After learning from my practice panels the exact design elements I will try to incorporate into the final product, I can resume my earlier start at foaming the panels.
Photo # 1 - I’ll first cut out the foam on the two rear side panels for the polished aluminum inserts I made earlier. Here I am positioning the insert exactly as I want it on the panel.
Photo # 2 - Then I cut around the perimeter of the insert with a very sharp razor knife. Note that I try to keep the blade perfectly perpendicular to the foam so that I get a nice, sharp, 90 degree corner on the edge of the foam.
Photo # 3 - Here is the insert area with the cut away piece shown in the background. Remember my masking this area with that beautiful contact paper? Well, the experiment worked very well. I simply pried up one corner of the foam, slid an exacto knife under the contact paper to get it started, and then pulled the foam and the paper all out at once. This is exactly how it looked after pulling out the foam, not a bit of glue or residue to clean up or scrape away.
