.

The panel was then formed to give the same curvature as the original panel.

Next the original panel was aligned, ready to be trimmed so that it fits flush with the chassis spine.

The trimming took some time as I didn't want to remove too much material. You can see the corners were radiused to try and  prevent cracking due to chassis flex.