It's nearly time for me to dispose of the bodyshell, and I think chopping it up into chunks and delivering it to a scrap metal yard will be the easiest option. For those of you that have chopped up a shell, are there any particular weak points that separate easily? Is it worth drilling out the spot welds and breaking it down into it's original parts, or is that too much effort?

Having cut up quite a few cars its surprisingly easy, all you need infact is a ground sharp bricklayers flat chisel and a lump hammer it'll slice through up to 3mm no bother. Big disk grinder is faster but very noisy and can set the car on fire.

Having said that you much better just leaving it whole and calling around the scrap collection places as most will pick car shells up with a skip lorry free of charge, some even give you some cash. It really isn't worth cutting it up, just a bit of fun.

If you still decide to cut it up leave the engine bulkhead alone as some manufactures sandwich asbestos between two skins.



[Edited on 30/8/13 by Mr Whippy]

plasma cutter or gas axe and then theres the still saw o yer

A small fireman's axe was my weapon of choice for this job. You can cut a shell into manageable chunks in no time.

i have done 2 mx5's and it was a doddle. I used a reciprocating demolition saw and a fire axe. Mine were both soft tops.
I think i cut them into 6 pieces each, one big cut right down the middle and another cut at the front and back of the floor pan.
Pieces are easily manageable for 2 people and 1 person if you're strong/clever