Fitting rear quarter inner panel from Newton's

[Herbert]

Has anyone got any tips on how to fit the rear quarter panel finisher? Ive now bought 2 sets from Newton and the cardboard they use is too stiff to bend. What a waste of £100 !!!

[Oneball]

It’s been a while but from memory put the bottom in, then with your hand between the panel and wing, arch the panel inwards towards the centre of the car and then put the top into the channel, you need to put your hand in from the wheel arch end.

[Andrew1967]

My advice is to make sure you NEVER have to take them out again .... well you could but not in one piece.

I thought this issue had been looked into by Newtons

[Herbert]

The cardboard material is just too thick to bend. With one of the wrecked ones, what I did was cut "grooves" 1" apart with a wood carving chisel (V-shaped) in the back of the panel and it now bends quite easily. I also used some KY gel to get it over the wheel arch. I will buy yet another pair and try it then. Any more ideas?

[Andrew1967]

Sounds worse than the ones I fitted back in 2006 to my 'S'.

They did bend slightly but I'll never get them out in one piece.

Same goes for door cards !

Seems a good idea to try to ease them by cutting grooves but surely Newton should have resolved this by now ??!!

[Polarsilver]

Can understand your issue .. my solution was to lift up the brocade covering & take off about 3/8inch off the back board in the short Horizontal area that sits by the Ashtray .. then add some sort off lubricant to the top edge of the panel, I use silicone grease..Then with a good hand shove in the middle & the Panel will ( sort off ) pop into place .. Newton gave me their installation paper that shows your man with his shoe on pushing the rear panel in the middle with his Foot to push all into place so even they agree its a tight fit
Warning only remove them if you want some trim card damage

[mk1]

I have done the same as Polar above. Trim about 10mm off the bottom of the panels & they fit much better, a good slathering of fairy liquid also helps. This has been an issue for years I had heard that they were addressing the issue, but it sounds as bad as ever.

Yes, buying new panels & damaging them as you put them in only to have to buy a second set is more than a bit annoying.

[Pete]

The cardboard material is just too thick to bend.

Which also means it’s about twice the weight of original stuff, surprised Newton haven’t sorted this problem yet after all this time.

[Gary Schulz]

Agree with many above. I also wound up trimming the panel bottom by lifting up the material (mine wasn't glued too well anyway) and then cutting off approximately 1/4" of the hardboard and then reattaching using contact cement. There was no way to get mine to fit because of the combination of the panels being far too stiff and thick and also a bit too tall.

These Newton panels look attractive but they seem to miss some of the details.

[Polarsilver]

my opinion is that BMC Minis had different "material thickness" Brocade door card covering material & the Seat Brocade Material BMC used was a thicker material. would make sense as the seats need to be hard wearing and perhaps the Thinner Door Card Covering would allow these cards to be easier fitted into that top rear body channel .
The current Newton Brocade be it Door Cards or Seats is the same material thickness for economic reproduction reasons. i think we need to be pleased that Newton can now supply us a near correct replica Brocade product... they just now need to supply a thinner card backing
Off topic i was very pleased with my new Newton replica Gold Brocade full Rear Seat.. i thought it good value for money considering the prices asked of well aged originals.