Air hammer trick for stubborn rocker panels saved me a full afternoon

Back around 2009 I was doing a rust repair on an old Chevy pickup out of a shop in Akron, and those rocker panels had been welded over so many times I couldn't get a clean cut with a cutoff wheel. I tried a plasma cutter but the heat warped the panel, and I was about to just slice it into pieces with a sawzall when the old guy down the bay said to switch the air hammer bit to a flat chisel and run it along the seam slowly. Turns out the vibration breaks the weld bond without digging deep into the good metal, so you can pop the whole panel off in one piece. It took me maybe 20 minutes after fighting for three hours, and I've used that trick on every rusted rocker since. The key is keeping the hammer at a low angle and letting the tool do the work, not pushing hard. Has anyone else found a weird tool combo that saves the day on crusty northern cars?

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