Guys Would like to get some advise on welding a firewall to a 32 ford Body. I have seen where many builders do this to create more strength in the body. What do you do about the space that was taken up orignally by the cowl seal? I have my coupe sitting with the firewall clamped in place and the feet of the fiewall won't touch, do you extended them use a spacer or what?. How about the change in width? by cowl sides touch the frame when you do this, I realize I can trim them but it's cetianly narrower. The 1st picture is from Fastlane's gallery and a firewall welded in. The 2nd and 3rd are of my car with the firewall clamped in place . Thanks Mike
i've built 7.... yes seven.....1932 fords and have never welded the firewall into the body. i think the stock setup is fine i'm sure others will have different opinions
Ideas on the best way to deal with the body firewall to floor connection ? To this point I have setup everything with the seal in place, all gaps fit this way.
bolt the firewall to the frame , the body sort of clamps around it , then make up some bolt in floor/toe boards and a transmission tunnel
Sometimes you might have to manipulate the body loop into position to bolt it in place but bolting the body down on top of the firewall is how Henry did in and it works. HRP
LISTEN TO THIS MAN !!!!!!! I Agree completely !,... If you weld it in you will be removing a LOT of your body adjustment !......
The only time I have welded it in is when I used a Schroeder steering box. And that was for the extra rigidity and stability. If you don't need that I wouldn't do it.
Caution...DO NOT WELD the firewall in the coupe. I did it on my three window and was sorry. You can do as mentioned above to tighten up the gaps.
Well fk it,i did mine! Ran a length of 5mm x 25mm strap in place of the rubber. Drill decent size holes in it and plug welded it to the firewall. Then did the same to attach the cowl to the strap. It made a huge difference to the strength of the body. It also helps to maintan the gaps. I don't know why people think there is loads of adjustment in the bottom bolts to chassis,they really just tighten up the rubber. The n=body is easy enough to shim to get good gaps.
Mine still has the orig rubber gasket but the lower back of the legs are welded to floor parts, as well as new plates that fill those side gaps near the feet on the inside. I needed to find a way to get a strong lower floor/metal toe board, and fill those two channels just to the outside of the toe board. The stock setup was only used for one year...so maybe Henry knows best
I have been fortunate enough to have nice solid firewalls and body's so I have no reason to do it any other way than how they left the factory,,I didn't take in consideration if a guy is working with Swiss Cheese or non existing sheet metal. HRP
I bought a solid Cal firewall, but I wanted a front floor like a 50s car. Solid from rocker to rocker, and from firewall to tailpan, and all welded in, but with just a small trans cover screwed down. My subrails are all hand built and everything kind of acts like a unibody, if you took the body off. It is stronger than stock for sure, and no need to deal with all the screwed in panels all over a 32 front floor.
This is the reinforced floor that we built for my Deuce pickup,,the firewall fits normally,,and I used screws to attach the toe boards to the firewall. I just works for me. HRP
^nice job. I don't see very well, how is the structure in "red", attached to the rockers and the rest of the subframing?
Like HRP's setup ... my 32 3W has a nice 32 Firewall non welded but I do have a metal fabricated floor. The floor is welded in ... but the firewall is just bolted in as original. My 32 roadster is done the same way ...
Well the floor is all scratch built and welded to the body,,the small piece in the cowl section is all welded in place. We made the seat riser to replace the original gas tank,,there was no floor bracing from the riser forward. HRP
My 5 window was channeled and all the sub rails were destroyed and we hand built the subrails and welded everything, the firewall,floor and toe boards. That was 147,000 miles ago. If I had a good body I wouldnt have done it but it has worked good.
Here is my toe and trans cover area. I needed to make room for the early Olds/Caddy extended bell engine block, but that would be pretty difficult to blend into a removable unit. So, it was easier for me to mold the bell hump into the firewall lower edge and make it all part of the toe setup. There is a 3/4 x 1.5 tubing crossmember right behind the removable hump, as well as twin, same size tubing running along both sides of that hump. Also, but not shown in pic, is the random gap areas at the lower edge of the cowl sides, and a gap between the firewall feet and the cowl. It just seemed logical to make it all welded solid, to deal with all those areas. The car was 8" channeled, and not much to copy from...so I just said screw it. "it's just a beat-up old hot rod"
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