Anyone bond their own ERA panels?

[ERA 778]

I bonded the body on mine myself. It wasn't bad at all. ERA will ship the car "sort of" assembled with everything aligned. I completely removed the body on mine to provide easy access to the footboxes and several other items. While I had the body off, I turned it over and completely painted the underside with a flat black trim paint; something you'll never get a chance to do again.

Removing the body and installing it requires some help. I had three friends help during the removal and maybe 4 helpers for the install. The whole process took only about 30 minutes each time. It's a good idea to drill many of the rivet holes for the aluminum panels before you take everything apart. This actually will help make sure everything goes back correctly.

For me, the decision was made based on my desire to do everything on the build that I thought I could handle. As well, bonding the body myself provided an opportunity to do some things to the car that would have been much harder the other way.

In my opinion, mounting the new body is a very practical place to save money on the build. I think it was only $1,300 when I did mine. At the new price, it's a no-brainer!

The only negative: Bob has never updated the manual to reflect the new, improved body and mounting details, so the manual won't give you good insight into the details.

If you can do all the other things in the build, you can bond the body. It's that simple! Good luck!