Method for forming a vehicle reinforcing member

A method for forming an overmoulded assembly, the method comprising:

• conforming a planar body of fibre reinforced material (CFRM) to a shape of a shape defining member, the material comprising continuous fibres in a synthetic matrix and the shape defining member defining an internal volume of a closed cross-section portion of a vehicle reinforcing member;
• bonding a first edge portion of the CFRM body to a second edge portion of the CFRM body thereby to form, around the shape defining member, the closed cross-section portion of the vehicle reinforcing member;
• and
• overmoulding a shell onto the vehicle reinforcing member and a further vehicle reinforcing member to integrally connected the shell and CFRM body, while keeping the shape defining member in the closed-cross-section portion,
• wherein conforming the CFRM body comprises contacting a first mould member with the CFRM body and bringing the first mould member and shape defining member together, with the CFRM body therebetween, to at least partially conform the CFRM to a shape of the shape defining member, and the first mould member comprises a surface disposed at an incline to a vertical direction wherein the step of contacting the first mould member with the CFRM body comprises loading the CFRM body onto the inclined surface.