I have also embarked on the most nerve racking job next to the
bonnet.......fitting
the hood! 
The hood is one of the singular most expensive items and
any
errors whilst cutting to size are disasterous as there is no going back
or hiding the problem.
I made several calls to Royale during the fitting of the hood and they
gave me some very usefull advise and tips...eventually all went well
and
the hood looks great. Strange as it may seem but I really got a sense
of
achievement when the hood was fitted as finally, to me, it finally
looked
like a car.
The doors themselves are pretty straight forward to complete, the problems normally arise, as with most assembly sections, is the lack of anything to compare with. On my travels to various shows I made a point of photographing items that I was having problems with and then referred to them later. The pictures here are a combination of my own record and other owners completed cars.
The problem I encountered was wether or not to remove the
"ears"
reffered
to in the manual.....in seeing other cars it was clear these were to be
removed. I also had problems with the fit of the door glass channels.
I originally fitted them and all seemed well...as per the manual filed
down to approx 3-4mm. When I finally came to fit the glass they were
far
to close together and I had to remove a considerable amount befor I
could
slide the glass in......looking at other cars helped me to resolve.
Make
sure the doors are properly aligned before you attempt to set the top
and
bottom stops of the door glass!!As
I have mentioned previously I have opted out of having door locks,
mainly
due to the majority of views that I had heard, and the problems that
owners
had encountered trying to fit them. With modern technology and alarm
systems
that work the central locking I felt that they were a unneccesary
problem
and the car has a cleaner line as a result.
The hood posed a number of problems for me having only ever seen one
Royale
with the hood up....and that was the demonstrator at Royale!! I can
hopefully
be forgiven for not fully understanding the mechanics involved.
I
initially
trial fitted everything prior to having them stove enamelled and was
perplexed
as to how the side arms(?) could 
possibly attach to the leading edge.
The
leading edge as an aside took a considerable amount of my time and
three
attempts in getting the angles etc correct....more of this in a moment.
A phone call to Royale established that the gap between the side arm
and
the top of the window should be approx 10mm measured from the top edge
of the arm. Mine was no where close and the good old penny washer was
brought
into play to lower the arm to the correct level...however at this
correct
height the front locating point was still 12 mm to high...... bend it
was
the answer to my question! So
after some playing about the side arms were finally fitted. The problem
always seems to
be that the words you read do not
always conjure up the
right picture.....more pictures would have been helpful throughout the
manual. Having successfully completed the erection of the frame it was
now time to venture onto the hood itself....the first fastener being
the
most nerve racking ....after a lot of measuring and remeasuring the
deed
was done.........soon they are were all complete and the rear of the
hood
was secure.
The webbing
was already in place so it was on to the fitting of the remainder of
the
hood. As I wanted to remove the hood prior to having the car sprayed I
did not glue the side flaps in position but made a temporary fixing so
that I could stretch the hood at the front without it pulling out of
shape
at the sides. The
first staples went in to get a measure of what was required and I found
that no matter how hard I tried I could not get the hood over far
enough
at the front corners to be able to insert the side fixing
screw...through
the hood into the threaded hole on the leading edge....... another call
to Royale gave me the information I needed...first make the radius at
the
front edge much larger, even removing the metal edge, which will allow
the hood to drop at each side and secondly if I put a heater inside the
car to warm the hood it would stretch more readilly.
Both worked extremelly well and I managed to pull and stretch the hood
accordingly. I was unimpressed at the need to
make alterations to the
leading
edge as a) I had made three already and b) it was by now on the car
with
the hood and webbing attached!
Next came the corners and anybody who has completed the hood will
appreciate
the anxieties involved, needless to say the hood and my nerves
survived. 
