In wood working we have a tool for capturing shapes, it is called a duplicator, it consists of a body part and about 300 small rods that protrude through it, when you push it against a shape surface such as the beads it captures the contour, you can then transfer that pattern to paper or as in wood work compensate your router bits, this tool is a great friend for these beaded cars, they are available through woodcraft in you cannot find them.
On my gal the radiused beads were not that bad the straights were trashed, I made a tee dolly for the straights and beat them fairly straight, for the radius beads I took a chunck of rod heated the heck out of it and beat it to shape, I then polished it back to smooth. I took an oxyacetylene torch and carbon annealed the steel to soften it so it would work easier and not crack, you heat the spot and then run it real rich and build up a nice coat of carbon on it, let it air cool and it works a bit easier.
From where Im standing and on my project the most important factor was the doors, these doors are a pain in the butt to keep square, if you can try to x brace the door frame and maybe even tack some laps to the doors, in some of the bad spots, this way you can make a unit of the doors and keep them as an assembly, I think you are best off planning a strategy of taking that panel apart in a planned pattern and working it in sections, I have in the past taken strip copper and cut it into pieces, riveted those pieces to joint a panel and then done my seam work, after you have your panel metal worked you drill out your rivets and metal fill the holes, this is my alternative to Klecos or hold tites, I like this cause the copper will sort of act as a heat sync.
I would try to stay away from late model steel from junk cars, its too thin, I think I had the best luck with 18 gauge. Theres a guy on the HAMB who did a car from scratch, search: and they sed it couldn't be done, It has a few bits on metal preferences and bucks and such, stay cool, the heat must be rough.
