Advice / help on removing panels

[Ash Gordon]

Hi,

I am about to start dismantling a donor car (105 coupe series II) and first point of call is removing the front qtr panels and nose cone.

I have heard these can come off in one entire piece, is this the case ?

What is the best way to unpick the panels?  Ideally without causing too much damage over drilling spot welds.

Thanks Ash

[Colin Byrne]

.  The trick is to get yourself a spot weld drill bit this is a drill that is almost flat at the end (looks very much like a mill cutter) bit has a very small point to allow it to centre.  They are actually pretty easy to make starting with a standard drill bit and a bench grinder, a short google search should show you the way.  Then its just a mater of finding the spot welds, sometimes hitting them with some sand paper helps, and punching a good mark in the centre with, you guessed it, a centre punch!

Just take it slowly it will take you a while to get all of the spot welds done, and the last thing you want to do is stretch any of the panels by pulling on them too much

all that said, if you don't care about the lower panel you can just use a normal drill and go straight though

hope that helps

[Craig_m67]

Like this >> http://australia.rs-online.com/web/p/centre-drill-bits/1821921/



... a sharp cold chisel helps to seperate the panels too if you're not too fussed about the edges.

[Ash Gordon]

Thanks guys, dropped into the local Gasweld tool shop and they had them - just need to decide between 6.5mm  or 8mm diameter .