ASSEMBLING THE LOWER ARMOR
The lower armor includes the Abdomen plate (Ab Armor for short), lower back plate, front belt (Box Belt), 2 x belt shim armor and 2 x drop boxes. White snaps, adjustable snaps, white rivets, suspenders, helmet chin straps, shotgun holsters, stretch fabric and Industrial Velcro are used to connect the pieces. Other pieces used are the black buttons, screws, wing nuts, lock washers and washers. If you cannot find white rivets, get the regular ones and paint the heads white. SEPERATING THE COD PIECE Start with the front Ab armor and seperate the cod piece. Cut it using the Dremel tool along this line here from the back side of the armor.
Once the cod piece is seperated use a fine grit sandpaper to smooth edges on both pieces. Drill out the dimples in the Ab armor for the buttons to be placed. Remove any stray ABS plastic shavings from the back side and sand down the ABS plastic around the holes. Push the black buttons into the holes. Again, on the back side of the Ab armor, use a flaring tool on the backside of the button to spread it, making it wider than the hole. Then use the Hot Glue Gun and put a dab of glue over each button. Let glue dry. If you have trouble in the future with the black buttons coming loose, remove the glue and use a snap fastener to permanently secure the button. (The button is a snap top.)
For the suspenders, I bought black work suspenders from the local hardware store.
For the lower back armor put the clips over the top of the armor and let it hang naturally. The clips will hang at an angle to the armor. In this case the slits will be angled.
Cut out the slits. After a couple of trooping events I discovered the work suspenders were still too long, allowing the lower back armor to hang about 2-3 inches below my butt, and the metal buckles showed where the white upper back armor was not covering them. I am 5'10" and would not recommend the work suspenders to anyone under 6' even after shortening the suspenders.
To begin, I shortened the non-adjustable end of the shotgun holster and looped it through the cut slit at the top of the lower back armor. I then proceeded to sew the end to secure it. I may in the future remove the sewn end and place in snaps in order to remove the holsters for washing.
Pull the other end of the chin strap through the shotgun holster plastic adjuster. Once you are wearing the lower back and ab armor you then adjust the length of the chin strap for proper fit. Finally, take the third helmet chin strap and loop it just above the top of the shotgun holster plastic adjuster. Secure it with the adjustable snaps. Again, you will need to have a pair of male and female snaps on both ends. Repeat on opposite side. This cross strap will hold the two holsters together and keep them from falling off the shoulders and out from under the connecting bridges of the upper armor.
The next step is the belt. To begin, drill out the dimples using a drill bit the size of the rivet diameter to be used on the Ab armor and on the Box belt. Line up the Shim belt armor between the Box belt armor and the Ab armor and drill through it. Repeat on the other Shim belt armor.
NOTE: skip down to PUTTING ON THE DROP BOXES before continuing. Place the rivet through the front side of the belt. Place a rivet washer on the back side. Use the rivet gun and secure the rivet. Repeat for the second hole.
In order to find the location where the belt snaps will be mounted, the wearer must put on the lower armor. Put on the suspenders and clip it on the Ab armor and the lower back armor. Now wrap the two belt halves around you until you get a good fit. Make sure it is not too loose or it will droop once you add the Thermal Detonator, the gun holster and the E-11 Blastech.
Once the fit is good mark the outer belt where it overlaps the inner belt. Use masking tape to mark it. Take the armor off and locate your mark. Measure in 3/4 inch from the end of the belt and 3/4 inch up and down to mark the two white female snap locations.
Drill out the holes for the snaps. Lay the outer belt back over the inner half of belt and mark corresponding holes for the male snaps. Open up the belt halves and drill out the marked holes. Secure the white female snaps into the outer half of belt and male snaps to the inner half of the belt.
After a couple of trooping events I found that the belt was still too loose on me and pulled it in about two (2) inches. Remark the holes on the lower belt and drill them out. Secure in male snaps. Remove the previous two (2) male snaps or they will cause the new snaps to pop off at any given bend or normal walking maneveurs. Mark the centers of the two pedestals on the Thermal Detonator and drill it for screws to be inserted.
For those wearing the gun holster on the right hip, now is the time to slide it over the belt. Move it as far forward as possible. Snap the belt together and position the finished Thermal Detonator (TD) in the center of the belt. Mark the locations of where the pedestal touch the belt. Find the center of this and drill to match the drill hole locations on the TD. Use 10-24 1-1/2 inch screws. Put a washer on the screw and insert it from back side of belt through to TD. Place an oversized washer on the screw from inside of the TD. Place a smaller washer over that one, then a lock washer and finally, screw down a wingnut. Repeat for second hole.
Now that the TD is mounted, add an additional two (2) snaps (female on the outer, male on the inner belt) on the other side of the TD for aligning purposes. This will prove to be very helpful once you add the industrial velcro.
