Great ideas and the links gave food for thought, did find some cheap spotweld cutters of the hole saw type, definitely not a professional tool, but did work.
Another question now that I've almost got the outer cowel panel of except where it goes underneath the front piece of the cab. Doesn't look easy to slip the new panel underneath, thinking of just cutting the new piece and weld to the edge. It seems to be difficult to remove the part of the panel that goes underneath. Any ideas?