Shower Enclosure First Fix

Installing the shower enclosure is a task I have not been looking forward to.  There just seems to be too much scope for things to go wrong.  The enclosure comprises two aluminium 'U' channels for bolting to the wall, two flat glass side panels, each bonded to an aluminium strip that sits inside the 'U' channel, and two curved doors with sundry sealing strips.

The side panels are free to move in and out of the 'U' channel giving some inward and outward adjustment, and the 'U' channels themselves have slotted fixing holes to give "forward" and "backward" adjustment.  The idea is to use this adjustment so that the curved doors hang level and meet with a perfect water-tight seal in the middle, all sitting nicely over the centre of the threshold rim of the shower tray.  Sounds easy in principle.

After a measure, measure again, check and measure again process I took the plunge and mounted the 'U' channels to the wall with the screws right in the middle of the adjustment slots, so I could go either way with the fine tuning adjustment.  The side panels are then slotted in.  Once their final positions are found, 3 or 4 self tapping screws are used to fix the metal strip on the panel permanently to the 'U' channel.  I am not ready to do that yet.

 Most shower enclosures of this type have a metal frame that attaches to the top of the glass and bridges the gap where the doors are.  This gives the whole structure some rigidity and supports the (considerable) weight of the doors.  However, because I knew that the sloping soffit of the ceiling was going to cut off a big proportion of the top of one of the side panels, I opted for an alternative, and less common, design.  Mine has a pair of glass shelves on each of the side panels, one low down, one high up, which attach to the panel, and then to the wall.  These anchor the side panel and stop it from flapping about.

I have offered one up ready for attaching, but I started work late on this today, and have run out of time to properly fit them.  It will have to wait for next weekend now.