Anyone have any pictures of the pop-riveted fender bead installation? Are pop rivets installed on ALL of the finger tabs of the beading? This installation sounds like the way to go, like you said, to prevent fighting the wing, body and bonnet alignments all at the same time!
I pop riveted the beading to the fenders. Best thing I ever did concerning those. I've had the front apron off twice since, and it's been a very easy, one man job. You have to loosen the screws up along the upper part of the front wings so you can spread them enough to allow the beads to clear the apron during removal and installation. I riveted all of the tabs to the wing spacing them fairly evenly. Not a great picture, but you can see whats going on. I put some tape on the ends of the tabs so the wouldn't scratch the paint with them...just in case, but probably unnecessary.
I painted the wings before hand. I put the wings loosely on the car without the apron on. Then I put the beading in place starting fom the top under the hood. I then drilled and pop riveted the tabs on one at a time, starting from the top tab, while you're pushing the bead against the wing. Piece of cake.
Disregard the attached thumbnail...I was having trouble uploading the image.