Anyone ever replaced the entire firewall?
 

I'm getting ready to replace the entire firewall down to the top of my floor pans on my Camaro. Anyone ever done it? How bad of a pain is it? Any advice?

Thanks

I did a skin but I wish I would have just removed the old one now. Seems easy enough now that Im done,lol

The firewall itself is ok, but the top part of the floor is rusted through. I figure I should just do it while it's torn apart.

What sucks is...I'm putting on a nice new firewall and then I'm going to skin and smooth it. BUT..I will know for 100% that everything is good with it.

Anyone know if Goodmark's complete firewall part#4020-370-683 includes the front body/subframe mounts? The pic shows it from the inside.

Hey Keith, it sounds like you want to put a stock type firewall in? If you consider a sheet metal flat firewall I have some pics of my car I did, not a camaro though. JR

Yeah sure.. Post em up! Let's see em

Ok. Well, the pics I have are ugly, during the fabrication part, none of my hack jobs are pretty during the process. But the end result is strong and looks good. Like I always say, you dont want to watch your house being remodeled. On a frame up restoration of a car you at least get to remove enough of the old metal and junk (dirt, grease, insulation, fillers) to make some really nice lines and the build up looks good. On mine I had to work around all the old perimeters of the old firewall. LOL Ok enough of my excuses for an ugly build :) The final product came out pretty good IMO. JR

PICS......

This was my first attempt. I was low on money and skills. But I knew I didnt need alot of the extra holes in the firewall. And my downfall was I didnt have a plan. Thats kinda outta necessity, no money for the project so I whittled away at it as money came and went. So early on, back in 1995 (Im still working on the car, havent driven it yet!!!) I just wanted to clean it up as best as I could. In this pic there were alot of small factory holes welded up, a couple of crudely shaped panels to block off old accessory holes. I even went as far to rattle can some ford blue paint (what I had, money was REALLY tight) over the entire firewall. And really, it looked great, a decent paint job melts the firewall into one shape, on piece, it looked good. But I dont have that pic either.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...firewall/1.jpg

So then I needed a new tranny tunnel, new tranny, new tunnel. So I used a plasma cutter, abrasive cutoff wheels, sawzall, jig saw, grinder and anything else I could use to remove the firewall to the furthest points without harming the metal I wanted to keep. I made a template from heavy poster board and cut out a sheet of 16ga mild steel. Tacked it in place then fully welded all the seams. It was ugly at first. But after getting a solid seal with weld material, several steps of welding and grinding the panel was solid and the seam looked good, no plastic filler, yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...firewall/2.jpg

I needed to make my trans tunnel before I could see where to make the final cut. All the newspaper and tape is there to keep from cutting the nylon straps on the sheetmetal. After pressing the tunnel into the shape I wanted I had to use the straps to keep it there when I removed it from the press. Otherwise it will just spring out when the press was let loose.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...rewall/2-5.jpg

Making the tunnel.

Compound curve in 16ga steel isnt easy. So I pressed and squeezed and pushed :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...el/tunnel1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...el/tunnel2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...el/tunnel3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...el/tunnel4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...firewall/3.jpg

And then I must have lost my camera, cause I cant find any pics from that raw looking firewall to where it is now. Might have been around the transition from film to digital Hahaha. Yeah, this project is so old it has transitioned an entire photography era.

But all I have for the finished firewall are some hard to see pics after the engine was dropped in. And as you can see, she isnt done yet. This was after the cam run in. Got sidelined from the engine compartment to the suspension build up. Got lots of great pics of that though LOL

Hard to see the firewall pics :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...s%20Nova/2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...va/drivers.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...a/passside.jpg


So anyway. Wish I had more to show. Like right before I dropped the engine in. But those were the film days, processing wasnt cheap. But I woulda thought I would have at least taken one shot. Maybe it was blurry who knows. And really, its not a show quality job. I never intended for this car to be that, I dont have the money. But I did want a solid car, one that wouldnt rattle, rust or was ugly. Major gap between ugly and show :)