I wasn't sure if I should put this in ramblings section or in the tech section. I figure more will benefit here in tech, so I hope I don't bore too many old timers reading old news. I'm sure the old hands here that have done body repairs about forever have a few of these already around the shop. You guys just move on and leave us newbies to have the fun. For me, this was really quite the find and a tool I put off buying for quite a while. Okay, drumroll, bdrrr, bdrrr, bdrrr



This tool will punch holes in body sheet metal as fast as punching holes in paper and really with no more effort. When you're done, the metal is flat and the hole is round. The effort was minimal. Why would you care? Well, if you are installing patch panels, floors, quarters, dash pads and that sort of thing, they need to be welded in using plug welds. A plug weld is a connection done by welding the outer edge of a punched or drilled hole through the top panel to the panel below. Well, I lied a bit, the center is welded in first. Here's a photo of a few plug welds.



A plug weld works best if the panel is nice and flat and clamped tightly. That helps keep dirt and crud from entering the space later too. A drill, unless you work very carefully and slowly, rips through thin metal when you're nearly through. Then the panel needs to be worked flat again with a hammer and dolly. These welds are spaced every inch or inch and a half, so making a large number of nicely drilled holes in thin metal can take a while using a drill. Typically, if you drill the hole you will also need to hammer the metal flat after drilling. That is after drilling a pilot hole and sneaking up on the final size with several bit changes. With this punch, you position it on the panel and squeeze the handle, crunch, it's done. Mark all the positions with a marker first and I'll bet you'll make all the holes neat and nice in less than five minutes. The exception is holes needed more than an inch from the panel edge. There's not many of those but those will need to be hand drilled.

This punch is made by Roper Whitney. You can buy it directly from the manufacturer at www.roperwhitney.com Harbor Freight sells a similar punch for 1/3 the price. I haven't tried that one or the other imports but they may perform the same. This one is the cat's pajamas as far as I'm concerned and I highly recommend it to anyone who has more than a casual panel to replace.

One more thought... if you look in the photo, you'll see the blanks the tool left behind. If you have a small hole that needs to be filled in, you can drill it round with a step bit. Then set one of these plugs inside and tap it flat with your hammer for welding. It will expand into the hole large enough for you to weld it in. This will give a better result than trying to bridge one of those old 1/4" body shop pull holes with repeated triggers on your MIG.