so..moved up to the front firewall and have all the usual unsightly 50 thousand holes in it....was thinking of taking a piece of 18g s/m and..make a template and weld it in ...all around the the flat part of the wall..then i can just put holes where i need them......GOOD OR BAD IDEA????
if you are into the details and are just covering the firewall, not removing the old and replacing then you will be able to see all the factory holes from the inside. I personally would just weld up all the holes, I think factory firewalls looks better (more traditional) than say a "*****in" firewall replacement where its completely smooth. But its your ride. Post some pics man.
I filled all my holes. It wasn't that bad. I think it looks better the putting a piece of sheetmetal over the whole thing. Todd
Listen to this man. All the work we have done on our 51 was because some a**hole used floor pans over rusted floor pans and just for fun, another floor pan under the now 2 rusted floor pans.....it was a mess...Oilslinger knows of what he speaks
^^^what they said, cars sweat and there is no way your going to be able to treat every inch of bare metal once you weld em together. Either fill the holes you got or cut the old one out and weld a new one in...if your gonna take the time to do it, do it right...
I've put in more than a few hours fillin holes on a customers 52 Chevy fire wall it was woth it in the end, an original look but clean. Thats how I would go.
I've made some firewalls with 16 ga. or 18 ga. steel. You really need to build some strength into the sheet metal so it doesn't buckle or oil can. A bead roller can make nice designs and strengthen it up as well. I've also used wheel barrows to make the surround for the engine, but it's harder to find them in steel, and the right size. A nice detail if you do weld in a new engine surround, whether a wheel barrow or fabricated, is to hammer in a 1/2 radis into the firewall, and the setback where they meet. So you don't have any sharp edges, and you are welding on a curved section, instead of the flats. So less warpage, and it looks more like factory. If you cut out the original firewall, be sure to tack weld in some support before you do. I did a 48 Chevy without doing it (didn't cut out the entire firewall, so I thought it would be OK) and the center dropped a bit, and had to be jacked up after the new on was put in, after we put the hood on and saw it wasn't right!
I used two pieces on the p***enger side and welded them, leaving the "thin spot" for future AC use where the firewall has a horizontal raised area, half way up. I made two removable panels for the driver side. If I could go back, I would have cut pieces to fit and just filled the holes.
Go to your local metal supply house, here we have Metal Super Market and they sell by the foot, buy a piece of br*** stock say 1" x 1/8" x 12" and make a slight bend at 1" in from one end and on the other make a handle using thin wood or such to form a heat barrier. With the tool a buddy gets in the cab and backs up the hole to be welded and with your mig you perform a rosette style weld filling the hole! The inside is nice and flat, the outside needs a little grinding and sanding to fill and hide hole! We used this method to fill 69 holes in my '47 Chevy firewall. The larger holes we made plugs for but still used the br*** to prevent blowthru and to hold the plug in place. Worked very well. Infact, I took a magnet and a length of flat strap and attached a 1" x 2" piece of br*** stock to it to make one man hole backup. I think Eastwood now sells something like it, but for $ 10.00 for the piece of br***, I think both my tools work well!
Fill in the holes in my opinion! Easy and clean! Before During After Im happy with the results and stock is good! Ian
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