I hate you..I hate you..I hate you...... Well it will get better when I am done. I'm 45+ spotwelds drilled and still not halfway done. I have one corner piece off and am working on the Cowl top now. Down the left side and not even half way across the bottom of it. Still have the windshield in for now until last minute. (my sons car sits outside, no garage to work in) Seriously, glad you posted that how to article. It's not taking as long as I though but with 90+ degree days I'm working a few hours at a time. PS. there is a Grabber I think a 72 near me for sale. Rust in doors, fenders, Q panel, dents in doors, fenders, Q panels, someone put a sun roof in (they never came with sun roofs did they?) driver side inside door panel missing, rust on front lip of hood, rear spoiler has cracks in it, 302, auto, It's in pretty sad shape but thought if I could pick it up cheap enough I would use some parts and sell some. But the guy wants 1,500 for it. May be a good deal for someone but not what I want it for
fun isn't exactly the word I had in mind. Did I mention I hate that person who did that article? LOL Of course when I am done I'll love him (not like that... not that there's anything wrong with that) LOL OK too much Seinfeld. 79 welds drilled out and counting. I'm all the way across the bottom to the other corner cover piece. That comes off next then the welds under that, Then take the windshield out and go across the top. I better find money under there!
I never counted. Well over 100 welds drilled by the time I was done tho I'm sure, and we used an air chisel to finish the job. I don't know if I'd do that again tho, bent the remaining steel a bit, and I had to straighten it back out, so that took more time than drilling the welds would have.
K, I have another idea on doing this repair. Have not tried it yet, but will document what I do, could be so simple, or could be I am an idiot. Going to try this on my grabber. Will let you all know one way or the other. Dan
If you found the article on MaverickComet.com, then it was mine. Don't hate me...I probably was not even born yet when someone at Ford decided to not make the inside of the cowl areas on these cars rust resistant! I feel your pain about working outside...when I did mine I did it in February up here in Michigan before I had a garage and it was mighty cold. My biggest advice is don't overrev the drill and make sure you use cutting oil. I committed both sins at first and burned up my expensive Eastwood spot weld cutter. There are no two ways about it, it is a crappy job...but once you have repaired it right and put it back together it is a great feeling having the peace of mind that you won't have to worry about the inside of the cowl rusting out after putting all the time and $$ in the rest of the body work and paint...
Mark, it probably was your post and no I don't hate you. I'm hating my descision to get my son this car for his first car though. : ) I bought my spot weld drill at NAPA and the weak link was the little retracting pin, it keeps getting stuck in. I drilled out the hole slightly and added some lube on the pin. The biggest thing that helped speed wise so far was drilling pilot holes ( no not all the way through) just enough to keep the pin from walking on curved surfaces. I'm counting about 96 holes so far but that counts some where I was a bit off and didn't get the full weld on the first hole. I have all the welds drilled I can get to without taking the windshield out. I'm drilling a couple holes out then taking a screwdriver and working it underneath as I go to make sure I am completely free. Today the windshield comes out and the rest get drilled. Hopefully I will get the rust coated with Rust bullet then fiberglassed. while I have the heater core and box out I will try to coat some underneath with rust bullet also. I will use a weld through primer on it around the edges also but I still have some concerns about all those spot welds. I will seam seal it from the outside but still from inside the cowl there will be a lot of unprotected spot welds and I am trying to figure out how to protect those. Any ideas?
I actually did the same thing...used weld through primer on the edges. At the time I bought the spot weld adapter for a "stick" type arc welder from Eastwood but never ended up using it(anyone want to buy it? ). I ended up having my dad MIG weld the cowl top back on. I then used a die grinder and a Dremel to smooth the MIG welds somewhat. I put a couple coats of POR 15 over the top of all the welded areas for good measure. I was very pleased with the results and it is just about impossible to tell that the cowl was ever taken apart. For what it's worth here is a link to some pictures with comments I took during the cowl removal: http://www.maverickcomet.com/TechArticles/RemoveCowl/RemoveCowl.asp Here are some pictures of the repair and reattachment: http://www.maverickcomet.com/TechArticles/CowlRepair/CowlRepair.asp
I used a punch to center the bit, until then I broke the spot weld bit teethe like mad. The retracting pin, I found if you hit it on the side of the bit, most of the time it knocks it back out. WD40 just made more grit and metal shavings stick to the pin and it got stuck worse. When I got my replacement cowl, I took a grinder to the metal on the underside of the cowl rather than a spot weld bit, took less time, less precision and had better results, but the bottom piece I removed was the cut piece from the firewall from the donor car, so it was completely useless to me. If you are going to replace the entire cowl rather than repair it, hitting the welds carefully with a grinder is much faster.
well, I was over 100 holes counting the corner pieces and some extra holes where I missed a part of the weld first time. Top is off first layer of glass mat installed and I will put a second layer over my big holes. On the drivers side I had a hole big enough to put a football through. I had my son hold the insulation up so I would have something to keep the fiberglass from sagging. Second layer goes on today then a final gel coat, followed by a grinding around the edges so I have good surface for spot welds zinc weld through primer around the edges and maybe, if the weather holds I can start spot welding it back on today
