Page Three: the panels
Nudge. Each panel is one column of the sign, so the eight top bands are its first line with the letters out of order. That line is two words, and the bare top band is the space between them. Get the first line reading and the other three lines come with it.
Harder
The sign is the kind that tells you to mind something. Hang the panels so the top bands read MIND THE with the bare band fifth, and the second bands will read GEAR with two bare panels on either side. Then read the foot bands left to right.
The page, in words
The eight panels are eight buttons named Panel 1 to Panel 8, numbered as they came out of the crate, in two rows of four: Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3, Panel 4 above and Panel 5, Panel 6, Panel 7, Panel 8 below. Each panel's four bands, top to foot, are in the table above the buttons, a dot for a bare band. Tap each panel once, in the order they hang, left to right; the strip under the buttons reads back the order hung so far. Then Hang them, or Take them down to start again.
The answer
The answer is 4-7-2-8-5-1-6-3.
Hung in the order 4, 7, 2, 8, 5, 1, 6, 3, the top bands read MIND THE, the second bands GEAR, the third IT RUNS, and the foot bands read OVERHEAD: a warning the clerk lettered himself, for a line that hangs below its track with the drive above it.