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A spot weld cutter is completely un necessary on a roof skin replacement.
Unless you plan to save the removed roof skin there is no need to use a spotweld cutter anywhere on this job.
What you do is remove all parts like the trim,windshield,roof rails etc and then melt out the lead in the joints(or bondo if it was a vinyl roof car). Then use a air chisel CAREFULLY to remove the skin aroun the perimeter without trying to seperate the welds yet- just get the majority removed. Now you have access to all the spotwelds. Use a cut off saw with a thicker zip disc to "erase" the spotwelds. As you get good you will get the feel of it and be able to go just far enough thru the top layer to let the welds pop free. Once you have all the old roof chunks gone just check all your mating areas for smoothness so the new one can drop right on. The roof of a car is the last panel welded on when new so it is an easy panel to do compared to most. You can use a regular drill bit to make the holes for plug welding.
I have seen SO many people screw up panel replacement by misuse of spotweld drills. They have their place but this is a classic example of a job that has zero need for one.

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LMAO!! This has got to be one of the most ignorant posts I've read in a while.

You're actually telling everyone that it's better to hack up ,rip and butcher off old skin than actually using proper tool that will remove the remove old skin without distorting not only pinchwelds ,but most important, the actual roof structure?


Not sure what your defenition of "spotweld cutter" is, but it's actually a tool that will remove spotwelds without any damage to underlaying metal and in right hands it will take about 3-5 seconds to cut each spotweld,maybe it's time you do some shopping for high quality cutter

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welcome to the ranks of the ignorant

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I'm not going to get into which way is best. However, I have used a spotweld cutter on larger spotwelds (1/8" or so?) that seem to be structural welds (if that is the proper term) like you would find on a front inner fender or core support. Then there are these little spotwelds that look just like a pencil point. I put lower quarter patch panels on a '74 Dart one time and there must have been (no kidding) over a hundred of these suckers between the quarter and the trunk extension. It's like the guy with the welder had Parkinson's. I used a 3/32" drill bit to cut these out. I guess what I'm trying to say is that all spot welds aren't created equal.

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Wow, I didn't think this would become a pissing match...

Thanks for all the suggestion, I just don't dare tell you which way I'll do it so I won't get ostracized by the other side!

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Fair enough. If you decide to drill it, you might want to order some new drip rails.

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Wow, I didn't think this would become a pissing match...

Thanks for all the suggestion, I just don't dare tell you which way I'll do it so I won't get ostracized by the other side!

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Seems to me that a guy could take all this information and the different suggested methods and pick which one, or combination, works best for him. I know that I've personally done things WAY different that others, mostly because I hadn't thought of the other methods, and still had great results. To each his own and as long as we're still havin' fun and it comes out good in the end, that's what it's all about.
P.S. I don't know if the Challenger rails are different from yours, but I used a spot weld cutter on mine with good results. No damage to the drip rails but it turned out they were rusted out anyway.