TECH -- 28-29 Firewall

[Detonator]

After looking at that r-p/u at Circle City, this post is going to look totally circle jerk. But here ya go, amateur night in the garage. For those not familiar with the 28-29, the cowl splits above and below the gas tank. If your car isn't channeled, you can set your engine up so the dizzy slides in and out UNDER the top portion (and you don't have to pull the body apart to get it out...).

I'm running swing pedals, so I needed as shallow a firewall as possible, but I still needed to get around the dizzy. So I decided to step it.

First I made up some patterns...

[Detonator]

and some more patterns...

[Detonator]

When I'd dummied the whole thing up and got it to fit in poster board, I laid it out on 16 gauge and cut it out with a sabre saw. I clamped a guide down for the long straight cuts.

[Detonator]

I jumped ahead and forgot to shoot stuff, but after I cut the parts and pieces cut out, I bent 'em up on a brake and trial fit 'em again. Everything's kinda boxy and angular, but I realized this is waht sets the pros apart from the rest of us. They know how to do compound curves. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I had a bunch of those rivet screws so I used a combination of them and welding to stich it all together. It had to be pretty rigid with those pedals pushing on the firewall, -- and it is. The toeboards are bent right into the firewall pieces, they drop under and support the wooden floorboard.

[Detonator]

Plenty of clearance for the pedals. I'm starting on the column drop and the column mount on the floor tonight. Here's the front side.

[Detonator]

... and the whole car before I took it apart to do the firewall

[NealinCA]

Dave - Your rpu is looking good! Your firewall looks neat and tidy.

I know what you are saying about Jimmy White's 27, I didn't want to post my hackery after seeing that.

When you gonna roll that thing outside and take some pics? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Keep up the good work.

Neal

[Detonator]

Hey Neal -- I'm going to have to bite the bulet and get the thing out onto the street. Unfortunately my shop is down a steep driveway. It's a tow-job to get the car up and out someplace flat so I can stand back and look at it. I'm ready to start mounting the bed, so I'm just gonna have to do it...

Pretty amazing transformation on your truck...! I wish I had your fab skills, Neal. Just about everyhting I've made for the truck, I've made twice. Once to figure out all the ways I can fuck up, and the next to get a part I'm not totally embarrassed by http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[av8]

Very tidy and thoughtful work, Detonator. It's the level of work that will be appreciated years from now when a grandson, or granddaughter, becomes the steward of your hot rod and examines what the Detonator did and comes to better appeciate what you were all about. Our artisanship lives on beyond our time here and serves as evidence of how well and elegantly we solved problems.

I look forward to your next installment!

Mike

[NealinCA]

[ QUOTE ]
Just about everything I've made for the truck, I've made twice. Once to figure out all the ways I can fuck up, and the next to get a part I'm not totally embarrassed by http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

At least you recognize the need to make it right. I sometimes have a hard time spending the afternoon on a project, only to throw it in the scrap bin and start over. Practice makes perfect http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Neal

[zman]

All the tech to the top...