First bend

3 men for 3 days equals a lot of manpower, thinking capacity, labour and enthusiasm (even more so when you add a good contribution from TVOR who popped in on a couple of days for moral support and sensible suggestions)
With the component parts all lined up and fixed in place we set about doing a first bend on the chassis main rail.  Jo's hydraulic bender made my own 16 tonne bender look like a childs toy.  We made a quick adapter to enable us to use my filed out die to fit his press..... and we gave it a go.

Disaster.  Even with Jo's superior mandrels, the device wasn't man enough to hold the tube taught enough to avoid flattening the tube on the bend :-(  It was getting late in the day (of our first day) and this kink in the tube, kinked our enthusiasm until Jo teased us with an idea;
"I've heard of a technique for bending tube using sand.  I've never done it myself, but I've heard about it.  I've got some sand - we could try it!"
And with that we agreed to call it a day and return tomorrow with excitement to try an experiment.

That night in bed, on my iphone, I looked for some evidence that tube could indeed be bent smoothly with the aid of sand.  And sure enough, there is a technique.... though details do seem to vary from person to person