Hi Luke,
RF87 bodywork was quite thin and 'wobbly' in its day (certainly compared to the Reynard I had before my original RF87), especially the side panels.
I bought my first RF87 new (p/x'd a Reynard 85F) and seem to remember there were some stories circulating at the time about chassis build and whether Arch Motors chassis were better (something about Van Diemen using two subcontractors for RF87 chassis)...but then, FF1600 abounded with comments and rumours back then!
In 1989 I drove another RF87, for Jeff Williams' East London Racing Organisation; this is the one I referred to in my earlier post and a photo can be found here:
(Image courtesy of Richard)
This must have been just after Jeff acquired the car as it was subsequently painted white for the remainder of 1989. Some time after than, Jeff painted it bright blue.