I can think of a couple ways to fix this. Can i hear more ideas?
You can see that there are 4 weld impressions. 3 have pulled a hole in the firewall.
Tape & mask window. Wire brush to metal. Tack weld left side, tack weld right side. Careful with heat due to window. Fit lid. Good? Hit with 2K epoxy rattle can. Unmask window. Refit lid. Done.
It will need to be patched. Most of the time the spot welds just pop.
Now it's a time vs. money thing.
Is the engine in the car ?
I don't have a car to look at right now. Will there be enough room for the lid to open with a bolt in the hinge?
I wouldn't second guess Cary as he obviously knows his stuff. The proper long term repair would be to cut, patch, reweld, and address any additional rust on the firewall.
The tack method, though, would be a quick fix for a driver and would be easily reversible if/when you decide on a more permanent repair. You'll need to remove the rear window for anything more significant than a tack weld as the heat could crack it and/or cause the butyl to melt/catch fire (although it kind of looks like your window might be urethaned in?). RD has the hinge bracket available cheap and you could do a thorough repair when the time is right.
http://www.restoration-design.com/store/product/PP343
The spot welds on my driver side hinge gave way and I can speak to the effectiveness of two little tacks in working long-term.
How about doing a combo of your two ideas. Lets use the bolt to pull the skin and the hinge back to the firewall, then weld the sides. 3 to 4 tacks on each side. Let the metal cool to the touch between each weld. Then one tack on the top.
Then get a can of EverCote brush-on seam sealer, remove the bolt and nut and seal it up.
Then at a later date do the proper cut out and new hinge bracket.
looks like cary's combo idea might be the way to go. I was planning on leaving the bolt, but this area of the firewall is doubled. So i can't cinch the bolt down tight like I wanted to do since it is double walled. Everything will collapse. everything below the visible tack welds is single wall.
Damn. When my kids sell the car, I will tell them to blame it on the PO.
You might want to pull out the pad behind your seats too. BTDT.
I'm referring to the interior pad & not the one in the engine well.
Interesting. My "73 has no adhesive. In fact, I was able to buy a brand new interior pad from Porsche.
BTW, the spot or tack welds just popped on one of the brackets without damaging the sheet metal. I had a shop bead weld both brackets around their edges. I guess I was lucky.
Well I finally got around to finishing this project. As recommended I tacked a few places then re=fit the lid. Here is the pre-fit tack job.
That ended up taking some time. My bolts were stripped. Once I got that straight everything fit and I tacked and tacked and tacked.....
Good enough for driving to Walmart....
That dog will hunt ...............
Mask it off and spray with Rustoleum of your choice.
I just ran into this problem too. Looks like it's been repaired before. How do you take the old ones off to put new ones on?
Drill out those spot welds with a spot weld bit. Use a chisel or old screw driver and a hammer to break what's left of the welds and get it off the firewall, but try to be careful not to tear the firewall itself. Grind off what's left.
Hey, I had the same problem with my hinge cracked across the middle which prevented the deck lid from opening smoothly, so I used a little back yard ingenuity.
What is did was go to Homer Depot, and found an L-bracket, that would fit over the nut head in the middle, cut it to length, and welded it in, would have included a photo, but my welding skills, are not the best, then painted it.
Looks as though it will hold, there is no longer any sag in it, and it seems to be fairly sturdy. I will know when I get it all back to together. As, I am working on my megasquirt setup.
Just my 2cents
here's my technique using a piece of "L" bracket. Cut a corner off of it (or use any metal bit) as a gusset and weld it onto both sides of the hinge bracket. the long screw was used as the ground for the welding and to put tension on the bracket to close the gap of the cracks. I did not want to have to try to weld a new bracket onto thin metal or lose the placement of the OEM bracket. [attachmentid=746145] This was my second repair of the existing hinge bracket from 6 months earlier. for the first repair, I welded at the cracked joints, but the hinge flexed and cracked the welds. The current repair is solid and does not flex anymore.
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