Harvesting the carcass

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jos51700

jos51700

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It appears I'll be picking up a body donor for my '75 Valiant. I'd like to pull the rockers, wheel houses, floors, etc. as 'factory type' replacement panels.

Is it better, or is it even possible, to just drill all the spot welds and pull a panel like turning back the clock? Or should I invest in a plasma cutter and carve it apart?

I'm kind of against the plasma cutter, because maybe I'll want the adjacent panel. Is it possible to pull two or three pieces together and splice 'em in to the parent vehicle as a factory weldment?

I'm new to this. Any advice is appreciated.
 
It is possible to cut much of the car apart from the spot welds, but support the shell properly as you dismantle it to avoid the 3 C's (creasing, crumpling, collapsing) and pay attention as you go to what is going to be supporting the load as you move along. It's extra work, but I like the spot weld cutting method. You want the higher levels of this type of kit to do a whole car with. Blair Equipment Spot Weld Cutter Kits 11096
 
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Question !! I’m asking cause I don’t know the answer ! But you have a donor car and your gonna use the quarters, rockers, floors, fenders why wouldn’t just build the donor car instead of yours ? I’ve even seen this same thing on television car show !!
 
Invest in a GOOD spot weld cutter or three, you'll need 'em. But they do a good job, and last 10x as long as the cheap ones. And yes, you can replace joined parts as an assembly- in some instances, it's preferable.
 
Method for me depends on what im cutting out and what kind of shape the donor car is in. On a rusty crap car I will break it down in smaller pieces with the plasma. I never cut a panel if its usable. If both panels you are separating are good, spot weld cutter is the way to go. Google Blair rotobroach. Best ones I have found so far.
 
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.
 
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I cut an entire 67 Dart GT apart with a spot weld cutter, the floor pan was the toughest! It took me 4 weekends of solid work to do it, and about 30 Eastwood cutters, this was before I knew about the Rotabroach, they work much better. This car had 11K original miles and was rear ended by a snow plow, so I couldn't save the quarters are anything associated with the trunk, but got some awesome floor pans, front frame rails and engine compartment pieces. It probably saved 10 cars...LOL
 
I'm similar to Post #6. I drill the welds thru with an 1/8" then drill part way again the a 1/4" bit to weaken the weld , then seperate with a Chisel and hammer or wide scrapper. You'll find some spot welds are big. With those I use 1/8" again and then use a blair cutter (wider) and only try to cut through the top layer. And then you guessed it, I use hammer and chiesel unless your good and careful with an air chisel which I don't recomend.
 
Thank you all for the replies!

Rmoore said:
Question !! I’m asking cause I don’t know the answer ! But you have a donor car and your gonna use the quarters, rockers, floors, fenders why wouldn’t just build the donor car instead of yours ? I’ve even seen this same thing on television car show !!
Click to expand...

The car is actually rare, but also has sentimental value (First real car I ever drove).

Are there diagrams that show how the panels come apart? It's kind of a mystery to me that rocker panels are in there, and show no external welds, for example.
 
None I know off. But you will need lots of time and patience and hopefully some leather gloves so you don't dice up your hands!
 
Invest in a nice set of gloves and take your time. If you cut off extra panels well you could make a decent buck off it. its nice to save as much of the original cars as we can its better than them becoming soda cans.
 
My HF spot weld cutter worked fine for taking out the inners of my 65 (a big POP! after the last one was cut, it was still under tension with the front on jackstands behind the wheels) I didnt even flip the blade, but the live center is a joke: take a center punch or better yet a 1/8 drill and core the center so the cutters center can index in something or else it will skate something fierce. It took about 7-10 seconds for each spot weld if I remember after I center drilled them. That blade is hard for a $5 buck throw away tool. I think I had about 40 per side or it seemed like it. ~ One every 4 inches...and its loud. Like working on a drum.
 
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