Here are pix of the cuts and tack work. First picture is the top cut. Second is the lower cut - you can see the guts - I decided to leave them in place because I thought about modifying the skeleton on the fly, but ended up just cutting it out and will do it later.....
Third picture is the deck lid roughed in - you can tell how much you have to modify / stretch to get it to fit. I had to cut off an extra inch on the bottom of the lid after this picture. I also actually ended up welding back in about 1/4" of steel on each side after I test fit the piece. The old saying of "measure twice, cut once" applies here big time!!!! The complex curves make it very difficult to figure out how it will fit. I checked and double checked and triple checked and still missed the cuts a little. Finally figured it out after about 2 days of farting with it.... Don't cut to what you think is your final mark on the first pass!!!! That was my mistake - I should have left some metal and trimmed, but I cut to my final mark the first time - bad move.
Last two are the tacked in piece. I like the look better..... Notice I left the key hole - I like handles, so I am leaving the door handles and the trunk handle on the car. Now need to fix some rust in one corner, tack in the top flat piece, modify the internal guts and finish welding. I will post the final product in a week or so hopefully.
