Jonathan T.

The way I look at this, is I have a sacred carcass in my control. I feel like a sioux of the 1600s cutting up a buffalo, wanting to make best use of every sacred morsel. The car is 99% rust free. actually, the trunk floor is good, but the spare tire well is rusted through. the shock towers are perfect. lots of the metal is very good also. As most of you know, I hate to ship anything just because of the bother, but like I say I want to make the most of this poor car's sacrifice. (sorry Hoa!)

-Rob

i don't know about availablity of body panels and sections where you are, but in some locations, like where i am, people will kill for some pieces. amongst other rust i am repairing, rather than replace the entire nose on my car which had rust around the headlights, i removed the old triangle sorta shaped pieces by drilling out spot welds. but i had a lot of trouble finding a car anywhere that had intact replacment pieces.

i hacked up a previous parts car and hauled chunks to the dump thinking i would never need anything. i think i should have saved some of the pieces.

the easiest way to cut up i found is to use a reciprocating saw with metal cutting blade. why not buy one? it'll come in handy for all sorts of things. also used a disc grinder with cutting disc for a few locations.

if you've got the time (does anyone??) you could drill out spot welds to remove individual sheet metal pieces or bigger sections, unless a body shop has been in there before welding/brazing stuff together.

for ex., is most or all of the trunk floor in decent shape? that's a sought after item. so's rockers, nose, floors. some pieces never seem to go, except for accident damage. but if you cut one panel to salvage another, you might find the cut section was of value to someone. you just never know.

i'm in the process of 'deconstructing' a 02 body (my 73 Tii that was rear ended) by drilling out spot welds, to salvage all the decent pieces i can and also to learn how the cars are put together. it's going quicker than i thought it would be. only hard part is locating all the spot welds, especially when they're covered with layers of paint or even filler.

sorry for the verbal dia...., not sure if this helps.

Gil
72 Tii