The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop removing cab panels

I am currently removing the passenger side cab cowling. Is there a trick dealing with the factory spot welding they used, not the easiest job removing something without damaging other parts. Lots of grinding and cutting seem to be in order, however with a spot weld every inch or so it can be trying on one's sanity, thanks for any help on this

A high quality spot-weld cutter does the job.

I bought the WIVCO Spot-Eze parts that fit the spot-welds in my cowl. We went through a few of the drill bits but the outer weld bit lasted through two cowls.

http://www.wivco.com/

Here's a thread that discusses spot weld removal:

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34885


In particular, here is my discussion on many of the various methods....

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showpost.php?p=315318&postcount=11

I found that at the top of the panel there were spot welds on uneven surfaces that would either break the cutter or make it impossible to use. I used a carbide burr on a rotary tool for these.

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?

There is body solder under that flange
A butt weld in that area will most likely fail

Pictures and good instructions on this site
Woodys web site

Good luck

Thanks Dads50, enjoyed your link, helped to see what my future holds, sometimes we think a shortcut will work and this case it may not. Did notice that he left the original inner cowl piece in place installing the new one over top, does that look about right? and why not remove it as well? however I can see from my own project that can be a difficult task. Thinking of cutting mind to butt weld to the original piece

On Woodys web site you can see he replaced both inner and outer.
...Woodys web site Pic...

He is a true crafstman, Im still amazed how he trimmed his door skins to get the body gaps just right. ...Woodys web site Pic...
Under most of his pics he gives a brief description. Very helpful.

Just going over his text, he does mention on day 8 that he is welding the new inner cowl panel to the old in order to line up the heater vent bolts. He is doing a great job that's for sure