Corless grinder

[Heathens]

Looking for something to try and cut a quarter panel out of a car at the junkyard any recomdentations?

 

[OccupantRJ]

I have the Dewalt cordless cutter/grinder, and it is the shitz! In fact I love all my Dewalt 18 volt tools. Another possible method is an inverter attached to your vehicle to provide 120 volts to a corded grinder, if you are allowed to bring your car near the site.

A review

 

[Heathens]

I can not drive into the yard or I would just use a generator.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I can not drive into the yard or I would just use a generator.

The reason I mentioned the inverter is because after it is installed it can be used for a lot of various things. We used them on field service trucks for work on farm equipment back in the 70's, before all the battery tools were around.

 

[rsanter]

I always used a cut saw to remove qtr pannels
once its off the grinder is good for trimming and seperating

they have those 'jumper' battery packs that also have a 110v outlet on them
you can carry that in so you can used 'corded' tools that you already have

for cordless tools...dewalt

bob

 

[z28snksknr]

sawzaw aka reciprocating saw

 

[Major Ramifications]

I always used a cut saw to remove qtr pannels
once its off the grinder is good for trimming and seperating

they have those 'jumper' battery packs that also have a 110v outlet on them
you can carry that in so you can used 'corded' tools that you already have

for cordless tools...dewalt

bob

I don't know of any jumper pack that would allow you to run a grinder.

A gasoline powered air compressor would be great. I'm sure you could rent one. At the U-Pull it yards I frequent, they let you bring in generators.

 

[warmpancakes]

I have a big wagon then generator fits in to pull into yard. a sawz all will be the best tool for the job

 

[1320stang]

I bought a cordless Dewalt recip saw just for this reason (they didn't make grinders then) and not the only powered tool they let you bring into the yard is a drill.

 

[scott37300]

I have an 18V dewalt grinder and 4 battery packs. I have used it for taking body panels off at the yard. Works great. I also have a panasonic 15.6V cordless circular saw for cutting metal. Use it for steel stud work. I have also used this for body panels and it works good but not as nice as the grinder. I got my grinder in a dewalt kit I bought a couple years ago on sale at home depot, think I paid around 400 for a drill, impact driver, circ saw, grinder, flash light and 2 batteries. Then I got another impact kit with two extra batteries for 120 at the depot on clearance. I only bought this for the batteries since 2 dewalts are the same price as the kit, so basically got a free impact.

The grinder has lots of power and will get the job done easy. And the cuts usually leave the body panel in much nicer condition than a sawzall

 

[djb2]

Many yards have restrictions on what you can bring in. It's rare to allow gasoline powered things. And batteries are often banned, but not battery powered tools.

I cut the entire rear off of a BMW e30, through the quarter panels and trunk floor, using a battery recip saw with a variable pitch metal blade. It was a cheap Coleman saw which went through battery packs quickly. I had four batteries and an inverter back at my car. I estimate that it took six packs worth of charge to do the job.

It could have been half that with a manual hacksaw to solve some of the geometry problems -- you can't always cut where you prefer because of clearances.

Advice: never, ever take off your leather gloves when doing this. Those freshly cut edges are nasty.

 

[Heathens]

Thanks for the replies guys, I may just buy a aftermarket quarter, everything around here is so crusty its not worth it.