I'm sure glad I bought a solid, rust-free car for my resto project, so I would be able to just strip it down, paint it, and put it back together. Everyone knew those cowl vents could not be as good as they looked in the pics I've posted. After getting everything out of the way, I found it -- cowl rot. On the drivers side vent, on area at the base of the hat is rusted through, about an inch or so long. Considering what I've done already, it really doesn't seem all that daunting. Just gonna slow me down some more. I brought my camera card to work to post pics, but my reader is acting up and I will have to wait to post them.
It sure is Dennis! For sure, I didn't waste my money on that welder! :bananaman :bananaman Steve, I hope it doesn't take that long too. I have a some others that have gone before me, so the main obstacle is about 120 spot welds....
Matt, that has to be flustrating, but at least when you are done, there won't be any questions. I don't have welder, nor do I know how to weld, so I give you credit for jumping in there and doing it yourself.
Hang in there Matt, stuff like that can be very very frustrating, especially when you are working as hard as you are to get the car done. Guess I can say, been there done that. Dan
don't let the spot welds scare you, but don't get in a hurry either, the spot weld cutter is a neat tool once you figure out how to use it, be sure to use some kind of lubericant it extends the life of the cutter greatly. i went through 3 cutters in about 30 welds before i thought to use some oil, im still useing that 4th cutter.. now if only i could find my car in the garage to stary patching it back up lol
Well, got the cowl top removed today. I spent a couple nights this week using the spotweld cutter I got from Eastwood, and it was very slow going. Today I ran to the tool place and picked up a Rotabroach spotweld cutter -- it's at least 10 times better. Things went much faster today. Had a few welds that were pretty tricky to locate, including one that was directly under one of the pins that hold the clips for the windsheild trim. Fortunately I was able to center the cutter over the pin and cut around it, so it's still welded to the cowl.
Drivers side vent is in worse shape than I could see from under the dash. At least the base is solid. Fortunately I am converting this car to A/C, so I'm just going to cover this area with a piece of sheetmetal. Vent is fixable, but why bother?
Matt, looks like you have some project going there! Are you planning on doing a factory A/C transplant from a donor car?
Ahhh, memories. The hard part is done. I've never heard of Rotabroach. Can you put up a pic? Sounds like something I need to get for future projects.
hmm.. not sure if this is the one, but I came across this: @ http://www.handsontools.com/store/show_product/?product_id=2403
Rotabroach cutter Here's what they look like. This is the 1/2" cutter. I used the 3/8" cutter where I could, and the 1/2" cutter where the welds were a little bigger or two that were close together. I got them at a tool place that sells just about everything, most good brands. I bought this one specifically because I knew someone that had a set (mavericknutt) and really liked them. For another $25 I could have got the whole set with extra pilots, but I really didn't need all of the sizes that come with it.
