Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 16/04 - Routine Consumables...

[TrabbieRonnie]

Your rear panel is nothing to be ashamed of, check out Rosie's neglected rear end!

I have the paint though, it's on the list!

 

[rattlecan]

So the rear panel isn’t Duraplast like the other panels then?

[captain_70s]

I believe the main body shell is steel with a skim of Duraplast over the top.

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, rattlecan said:

So the rear panel isn’t Duraplast like the other panels then?

 

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

I believe the main body shell is steel with a skim of Duraplast over the top.

If you strip a Trabant of the Duroplast bits what you're left with looks remarkably like a miniature version of the base frame skeleton the Rover P6 is built around.  Front and rear panels are non structural steel, I'm guessing simply because the moulding would be excessively complex to make in Duroplast with the various cutouts and such.  

The inner structure is a (surprisingly rigid) framework including the sills, floorplans, roof frame, window surrounds, front and rear wheel tubs, door apertures, front bulkhead, and boot floor.  Everything else is then attached to that.

P6: 

Source: http://www.roverp6parts.com/history.html

Trabant: 

No idea where I originally found that one.  Here's a (crap) photograph of one stripped to the shell which original surfaced on Pinterest somewhere.

For such vastly different cars it's almost uncanny how similarly the very basics of the inner structure have been penned.  P6 is obviously vastly more substantial, but you get the idea of what I'm saying.