Yea...I was thinking I might be able to just put back in a firewall without cutting it up inside...why a new cowl?...one think I noticed my firewall is smooth, not like a stocker with raised lines on it
oh...ok.got it...what about trimming the cowl where the hood rests and then just doing a flat smooth shell to cover all that "nincompoopery"...is that a word?
Your car, do what you want but I'd not cut the cowl dead smooth. If I were feeling frisky I might take it to the bead but not smooth. That's me though
Looks like the beaded area for the hood lacing and the recessed area between the lacing and the exterior of the body has already been removed. Will kind of make it hard to run a hood. Could source a cowl section and either replace the whole cowl or trim that area off the parts one and the firewall and replace yours to stock configuration and go from there. With the distributor on the front you don't have to worry about clearing one. The original 30 firewall projects forward about 1 1/2" so either a reversed on or a recess would work. Recess is probably easier to do, less areas to be modified. Isn't it fun building a hot rod? Canuck
I think you were looking at a different coupe...the white one is the firewall in question...It came with a hood...the grey one was used as a reference to trim the cowl...see pics of the white coupe in posts above
IMHO... I would get a new to you firewall, recess it and cut out all that plate inside. You might gain some foot room in the cab and it would clean it up. The void between your 2 firewalls look to be quite large.
I agree with heminh2o. You can still find nice 31 firewalls. If you get lucky you can find a nice late 31 firewall. Then, cut out only the clearance you need for your tranny to clear. I would whack that goofy metal plate (floor?) on the inside/firewall. Make a semicircular cut for your tranny clearance...not a hokey looking square cut. I'm running a small block and it's tight, we did not have to recesses, or even make a notch for the distributor. If I get time today I will send you a PM with photos.
You have more problems then just the firewall. Your front subframe feet are completely missing, this is your front body mount, which are pretty important. That needs to be rebuilt, I would fix those first, square up the body and adjust the door fit. On the fire wall, you could leave what is left of it there and fab up a lower section, with a recess to clear your engine. It depends how far back your SBC is set, some just require a bump for the distributor, sometimes for the valve covers. To take the old fire wall out there are a number of spot welds that will need to be drill out down each side. If you do get another Model A fire wall, I'd stick with a 30 early 31, the late 31 has the big indent on the right for a stock fuel shut off. which you don't need for a Hot Rod.
31A pickup , exactly. There's sooo much work in that cowl to bring it back, and its not easy work. It is on your knees cramped up under the dash with a door post in your ribs work. The kick panel and cowl feet give much strength to the cowl (which holds the doors) and what's not missing is buggared up with boiler plate. The plate is providing the strength and rigidity to the cowl. Cutting it out will likely leave a door sagging jellow like mess.Providing one can cut it loose with out destroying what's left of the henry stuff there. That's why I said don't touch the inside stuff or get another cowl. One needs to look at where they are & where they need to be then evaluate what's needed to get there. I see two windshield post cuts and 2 subrail cuts & a cowl swap being the simplest way to make that better. Occam's razor http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/model-a-cowl-w-gastank.957003/
HAMBer 31VICKY WITH A HEMI is correct. Certainly the lesser of two evils at this point. Unfortunately, your cowl is pretty hacked up. Mark, are you pretty good with a welder?
My buddy Larry who is helping me with this project is the better welder...he will do all the important structural stuff on the car...we are suppose to meet at my shop tonight to work on the frame boxing...hes not a model A expert, but a lifelong mechanic/builder, so I think we will be ok on this thing...never expected all this mess when I first started!
I looked better under the car last night when were doing frame work...there has been a set of body mounts added near the firewall to compensate for the hacked up originals....the real firewall, or original one, what is left, is behind the white one, which is a piece of this sheetmetal covering the original...so theres an inner an outer wall...but the orig firewall is chopped up real bad, so after we get the front suspension under the car, we will begin the firewall journy...we will cut the floor for starters and go from there...Speedon has sent me some great pics and instructions of how he did his 31, so that will be a huge help!...but first things first...still replacing the crappy mustang II
Could you share the pics Speedon sent you? I'm watching this build and was looking for all the firewall info I can find. Thanks and good luck! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Did this one many years back on a 30 Tudor. Made it out of 1/8" steel with recess. Band followed the original cowl. Covered it with 18ga. Stainless steel. I was running a 327 with a 400 turbo. Only pictures I could find right now.
same car-Caddy covers are" El Fake-o"- and look at the front crossmember-looks like the radiator got pushed forward ( and it's got a mag which is a smaller diameter).Tight squeeze in an "A" no matter how you put an 8 cyl. in.Give a little, take a little! It is a Caddy-ERROR! Pay attention, Mike!
I'm gonna go with a stock chevy distributer which is much smaller than the upgrade distributer I now have..I will probably run a coil and give it that "old School " look...when I put on the tri-power, I'm gonna add the oil filler back into the manifold...and run closed valve covers with external breathers...that will help with the look as well... But I already welded my xmember into a stock position, so I will probably still have to modify the firewall
That there my friend is definitely a caddy motor, everything matches up, heads, intake, water pump, dizzy, front motor mounts. itd have to be a extremely good cover up
And just from my little experience, as long as I can get a hold of original 32 firewalls I'll keep using them in 30/31's, its too perfect
Yea..agreed its a caddy..but I was saying that caddy or chevy, they both sport a distributor in the back of the block, unlike ford thats in the front...my question is how they squeezed a motor like that in that coupe without cutting into the firewall
Gotcha, and Im not sure unless they lengthened the frame, check out boling brothers, they have some good examples of tight fits. and y blocks are big too!
I suspect they moved the front xmember forward. No radiator support rods and the extra space between radiator and fan looks like more than you could expect in a Model A with any V8.
The Jalopy Journal
