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12/6/23: Today I started to weld in the panels starting with the floor. I had previously overlapped the panel to the floor by about an inch and used sheet metal screws to attach the panel. After previously missing my cut line and cutting too much with a side grinder with a cutoff wheel on the cowl (the larger size of the grinder plus the sparks coming in my direction blocked my view) , I decided using a die grinder with a cutoff wheel would allow me to control the cut more precisely. I used it to slice thru the existing floor where the edge of the patch panel meets the existing floor to form the joint. Tilting the cutoff wheel about 45° makes a really close joint. Cutting 6” at a time, pushing the patch panel flush to the existing floor to close the joint then tacking 1” apart secured the panel. The cutoff piece ends up falling off when the joint is complete. This method I learned from a video recommended by a fellow ‘Bolter. “Fritzee’s Fabrications” on YouTube has several videos worth watching. Here is the link.
I’m not sure it would work on a flat panel but for the floor it worked amazing.

Again Murphy’s law continued to pester me as my main compressor is “Out of Service”, still waiting on parts. I only had my 3 gallon pancake compressor to run my die grinder, grinding about ten to fifteen seconds at a clip then waiting for it to build up pressure. The process of spot welding is really time consuming by itself and adding “Murphy’s Law” into the equation made it really slow.

This process of spot welding the butt seams is new to me so I’m learning as I go. The floor is a great place to start as it’s getting covered up anyway.

12/7/23: I continued welding and decided to start on the lower inner cowl as I knew that was going to be the toughest. What made it difficult was the location. I’m right handed and with the cowl on the passengers side it made it really tuff for me to get in a position I could see and operate the MIG handle. The cowl is only .032 which relates to 21 gauge. The inner to outer cowl is 16 gauge. Thinking I would need more heat to penetrate the inner cowl I immediately started blowing holes in the panel again. The pre drilled holes for the plug welds were way too small. I learned I needed to start the weld on the thicker inner metal then wash over to the outer thinner panel needed bigger holes. My spot weld remover accomplished the bigger holes.

The butt weld on the thin cowl was tough also. I set my welder to the recommended settings for 20-22 gauge and still blew holes. I took a piece of the removed cowl, cut a slit in it and tried a few different settings. I dialed it down a bit and found a bit of success.

The other issue I had was lack of light. I started using a battery powered LED light and it just wasn’t bright enough. I plugged in my 250 watt Halogen spot light and finally could see. It took me a couple of hours to to finish welding in the lower cowl and weld up the holes I blew into it but it’s done.

Next was to finish welding in the floor. I opened up the plug welds and the welds came out good. I moved to the butt weld at the back. These were easy as they are out in the open. Several times during this process I checked to make sure the door closed and I hadn’t moved the cowl. So far the only issue is the beads on the toe board don’t line up. This is a common issue with the offshore panels I’ve seen posted from many other ‘Bolters. It will be covered up by the floor mat but you’ll be able to just barely see it from the engine compartment. I’m not sure I’m going to try to fix that.

The floor panel is now completely tacked in place but the lack of sufficient air prevented me finishing today, but I’m well on my way.