Your in a lot different situation than I. A Panel is a lot of steel and I think your strategy should be to stick to the basics. Go slow and double check everything as you go. Has the rot shifted the geometry of your body? Do the doors fit and close the way they should? Do the pedals come through the floorboards in the center of the holes?
If the answers are yes, your body is already sitting on a fixture so I would suggest that you leave it there and start on the passenger side floor, sill and cowl. Use the operation of the door and some measurements from body to frame to check your work. Everywhere you remove floor panel away from the frame you have to have a deliberate plan on how to put the replacement parts in, and in the correct position so measure the hell out of everything.
If the answer is no, use the frame, pedals and doors as guides to get the body into plumb with the frame... assuming the the frame is plumb.
Welding should be done with minimal heat buildup. Use a Mig welder to tack the patches in, skipping around until you get single tacks about an inch apart. Then "connect the dots" skipping around half way between previous beads. I much prefer a TIG for the welding because it uses less heat and yields a better finish, but that's just my personal opinion.
Once you get all your patches skip welded in and the body is rigid, take it off the frame and finish welding knowing that it fit the frame when you took it off so it "should" fit when you put it back.
Other than that, I don't know what to tell you other than "good luck"... you've got your hands full.
Last edited by Czechman; 03/26/2008 2:32 PM.
