Wheel house removal

[Ryan_M]

I've thrown in the towel on trying to salvage my M38 wheel houses. The metal is just too delicate. I've patched quite a bit but in looking at the holes still left to attack near the corner seam I'm cutting my losses here and have ordered new wheel house tops from Walcks.



What's the best way to remove the spot welds where the wheel house attaches to the rear quarter panel? Access seems easiest if I drill from outside the tub inward. Would the drilled holes give me something to line up and plug weld the new tops with? If so, do I even need to bother with a spot weld cutter or can I just use a regular drill bit?

Or, should I use the spot weld cutter from the inside and try not to poke holes in the quarter panel? Looks like it would be tough to get a straight shot with the spot weld cutter without a very long extension.

[Bob W]

You just need to do a lot of planning before you begin. A spot weld cutter will make better holes than a regular drill bit. Typically the holes you drill will be where you plug weld it back together. A plug weld will need to be touched up with the grinder if you are concerned about the appearance. If the welds are inside it will be difficult to grind them but if you don't care about looking original they can be left alone. Welds on the outside are easy to grind.

[athawk11]

I have found that the spot welds are a little easier to find on the inside.� Access was reasonable from the inside, but I used a Dewalt drill bit.� The cutter may have different challenges I'm not aware of.� I cut from the inside so the exterior side of the panel would need less work to look clean and flat.� Honestly, I think you'll have success from either side.

If you need to clean up the welds on the inside, using the edge of a cutting wheel in your grinder works pretty well.� Just gently trim away the excess with light back and forth motions.

Once in the tight radius, I switched to a die grinder with a small cutting wheel.� Hind sight...Back there, welding and grinding will be easier from the outside.� It gets pretty tight back there.

Tim

[Ryan_M]

Great advice, thanks guys.

I removed the left side wheel house last night. I ended up using a combination of a spot weld cutter and a drill bit, depending on what there was for access. The cutter definitely left a cleaner hole but was a little more finicky than the drill bit. It was able to get most of the welds from inside but ended up going back and drilling clean holes through the tub anyways.  I'm going to install the new wheel house before I remove the one on the other side. Depending on how tough it is to install may dictate my method for removing the other one. I've never replaced a panel of any kind before so this is all new territory.