downwardspiral
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2010
- Messages
- 307
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- LI, NY
- My Car
- 1973 Mach 1
2011 Mustang GT- Vortech v3 kit, custom tune and intake. MT ET Street slicks. Goes good
04 Mountaineer - daily
Hey, I recently replaced a section of my cowl panel and it seems like alot of guys need to do the same. Here is what I did:
look familiar?
The fenders and windshield need to come out
There are about 100,000,000 spot welds that need to be drilled. I bought some spot weld cutters, but they didn't really help.
I used a wire brush on a drill to remove the rust/ seam sealer over the rest of the spot welds.
Spot welds drilled, notice the orange seam sealer on the perimeter of the lower panel. This prevented the spot weld drills from working as the panels were bound together and did not "pop" when the drill went through the top layer.
Filled all the holes from drilling the spot welds. I bought some sheet metal, cut it into small squares and stuck the squares behind the holes. I then welded the holes shut and grinded off the excess.
I cut out the rotted section and brought it to a local HVAC sheet metal shop. They made me up a nice 3 piece assembly that made life much easier.
The fabricated section needed a little hammering and trimming but worked out beautifully
This is my first time welding sheet metal, not pretty but functional.
The panel was then treated to a ton of seam sealer and several coats of por-15
I patched a couple spots on the top panel
ready to be welded on
welded on, seam sealed and sanded. I hit the part where the windshield rests with a belt sander to make sure a new windshield will sit flat against it. It did get a little bent when the panels needed to be pryed apart after drilling spot welds and may have warped a little bit in welding. I had to do a little bit of straigtening to it.
Support brackets welded on, I added a few extra welds around the perimeter for good measure.
...and more paint
look familiar?
The fenders and windshield need to come out
There are about 100,000,000 spot welds that need to be drilled. I bought some spot weld cutters, but they didn't really help.
I used a wire brush on a drill to remove the rust/ seam sealer over the rest of the spot welds.
Spot welds drilled, notice the orange seam sealer on the perimeter of the lower panel. This prevented the spot weld drills from working as the panels were bound together and did not "pop" when the drill went through the top layer.
Filled all the holes from drilling the spot welds. I bought some sheet metal, cut it into small squares and stuck the squares behind the holes. I then welded the holes shut and grinded off the excess.
I cut out the rotted section and brought it to a local HVAC sheet metal shop. They made me up a nice 3 piece assembly that made life much easier.
The fabricated section needed a little hammering and trimming but worked out beautifully
This is my first time welding sheet metal, not pretty but functional.
The panel was then treated to a ton of seam sealer and several coats of por-15
I patched a couple spots on the top panel
ready to be welded on
welded on, seam sealed and sanded. I hit the part where the windshield rests with a belt sander to make sure a new windshield will sit flat against it. It did get a little bent when the panels needed to be pryed apart after drilling spot welds and may have warped a little bit in welding. I had to do a little bit of straigtening to it.
Support brackets welded on, I added a few extra welds around the perimeter for good measure.
...and more paint
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