Hi Ryan
Thanks for the compliments.
The skewers were planed straight, with the aid of a friend who has the proper woodworking machinery, and checked with a long builders ally straight edge. They were a pain to get right.
Aluminium sections would work, and in fact I originally had the holes drawn into the stations as 50 x 50 size, planning to use steel square sections as the skewers but the holes ended up slightly smaller than that.
But the wood eventually worked very well, as I could plane them slightly undersize to also accept any slight tolerances in my positioning of the stations. Being able to secure the stations to the skewers was also a big advantage, to keep them at the correct spacing and vertical.
WRT bending, most of the stations are supported on the base board, and I have since added some supports under the overhanging rear bit, so not a problem.
Best thing I did was have lots of 92 mm wide planks cut, I've used them a lot to get spacing correct at various places, particularly on the base board. (my stations are at 100 centres, ply is 8 mm)
Things I would do different next time would include putting 0.5 mm clearance in the interlocking slots (I made them dead 8 mm wide, to fit over the 8 mm ply and had to hammer the longitudinals in) and I would add some stations at the extreme rear, but fitted perpendicular to the body surface, not vertical. I would also make the longitudinal ribs thickness stick into the body shape from the actual longitudinal line, and not out as I have done. I still have to finish off all these edges flush with the eventual body surface.
Fitting and shaping the foam is going well, will post some more pics soon.
Cheers
Fred W B