building a firewall

[izzy]

My firewall was pretty bad so I cut it out and changed things up a little, my question is the orig one was stamped out with the .750 flange all the way around that was spotwelded to the cowel how do I put this flange on my replacement firewall. Do I spot weld a piece to the inside all the way around and the but weld a band to that that carrys all the curves and gets spotwelded to the cowel, not sure

 

[skull]

pics

pics of what your'e trying to do would help.

are you putting in a recessed area?

for mine l used a wheelbarrow for the recess to clear my heads/engine block.

Later

 

[donsrods]

That would be my choice, Izzy. I would cut some 18 gauge the same exact shape as the firewall opening, then take some 3/4 inch wide steel strap, even like 1/16 thick, and bend it to the outside shape of the new firewall you made. You could then slip it in and rosette weld it in place or even use button head bolts and nuts all around.

It will be a lot of welding and grinding, but if you want to make the firewall removable that would be the way to go. If you don't care about it ever being removable you can simply make the 18 gauge as big as the outside lip on the body and solidly weld in in place.

Don

 

[izzy]

thanks Don, I was just looking at it for about an hour and overthinking the problem.

 

[bkvail]

I saw on a youtube video where a guy made the flange on a new firewall by cutting 2 pieces of plywood the shape of the finished firewall, then cutting the sheetmetal the same size plus the extra 3/4" around the edge for the flange. He clamped the sheetmetal between the plywood and then shaped the flange around the edge.

 

[donsrods]

That actually works really well the way you describe it, bkvail. We just did that to reshape the lower sections of the firewall I made for the rpu I am building. We made a buck out of a piece of 2 x 4 that we shaped with a grinder, clamped it to the sheet metal, and used body hammers to form the metal over the wood. It worked easier than I would have imagined.

That is another great option for making a flange around the edge of izzy's firewall.

Don

 

[izzy]

thaks guys but the firewall and the 37 just got put on the back burner till spring ( I hope). I am going to throw some pat and assemble a spitfire mk3 this winter for my old uncle. He is getting up there in years so he can do the work needed to paint an put back together so I will. My other uncle passed this early spring and he had a 34 ford he had for a very long time and his car club held a criuse for him this summer, so I will try to get the spitfire together so his brother (my uncle) can drive it out there for the next cruise. We had a long talk a few days ago and he really lit up talking about the one he had in the mid 60"s so, you know you have to do ehat you have to do