Me and my buddy Ed started to Mod the firewall in my Model A and thought this would be a decent tech article. 31 Model A pickup, 1957 283 Chevy, 39 trans with a Speed Gems adapter. A lot of times we get wrapped up in a project and forget to take pics. The result is some pics of the completed project and the "how to" gets lost. Explanition is good but pics are worth a thousand words so we kept the camera out. Here's where I'm at so far, I will update this as it moves along until its done. I started by figuring out where I needed to cut the firewall for clearance while it was still in the cowl. Pulled the firewall, cut it, taped poster board to the backside and traced the opening. I wanted the new piece of metal to have as few seams as possible. I tried to lay it out so it would be mostly bends instead of welded seams and the bulk of it would be one piece of metal. It will need a s***ch here and there. When I lay it out on metal I will leave the bottom exra long until I figure out where the firewall and the floor meet. It will also need a small hump to clear the bellhousing. The lines and arrows drawn on the friewall in soap stone are areas that need to be cut out still. I accounted for them on the pattern.
Well, here's todays progress. I sprayed a sheet of .060 steel with machinists blue dye, laid the pattern out and traced it. The cut it out and took the burrs off. I left the bottom extra long until I figure out the floor intersection. It was hot today so didn't get much done. Now to figure out a way to bend it all.
D-Russ, that firewall is beautiful. I'm almost ready to do the same to my coupe. Is there a thread that would teach a dumb-*** how to make those pretty corners from a flat piece of metal? Perhaps another thread? (I don't want to take away from this one)
Looking good. I know what you mean about figuring a way to make all of those bends without the ones you made already getting in the way of the ones you still have to do. When I was doing the firewall and tunnel on my rpu project I had to give some thought to what bends to make first so that I could still slip the piece into the brake without the bent parts not fitting in there. On a few bends I had to make a "brake" by clamping flat stock to either side of the sheet metal, and holding them firmly in place with vicegrips. They came out ok that way, not as crisp as if the brake did them, but a little hammer and dolly work got them acceptable. Looking forward to following your progress on this one. Don
Here's another option that kinda looks original but in reverse,this is on a 31 tudor so theres still plenty of leg room with the extra engine setback.
It didn't match the lines in the firewall like that but in the 70's my buddy used a small wheelbarrow to make the setback for engine clearance.
The Jalopy Journal
