Ed, nice job.
Thanks for the tips I'll ise them all.
Question for you on the pass rear. If you had to do it again, what about using the template and then drilling small holes around the template, then cutting from inside?
Would that make it any easier? Or would you still go the way you did?
Bconno
On the slider side, I had to "adjust" the cut a bit. I masking-taped the inside lower edge where the metal is double to hold the sliding door track, and cut from the inside along the bottom edge (up about 1/8" above the double metal edge). The other problem is that the slider rail sticks out about 3/4" so I had to use a piece of 3/4" plywood as a spacer for the saw to rest on and not scratch the slide rail when I made the original (bottom) outside cut with the template.
Problem is for the rest of the cut (top, curves, side), the space between the jigsaw shoe and the cut is too tight. You really can't do it.
All in all, I think the bolted-in-place template worked well. I only had to adjust because the metal frame on the slider side window was a smidge bigger than the one on the driver side, so a small adjustment on the bottom was needed.
Bottom line: I would consider cutting the bottom edge from the inside, and the rest from the outside, on the slider side.
Ed