Cutting out the center section of the rear panel is the easy part...Once out of the way I had to concentrate on the
attachment points and here is where patience pays off...
I ground and pulled away the steel all along the bottom sill and it went pretty good. The scary part is grinding
along the bottom corners, I was cautious, not wanting to cut away too much. I kept checking my clearances against
my new panel..
The trickiest part of the whole operation are these two top corners. The metal is thin and surprisingly I discovered as
I went along that there was another layer of steel running underneath the outer edge.. You have to be really careful
working these pieces...
If you look at your new rear panel you will know where the steel is you need to remove...
Here is a rear shot with all the steel of the original rear panel removed...
Now that I'd done all that work I realized that there was absolutely no way the new panel would fit
with these two pieces in place.
So I had 2 options:
1) Try to remove these corner pieces with the grinder (near impossible!)
2) Cut them out causing as little damage as possible...
That's what I chose to do...
Test fitting of the new piece up next!!
Poll