Hi Guys,
I did the big classic to RT cut and shut last year and its not as scary as it first appears (easy for me to say!)
1. Get the classic body bonded on as it says in the manual, boot returns, sill tops (csk rivets are easiest here) and scuttle top. Bond the bits in the nose for the front and reinforce them.
2. Get your new wings and sills and place them over the top of the body lining them up by eye. Glue them down with a hot glue gun.
3. Mark a line about on the new panels about half an inch from the edge along the entire length of the car.
4. The best technique for cutting is a jigsaw with the finest tooth blade available (metal cutting blade). I tried using a thin cutting disc on it. When the third disc exploded after a foot of cutting I decided to change tack! I found some of the disc when I cleared the garage 6 months later (tells you one of two things, either the discs went a long way or I don't tidy up very regularly!)
5. This is the really scary bit when the side falls off your car! Don't panic it gets better soon.
6. The hot glue breaks off easily so remove all the old bits from the new bits.
7. Stick the new bits back on in their correct place level with the original bodywork. Stick it back on with gaffer tape, the hot glue gets in the way at this point.
8. roughen up the back of the cut line to provide a good key for the fibre glass, sand papers good, a grinder with a flap disc or paint removal disc work well if you're careful. Clean all the dust off and wipe down with acetone if possible.
9. Bond the back with strips of fibreglass 3" wide and about a foot long (easier to manage) If you can use proper woven glass cloth approx. 300gsm it's much easier than chopped mat and I think gives a better bond. I managed to find some carbon/glass mix cloth that was fantastic. If you're having a flip front then you may not want to bond the front approx 18" of the sill as this will act as the split line.
10. Once you've finished that and all the pretty colours induced by the polyester resin have cleared, have a beer and go to bed, you desrve it!!!!!!
11. Let it all dry overnight and then we're back to the outside again. Make a groove about half an inch wide along the entire length of the join through the top layers of bodywork, don't touch the fibreglass you've just added. I used an angle grinder to make this groove although a black and decker powerfile is better (try amazon.co.uk £30!).
12. Clean the groove with acetone again. Fill the groove with bridging filler just below the surface of the groove (try fibral, halfords but i'm sure there are cheaper alternatives). bridging filler has fibres in it that will restore the strength to the panel. Level the groove with normal filler and sand down to finish.
13. Stand back and admire your work!!!! Grab another beer and then get some sleep, you look like you need it!!!!
14. If you want a flip front then first get everything level.
15. Cut the steel plates off the end of the front frame.
16. I then drilled into the end of the frame and inserted a 1/2" steel tube in each end. I then fabricated two new plates for the front from 5mm aluminium plate and fitted some 1/2" internal diameter plain bearings to fit over the tubes.
17. bolt the front end back together.
18. to cut the body mark a vertical line approx. 8" from the rear edge of the bonnet opening down to the top of the new sills.
19. Speak to Tim at SSC, he's got some mouldings that bond under the cut line on the body that extend 2" ahead of the cut line. This is for the bonnet to sit down on.
20. I made some returns to stiffen the sides of the bonnet and bonded these underneath the bonnet just ahead of the mouldings.
21. Bond the bonnet in place now, If you want to remove the bonnet line then make sure its perfectly lined up otherwise theres a lot of bodyfiller reguired!!
I know it sounds difficult and this essay probably makes it sound worse but the results are well worth it. As with most jobs take your time, measure twice cut once as it goes. Good luck!!
or bad 
