During the floor clean up process, I was cleaning up the firewall also. I thought using a G-body firewall plate was a great way to clean up the firewall. My favorite cars are those with really nice, aesthetically clean engine bays. I wanted a smooth the firewall, but still keep the stock function of nearly all the accessories (minus the air conditioning).
Many of you know just how large and cumbersome looking the air conditioning box from GM is on the G-body. Very functional, but very unappealing. It was removed from the car. So, the passenger side clean up was easy – build a g-body firewall plate. There are several sources that one can purchase a close-out panel for the air conditioning box, but it was cheaper to construct one from scratch using a thicker gauge steel. I made a pattern using cardboard and transferred the dimensions.
The rest of the firewall took a lot of hammer and dolly work to make it smooth.
The driver side of the car was mostly left untouched. Small items like straightening edges, making a close out panel for the stock wire harness and reapplying seam sealer was performed. The center section of the firewall had many spot welds, dimples and screw holes. These were all addressed during the hammer and dolly work phase. Also, there is an area near the transmission tunnel that was reshaped to be more symmetrical. This just took time to get it right.
The one item that finished off the look I wanted was purchased from G-Force crossmembers ( www.crossmembers.com ). The drip rail tray (part # DT100) looks and fits great! (Thanks again Dave!) I highly recommend this product if you want to use a hood seal, or if you want to fill in the negative space that remains when you smooth the passenger side using a firewall plate.
Once the firewall was smoothed, it was left alone until painting the door jambs and replacing both rockers at the body shop. It was finish prepped and final painted at that time.
Notice the center area of the firewall – even after the clean up, it looks like a mess…
This was fun. I really enjoyed the hammer and dolly work it took to smooth and reshape everything.
The G-body firewall plate was made from a heavier gauge steel than the GM sheet metal. Notice the negative area directly above the plate though, this draws the eye in. It is very race car looking, and not exactly the look we were going for.
The semi-smoothed firewall with a continued drip rail finishes the look. When painted and with the seal on top, it appears very symmetrical vs. just a block off plate.
Sneak peak at the frame in some of the later pics. I will show the finished product after the body shop work in my next post. Then its on to the frame-work that was being done.
Thanks for following www.HotRodRegal.com
-Matt