Hi guys

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO Y'ALL!


I have this 84 Trans Am air cleaner lid with the hole in it and it's starting to rust. I want to do a major cleanup. But I can't get this damn thing separated to get to the rust in between. I guess the two dishes are welded together in the middle.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get the small inner dish off the outer one without bending it?

 

Have you tried using a heat gun to separate them?

 

Thanks! Yes I tried that but nothing happened. Also tried wiggling and heating with soldering flame. I fear that I will warp the metal if I go to acetylene.
Maybe I just try to bore it out

 

Yeah I'd be worried about applying too much heat to it and warping it. Only other thing I can think of is maybe to let it sit in some kind of solvent or penetrant overnight.

 

That could be something. Gonna try that before drilling. Thanks!

 

Thought I tell you what I ended up with: I tried with acetone with no luck. So I had to drill it open. Unfortunately the two dishes would separate only at 20 mm, so the hole now is considerably bigger. I covered it with two 1 inch washers that I glued together with 2K glue.

Funny thing is, if you look at the pics, Pontiac actually welded the two blank dishes together and spray painted the assembly only after that. So the inner dish wasn't covered with paint and apparently started rusting badly...



Here are the dishes after sand blasting:



Finished, after bondo, primer and two coats of matte black.



I'm not going to fix the dishes together but rather keep them apart. They hold up fine on the air cleaner like that.

Thanks for all the help!

 

That is really strange, mines were separate and I've never seen them welded. Though it does make sense to keep them together otherwise the air cleaner is usless without the inner plate.