Unpicking spot welds?

Hey guys, I need to take a panel off of a mini (slight o/t) But the english like to weld every panel onto there cars to keep costs down.
My question is, whats the best way to get spot welds undone with minimal damage to the panel it's welded to?
Ive heard of a drill bit designed to do just that, but some times I mistake my thought of "Wouldn't it be good if they had..." for things which realy exist.
Thanks.

 

yea... you just gotta drill the spot welds out, a little bigger doesn't hurt either.

 

They do make a special drill bit for taking JUST the top layer off when you drill the welds out. Saves the metal on the under side so you have something to weld your NEW panel onto

 

Eastwood, others sell a spot weld cutter. Small holesaw about 1/4" diameter with a 1/8 drillbit attached. Drill thru the center of the spotweld, the mini holesaw cuts thru the top layer of sheetmetal. Cheap, works well. If you use a larger drill bit leaves a hole the size of the spotweld in both panels. Buy a couple of them, they are cheap.

 

If you don't need to save the top panel, you can grind thru the top panel at the weld location with a 3" X 1/4" stone on a die grinder. This is one of the fastest methods, and the most common in the body shop. With care and some practice, you can do little or no damage to the bottom panel.

 

You can grind your own bit. Just take a 3/16 or 1/4" drill bit and grind the lips of the drill (on a grinding wheel) so they are just about flat (like and end mill)and then grind the dead cnter almost to a sharp point. It looks just like the tool sold by Eastwood and works fine. I drilled about 100 spot welds with the ones I made. Easier if you drill a small 1/8' pilot hole in the center of the spot weld as it makes cutting easier.

 

The way I do them is with a 1/8" cut off wheel in a die grinder.
And before I start I mark all the places where the spot welds are with a Sharpie, so I can easely see them through my Face shield.
When you grind away one layer of sheetmetal like that you can see by the way the metal heats up from grinding exacly where the welds are.
If the lower layer is the one I will be welding from, I just take a 1/4" and drill through both layers, after predrilling with a 1/8 bit.( that way I have a row of holes for the rozette welds...)