Harvesting the carcass

Dissassemble it in such a way that you will be able to weld it back together. I agree sometimes keeping certain assemblies together if you can. I used to use spot weld cutters, however Lately I have found a cleaner way of doing this. I have been using a ball type rotary file to grind on the spot welds to make them thin on the panels I am seperating, then slip a thin sharpened putty knife in between the panels and tap it in with a hammer to seperate them. I have used a combination of OEM and repop panels doing my sons 69 barracuda.

If theres panels you have to seperate, take into consideration how you will have to weld them back together, also if theres a panel your scrapping and saving the one attached to it, then grind away the welds on the side your scrapping, to keep the panel your saving unmolested. Above all take your time.

Surgically disassembling a car to save the metal is a noble task, but time consuming. If you keep sight of the fact that your saving a hella lot of cash over repops if your careful, you will be fine. A lot of the metal you can save isnt being made as repops. Theres pieces from it you may be able to sell that you dont need. I am going to be starting on a 69 barracuda coupe back half that I will be cutting apart for sheetmetal parts for my restoration. I will take my time cutting, and popping spotwelds apart as others will need pieces off it I dont intend to use.