Putting on the Drop Boxes. This is part of the process that has changed a few times for myself, since the first two ideas did not work. The velcro strips seperated from the CA glue and the hot glue did the same. The third idea is to use two shim strips. The first one is to keep the Drop Box from flapping too much and the second is to secure the Drop Box to the belt. Start by making four ABS Shim strips (two for each Drop Box). Make the strips 3/4 inch x the width of the inside of the Drop Box. Put a slight arch into both strips by bending them. Take a piece of black fabric (can be a strip of loop velcro) and wrap it around the first shim on the 3/4 inch side. Sew the end of the fabric where it meets back to itself on the other side of the shim. Make the stitching strong to prevent the boxes from getting pulled off by adoring fans.
ABS cement in the side edges of the Shim Strip about half way down the Drop Box (test the location to ensure a good fit). Secure the two ends and let cure.
I originally secured the other end of the black fabric to the belt just under the Box Belt and above the Shim Belt with CA glue. It has yet to come off. But in all probablity, it will eventually come off. So, this presents me with coming up with an alternative method to secure the fabric to the belt. The most likely method would be to loop the fabric through a slit in the Shim Belt and sew the end. Rivets and screws and snaps are too big depth wise and therefore, will not work. So, two small slits are required to get the fabric looped around the Belt Shim. If you have riveted the belt pieces, you will have to undo it in order to cut the slits and sew the material.
When the fabric is pulled and sewn, resecure the belt pieces with the rivets. Take the seperated cod piece and Ab armor and lay them 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart depending on what you are comfortable. Cut out the stretch fabric to cover the width of the cod piece and the distance from two inches below the cut to two inches above the cut that seperated the cod piece from Ab armor. Place white Industrial loop velcro across the top of the cod piece and the bottom of the Ab armor. Cut black Industrial hook velcro to match the size of the white loop velcro and mate it to it. Place the strecth fabric over the velcro so that it sticks to it. Seperate the Velro hook from loop. Use a needle and black thread and sew the black velcro to the stretch fabric. Make sure the stitching is strong. The stretch fabric does not have to be one continous piece, and may be easier on bending if it is not one piece. In this case, use two (2) inch wide stretch fabric and cut up to five strips the length that you determined above. Five strips should be enough to cover the distance across the seperated cod piece to ab armor. You will have to angle the cut of the stretch fabric over the cod piece.
An alternative to using velcro would be to use snaps. Follow the below section for using hidden snaps. To install snaps into the armor and keep them hidden, use the shim pieces, cut out 3/4 inch wide strips and cut to proper length.
After making the hidden snap pieces secure at least three of them across the top of the cod piece and at least three across the bottom of the Ab armor (you may find that three snaps may not be enough to secure the cod piece to ab armor and may want to use up to six, depending on what you find works). Place them about two inches from the cut. Lay out the fabric over the female snaps to get the locations for the matching male snaps. Insert male snaps into the black stretch fabric. Snap the fabric into place.
Create two more Snap Shims for attaching the cod piece to the lower back armor. ABS cement and secure one 1/2 inch back on the lowest point on the cod piece and one 1/2 inch back on the lower back armor.
Now you have a completed Lower Armor.
SECURING THE AB BUTTONS
SECURING THE SUSPENDERS
ALTERNATE SUSPENDER
THE BELT
PUTTING ON THE DROP BOXES
SECURING THE COD PIECE
The suspenders were too long so the back ends were shortened by 3 inches and then resewn with needle and black thread. Check the fitting of the suspenders for your own self before proceeding. Once made the proper length, position the suspender clips over the top part of the Ab armor and mark where the ends will go. Then cut out the mark into a horizontal slit. Repeat for both clips.
I replaced the work suspenders with two shotgun holsters and three helmet chin straps. 
Next, I removed the adjustable strap from the plastic adjuster and discarded. I then looped the helmet chin strap through the slit in the top of the ab armor and secured the ends with the adjustable snaps. A set of adjustable male snaps comes with the helmet chin strap. For the female chin strap, drill out the male snap, flip over the adjuster and secure in a female snap with the snap pliers. 
Since only one side of the TD is openable, and the hole farthest from the opening is too small for hands or fingers to reach, use a needle nose pliers to hold the wing nut in place and turn the screw into the wingnut. Make sure the washers do not fall off in the process.
Use 2 inch wide white hook industrial velcro placing it on the inner belt facing outward between the two sets of male snaps. Place 2 inch wide white loop industrial velcro on the outer belt facing inward between the female snaps. The hook and loop velcro should align with each other.
ABS cement in the second strip closer to the top of the Drop Box. Leave enough room so that the black fabric does not bind or push on the Drop Box. Secure and let cure. Repeat the process for the other Drop Box.
Take the measurement from the 3/4 inch width and drill a hole for the female snap to be installed in the shim strip. Use the snap pliers to install the female snap. Position the shim strip with snap installed onto the desired location. ABS cement the shim strips and secure in place while ABS cement cures.
