The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop how to weld cowl panel

Now that I have the side cowl panel off of my '54 GMC I'm wondering how to weld up the aft edge, the one that runs along the front of the door opening. I'm thinking drilling pilot holes and welding them up. How did you other guys do it?

That's what I did in an attempt to replicate spot welds. Worked for me.

That is the simpliest method. I used a drill to make my holes about every four inches or where I thought I could a grinder to. Use a flap wheel or a 80 grit paper disk to smooth them out. The grinding wheel was difficult to control at the angles involved.

Take some pics for us.

OK, that's what I'll do then. I'm still fitting now.
I'm having a problem with the inner cowl panel. The re-inforcement grooves stamped in it don't line up with the indentations for them in the inner-to-outer panel. Did either of you run into this? How did you solve it?

Inner cowl panel needed healthy tweeking, cutting and bending to match the angle of the floor pan. Inner-to-outer needed a lot of help also, including plenty of seam sealer after it was in.

http://www.chuckthetruck.homestead.com/page8.html

I could not get the gap between the stock floor boards and te bottom edge of the inner panel to line up so I spliced another small piece of sheet metal in its place.

As for getting the indents to line up, this sounds line you are splicing in to some of the existing panel's remains. You might have to replace the entire panel if this will be a problem to you. I plan to cover my inner panels with carpet or speaker panels so I was not too concerned about the alignment.

The major pain of replacing the entire panel is the weatherstripping channel needs to be removed. I drilled out the spot welds holding it in and then cut the channel where the patch panel needs to go. I then reattached with spot welds in the holes I had already drilled.

The front cowl panels are some of the more difficult on an AD in my opinion as the patch panels are not ever quite a direct fit.

Good luck

Chuckthetruck, "Inner cowl panel needed healthy tweeking, cutting and bending ...." is an understatement. This one just barely resembles the original piece.
Houston54, Yes I did leave some of the original panel but not where the indents are. The indents are just about an inch higher than the indents for them in the inner-to-outer panel. I'm going to do some "healthy tweeking, cutting and bending" to the bottom to get them to line up. I already had to straighten out the bend in the bottom because it was parallel to the panel and as you know the groove it is supposed to go in is not parallel to the panel.
I left my windlace groove intact and am going to butt the panel up to it then cut off the excess in front.
I haven't had this much fun in a long time. Thanks for the responses, y'all.

I concur in that this is the most difficult patch panels I dealt with in my 50. (Of the standards, cab corners, inner, outer cowls) I didn't think that the indents were going to line up, but a spent a lot of time and tweaking, (the floor bend would be easier if the stamper didn't do anything instead of the bend they attempt) and they did eventually line up. You have to key to them and not the edges.
Steve O

Nobody mentioned the "fun" of removing the original cowl panel, especially the top edge!! I created quite a piece of swiss cheese.

I elected to leave the top portion in place and trimed the patch to fit. Why replace good metal was my thought. You are right to remind us of the removal process as it was a major part of the fun. :rolleyes:

Some things are better left experienced and then forgotten. Why spoil the fun for Cletis?

I left the top piece in there, too. I chose a convenient spot and ran the electric hacksaw across it. But I ignored the advice about cross-bracing everything so as soon as the cut was made the top piece buckled. I think I can live with it though.
I have the inner panel looking pretty good now. I rolled the bottom edge some more over a piece of pipe and got the indentations to line up. Then trimmed and re-bent the bottom edge. Hell I might want to do this for a living. NOT!

If things moved on you, you may want to re-install the door and ensure the gaps are still correct before welding it up solid. One of my lessons learned.

I have cut and rebent the inner cowl panels. Mine are from Chevy Duty and I was expecting them to fit much better than they do. Took me most of an afternoon to cut out the old one and start to fit the new one. I also didn't use the whole thing, only about the top 2/3s. I would guess no matter who sells them none of them fit very good. But what fun. Weeds

How about a light duty spot welder?

I got mine from Eastwood Company http://www.eastwoodco.com years ago and have nothing but good things to say about it. Type in "spot welder" on their internal search engine. My unit is an older version of their Item No. 19031.

Ozarks_1, that looks like a handy tool for someone that doesn't have a mig welder but a mig welder will do what it does and much cleaner. The instructions for using it as a spot welder say drill small holes and fill them as we discussed above.
If someone has an A/C arc welder and doesn't want to go to the expense of buying a mig that would be a good deal for sheet metal work.

Cletis, thanks for that bit of info. With all the welding I do around the place, I haven't really found a need for a mig welder (yet).
Hmmmm ... maybe I can think of a "need"?