Drill and Hex wrench extension

As my tractor goes back together, I am repairing some long neglected body issues.

One of the hood panels is assembled from 2 panels spot welded together. Over its 68 years bouncing over fields, some of the welds have broken. The broken welds allow the panels to move, squeak and put more stress on the remaining weld spots. I wanted to put some machine screws and nuts in place of the welds, but I could not get a drill into the tight spot. I would like to have seen the welder get into there!!!!

I had two 12” extensions that accept 1/4” shank bits. Typically spade bits and used for roughing residential electrical wiring.

I found some 10-32 button head machine screws in my screw drawer that require 3/16 hole. Fig 1 shows the small adapter bushing I made to hold the 3/16 bit in the 1/4” extension.

Attachment 46013

Fig 2 shows the tight space I needed to work in. It took two extensions to get the drill in to a good spot

Attachment 46014

In Fig 3 the screws are installed. I discovered after drilling the first hole, my old hand was not able to get into that space to put the screws in or to work a wrench.

Attachment 46015

The adapter I made to hold the screws for installation, is shown in fig 4, along with the drill and adapter bushing

Attachment 46016

It is amazing how much those two small screws tightened up the panels.

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Thanks hemmjo! We've added your Drill and Hex Wrench Extension to our Drilling and Drill Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: hemmjo's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

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A good solution for a difficult repair.
yes many spotwelded panels seem to defy the logic of how they were made. Almost always with special tool attachments and or assembled in a particular order allowing for the difficult welds to be performed before being buried by another panel.