Really dumb quarter panel replacement question

The rear quarterpanel is stepped down into the trunk jamb area,but it overlaps the drip trough peice and it is welded to the trough peice. The trough is the part with the numbers stamped into it. This peice needs to be retained on the car,unless it's rotted out. AMD makes the trough peices,both left and right. The numbers are stamped on the drivers side drip trough peice. The AMD replacement trough peices do not have any number stampings on them. If you are concerned about the car retaining it's original stampings,and the trough is rotted beyond repair,then you may have to graft the stamped section into the new trough replacement part. If you do have to do this,and the car is a valuable numbers car,I would photo document the process with before during and after photos. If you already cut the trough out,you may have to reinstall it. I never cut a car until I have the replacement part in hand.

Thanks for the clear explanation and tolerating the dumb question, appreciate that. I haven't even taken a good look at that area in over 10 years and was going by my crappy memory.

The car is my GTX, but no fender tag/no build sheet/orig drivetrain blown up and gone many years before I got it/etc. So it's not a super-numbers car at all.......but on the other hand I'd want to keep the few numbers that it does have left intact although there ain't many.

It's always better to ask what may seem like a dumb question,than to go ahead and cut the car,scrap the old parts,and then find out when you get the replacement rear quarterpanel,that this part is not included with it,and feel dumb. Atleast they make the trough peices if this were the case,so the car could be repaired. I wouldn't want to have scrapped the part with the numbers on it. I have bought a few cars years back that people cut sections off them,thinking that the replacement panels were like OEM panels,only to find that the panels that were available would not cover the whole area they cut out. Thanks to AMD,that is not an issue for most popular models anymore. One was a 70 GTX,that the guy cut the whole rear clip off,only to find that the parts weren't available to repair it. On any GTX you would want to retain all the stampings.

Believe me that is NOT a dumb question. ALL future buyers of that car(many years down the road) WILL look for those #'s.
HR20

Wow, startin' bodywork on the X huh?

Hey Mark...Just research, but it's inevitable...been offered some good-guy deals on AMD stuff lately which has got the gears grinding away in my head.

Still need to get the detached garage built first before tearing into anything to the point of no return.