cutting at the drip rail is out of the question for me, i dont have the entire roof of the donor to work with, and well, my roof is all mangled anyhow.
However..maybe it would be easier if i cut the donor up in 2, basicaly seperate the roof skin fro the door pillars, and reattach the roof later?
basicaly do the door frame which would be A to C pillar. the C i plan on cutting straigth down from where the drip rail ends, following the outside corner where the door sits-becuase i cant get in to weld behind the headache rack very well, plus want to leave the rear window alone.
By the A pillar i would cut it rigth alogn the drip rail and then down to have the actual A pillar, and at the dloor right isnide the rocker panel where the old rocker and custom floor were welded.
I would then cut out and replace the bad section of firewall and cowl, again keeping intact the custom floor and just basicaly patching in the new heater/blower area. this would also include the lower part of the windshield/cowl area.
THen finally i would put the top part of the roof on by cutting it straight with the inner most part of the 4th (counting from the right side inwards) roof rib, and butting that seam up together-considering making a flange here and moving the seam inwards to the flat metal to have more meat available to weld???
This would include the upper part of the windshield seal area as well. Inside i would have to cut the inner skin of the roof and reattach it later.
speaking of tig..i wish! im buying my buddies off of him but thats not untill tax time..and i cant wait that long! man...would be so buttery smooth with a tig. So what about brazing??