Guys, thanks for the info on the plasti dip,..... I had my heart set on the gulf livery, now I'm not so sure.
Spent the part of the weekend getting the body to fit, last week I had located the rear legs of the roof spider in the correct position, as it had been wrong when I got the car, consequently the rear clip and the doors had been in the wrong position too. First got the rear corrected, only to find it now fouled on the coolant header tank and the top fuel filter,..... sigh. Anyway the rear clam now fits and locates into the roof with a glorious 1/4" gap.
The Nearside door simply need moved forward slightly, the profile was/is correct. Not so the offside door, it was simply too big and the wrong shape, I took the old approach and hand sanded the edges of the door, it only took an hour or two, what the hell, this was important and I knew if I used a sander, I'd go too far.
Found some old carpet offcuts that are 1/4" thick, so thanks to them I now have the rear, the doors, the windscreen all 1/4" from each other, there are a few non critical places where the gaps need adjusted, either by sanding of building up the GRP.
I can now fit the apron on the front of the windscreen to the scuttle plate/dash frame, the front clip is about right. The holes through the apron for the fuel are in the wrong position, so I'm thinking of removing that portion (hatched in the last pic), and attaching the fuel caps to the panel below, still mulling this over, what do you think?
The alternative is to remove the rectangular front of the apron and trim it back so its profile matches the bottom of the windscreen, perhaps extending out by about 2", however that means another panel is needed to support it in the middle portion of the dash. Anyway, I hope that is clear if you have any tips, let me know.