what is the best approach to cut out the old quarters on my 68? i have a spot weld cutter and plan on using it on the welds i can get at. i dont know where to cut on the front of the sail panel by the drip rail. is it easier to cut the bulk of the panel with a cutoff wheel and then remove the left overs at the joints? :confused: :confused:

I cut mine off with a plasma cutter. I took a marks a lot and made a outline where I wanted to cut it at. I looked inside to make sure I missed any braces. I cut some with the cutoff saw and a air saw and used a 1/4" cut off wheel to grind some of the spot welds. Also used a small grinder to grind some spot and a spot weld cutter. The spot weld cutter got dull pretty fast. On the sail panel I cut about 1" above the drip rail and then used the cutoff wheel to grind the spot welds in the drip rail. The cutoff wheels will work but you will use a lot of wheels and you might have to wait for your air compressor to catch up. Good Luck and take your time.

When I put on both full quarters and both rear outer wheelhouses I cut the majority of the panel away leaving just the spot welded lips. I then took a wire wheel and removed all of the old paint and seam sealer to expose all of the spot welds. I have an electric die grinder and used some 3" cutoff wheels to thin the metal off of the old panel on top of the spot weld until it came off of the inner structure.
Since the spot weld tongs bent the metal lips some, I took a hammer and dolly to straighten the panel lips on the car after I got the remnants of the old panel off so that the new panel would lay tight up against it.
I also had to drill out some spot welds on my car and if the hole was not large enough to break the weld I either took a rat tail file or a burr bit to slowly enlarge the hole until the panels separated from each other.
If you have never done quarter panel replacement, take your time to make sure it is lined up properly before the final welding is done. Check to see how the door, trunk, trim, etc fit. There is nothing worse than having a new quarter panel put on a car and then find out that the doors and trunk don’t line up. Take your time and fit it right. It’s worth it in the long run.
Jim

thanks for the info guys