I feel like I'm destroying my cowl trying to drill out all these spot welds. I'm having trouble just locating some of them, I can't pick them out in any kind of light. I've already made two straight out holes in this thing from missing the welds. I don't want to damage this thing beyond repair with a drill bit, any advice?
Some are kinda tricky, but I managed to do it. I used a surface prep wheel to scuff the edges, that helped to reveal some of them. One thing that's important, you shouldn't try to use a regular drill bit, you'll drill through before you get the whole weld. Get some spotweld cutters. They have an adjustable pilot so you don't cut through both pieces. I got a Rotabroach spotweld cutter from the local tool place, cut much faster than the ones from Eastwood.
what matt said!! also a drop or two of oil helps the cutters last longer and the cuts smoother.. good luck..
After chasing a set of spot weld bits for a few days, I finally lucked out on my last phone call today, I found a shop that sold me a packet of 3 rotabroach (sp?) cutters and an arbor for an undisclosed amount. Long story short, do these things ever make a difference! My panels may look like swiss cheese now, but at least I'm not tearing the sheet metal anymore. I'm going to have to learn to weld if I want to make budget on fixing this cowl, that's a lot of small holes. The cutter I am using is 1/2", what's the best way to go about sealing up these dozens of little holes, can it be build up with a wire welder, or do I need little stamps of metal to patch it?
I have filled 1/2 inch holes with my little stick welder with out any trouble so you should be able to with a wire feed welder too.
You'll either have to do what Elliott did with the arc welder or if you're using a MIG/TIG, patch pieces.
I did the dreaded cowl panel repair about 2 years ago now. My dad was able to weld it back on with his gas MIG welder with very little problem. I had even bought a special attachment from Eastwood for his stick welder that is supposed to duplicate spot welds, but it wasn't necessary.
thanks! Thanks for all the advice and encouragement guys, as of 7:00pm, my cowl was out, I have a few extra holes which are from welds that weren't welds at all, it looks pretty butchered. I hammered the edges back out with a spoon and a hammer. My cowl hat is extremely clean, but I wanted to be sure, there are about 20 lbs of leaves jammed up inside there, I'm going to run some sort of screen accross the cowl to keep that from happening again. All in all, I wore out two entire spot weld cutters, managed a few good cuts, destroyed a pair of jeans and one t-shirt, and made an incredible mess of the garage. MY advice to those of you who plan to do this is: Definately get a paint stripping wheel to clean the metal off, it makes it 100% easier to spot the welds, and definately to take you time, I got a little greedy at the end and it cost me some ripped sheetmetal.
