replacing passenger, side headlight bucket Options

[arkitect]

A friend is planning on replacing the passenger side light bucket from a donor vehicle. It's up on a rotisserie now, just trying to see where is the best place to cut.

Body guys have any suggestions? Number 1 cut is where I was thinking, past the bucket and damage, thru the bottom then over the inner wheel well and outer fender. The trick will be to match the cut on the donor vehicle. But once the fit is close, butt weld with the little clamps that hold the metal with the right gap.

He plans on doing flares later and a subaru transplant, so some of the inner wheel well where this is some damage will be removed for coolant lines to the new radiator any ways.

Number 2 cut is what he was thinking at the weatherstrip track, just a lot of overlapping metal. Peel apart and mend the new with the donor. I think this would be pretty difficult.

Any suggestions?

Dave



random pict I found, not his car.

[scotty b]

Always cut WAY more than the section you know you need ( #1) . You may get the damaged one out and find more issues beyond what is obvious. I would rough cut the bulk of the damaged one out, then use a grinder with a flap disc to grind down the spot welded flange. Do the opposite on the donor section. Cut the bulk of the car away from the bucket, then grind down the spot weld flange on the OUTSIDE ( main body ) of the bucket. This is going to leave you with a nice bucket that you can either plug weld, or spot weld given you have access to a single sided spot welder.

Hope this made sense (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[arkitect]

Scotty,
thanks for the reply.

Dave