Sorry about the double post, but today is a rare day off and I would really like to button up this project.

I am replacing the tail panel on my '66. The old panel is removed and the new in place. The fit seems O.K., a little off when lining up to the old spot weld marks across the bottom to the right of the key hole, but not much. I can easily give it a push and tack it in place.

Should the quarters be attached with the tail light extensions, as to better "locate" the panel in position, then tack across the bottom. Maybe even tacking the top corners of the quarters to the tail panel at the trunk weather styripping area. Remove the extensions and finally tack around the perimeter of the quarter to tail panel.

I would definitely feel more comfortable with a little re-enforcement from someone who has done this before; or seen someone do it before; or heard of someone who might have watched someone do it before; or thought about.....you get the picture.

Thanks in advance

The best advice is to always do what makes it look best. For instance, you want all the gaps to be consistent. You want all the lines to be straight and panels to line up. To achieve this, you may need to use clamps and/or small sheetmetal screws to temporarily hold everything in place and then close the trunklid. Once that's done, stand back and see how everything looks. That more than anything will help you determine which parts to tack and weld first, and in what order.

A lot of this is trial and error. You may have to make several adjustments before doing the final welding.

The best advice is to always do what makes it look best. For instance, you want all the gaps to be consistent. You want all the lines to be straight and panels to line up. To achieve this, you may need to use clamps and/or small sheetmetal screws to temporarily hold everything in place and then close the trunklid. Once that's done, stand back and see how everything looks. That more than anything will help you determine which parts to tack and weld first, and in what order.

A lot of this is trial and error. You may have to make several adjustments before doing the final welding.

Ditto - this is what I did when replacing the trunk / rear tail panel on my 66. I put the rear tail panel in, using clamps and a few tack welds I put the extension pieces on. This way, the panels lined up with the fender sides and top, the trunk gap was consistent all the way down the fender which included the extension pieces.