I've been looking at a bunch of firewalls on pre-war style AV8s but can't get a good read on what color was preferred. I see either black or wimbledon white as the two choices so far, but I'd like to hear from the HAMB gallery. What say ye? And photo evidence definitely strengthens your case!
Well, my A coupe has a recessed fire wall. Most of it is body color and the inset/recess is a mirror-actually a polished stainless sheet that was used as a prison mirror. The photo is early in the mock-up phase-it looks better now.
Wimbledon white was my choice (please ignore the mini alternator). Though my car was targeted as a just postwar type build.
Are we talking "built pre war" or just "pre war" cars? My take is, this was not even a 15 year old car yet. The likelihood is that the original paint was still in use. I don't see a ton of evidence of firewalls being painted anything other than stock until after the war.
@5window Although you’ve done a great job with your firewall, I’m looking for firewall treatments for builds prior to WW2, which omits all OHV engines.
You kinda gotta get in the mindset of this car is 15 years old....not close to 100. I find myself doing that a lot. It's one of the reasons I like taking restored cars and hot rodding them. One day I'm gonna get my hands on a nice points show car and ruin the previous owners restoration
Brett, I really like a light color on the firewall, Wimbledon white is what I used on the Deuce pickup. If I had it to do over the black 32 fordor would have a white firewall, I think the lighter color just frames the engine. HRP
The Wimbledon White deal was geographical also. That was a California deal from what dad says. He never saw a white firewall in OK in person. Magazines only. I'm sure there are exceptions, but he was pretty involved from 55-76. With that said, I like it and a few of my cars have it.
If that's the time period you want, then what you have now would likely be what was run, as found. If you can find a copy of the book called "The Birth of Hot Rodding" you'll see what I mean. It's sitting on my coffee table right now and a lot of the cars in the book were not very showy at all, just rough beaters built to go faster around that time.
One of the hardest parts of building an early years look-a-like is you have to reset your work ethics and tool selection. Your normal kid-built street driven Hot Rod seldom ever seen a paint gun. Most cars came with Black motor compartments, and they just stayed that way. When I built my avatar, I couldn't make up my mind Black or White so I did both. I intended to carry the Checkerboard onto the underside of the hood but after doing the layout it took to do the firewall, I said Screw it!
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