Hi everyone, i've been following everyones restoration project with great interest, and about a year ago, decided to have ago myself. My first attempt to restoration was my wifes Fiat 500 (1972) and one thing i learned from that was: If at all possible during a body restoration get hold of genuine panels. I know these are rare now, and very expensive, but for someone like myself who is not very experienced there is no alternative. The Fiat 500 panels (it needed all fenders and floors doing) the patern non original panels simply did not fit very well. It added more than a week to the schedule, and the end result is far from perfect.
I've owned the CS2 spider for nearly 20 years now, and it stared to look tired. So i decided to have a go. No repairs on coroded areas i decided, instead for panel replacement. And only using genuine ones. Well 1 year and maybe more later genuine panels were hard to come by, but i did track some down, at reasonable price. Has to be patient. I'll keep you posted.
I'm doing all the work myself and outside, which is not a graet idea as the weather in Britan is not that great for at least 9 months of the year!
this is the before photo: (ex US car, but lowered and with early front and rear bumpers)
![Image](http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1910/1z21.jpg)