47-55.1 Two Steps back. My high school chevy 1950 3100

[Roust]

Actually, I think I did THIS part first before doing the inner kick panel. Oh well

Here is my attempt at killing two birds with one stone. I asked that the passenger side louvers be removed and my "metal" guy certainly put his touch to it. So, I wanted to remove and replace the panel he put in the louver's place. I also wanted to remove that gap between the cowl and the upper cab "cap" area so that I didn't have to mess with lead or a large amount of filler. and I also wanted to removed the damage from there the passenger side mirror was. My solution was to just replace all that with one panel.

I used blue tape to make a template and then started cutting out some metal.


I am still working on controlling my cutting to keep the gaps between the original metal and my patches down to as little as possible. I am still struggling with that. But nothing a little bird turd can't fix!


Grind it down and all that. I ended up with lows where the welds are, but I don't want to risk making the original sub straight too thin, so I will have to settle for some body filler.


I missed something!
I didn't notice that there was a crown on the damn panel. Well to be fair there was no crown on the original as it was hacked to ****.
I can try to hammer it out a bit, or..... FILLER!!!!
here is a contour gauge highlighting the missing shape from drivers' side to passenger side.


0.113" off


I will admit I am a little pissy about needing to turn to filler to fix these types of mistakes, as this is the kind of work I was redoing to avoid filler. But the amount needed here is orders of magnitude less than what was previously used. So I am not too put off.

[Roust]

Now finally! To the firewall.

I started with some 99 cent store construction paper and cut out a template for the massive whole in the cab.


Then, I used the template to help guide cutting out some 16 gauge cold rolled sheet. I left it a little large to allow for trimming later.
I thought a jig saw would make quick work of 16 gauge, but it just made a ton of noise and threw metal everywhere. I ended up using electric shears on the straight and shallow curved parts and grinders for the rest.

I left that lip in the firewall area from the original structure, so I just used that and Cleco'ed the new sheet ON TOP of that lip for further fitting and trimming.


Before committing to welding it in there, I did one last test fit for clearance. back onto the frame it all went. Looks like I have plenty of room.


I have some 1/2 inch square tube held to the back of the sheet to help keep it's shape. I think I will spot weld some behind the firewall, up under the dashboard for further support later. As suggested before by Dsraven.

[Roust]

I have spent way too long sitting and staring at this freaking thing. I was quite paralyzed as to where to start in terms of cutting and welding. Should it try to weld in in place as is, like a cap? Or try to trim it to size exactly and butt weld it in place?

I finally had to just do SOMETHING, anything. So I just started trimming and finally started the "cut and butt" process.

It went pretty well I am am glad I went in the cut and butt direction. There were some major issues with the contour on the cab cab that drops down to the firewall. damaged over the years. It had several areas that were bashed in.
This will cause me issues before I know it.

But here is the first pass with the cut butt and weld.


Grind it down. Looks good here, but I end up ****ing it up in the coming days!


These pics don't show the gaps that were caused by the body damage. but for the most part, it's "in"

[Roust]

Here is one of those wrecked areas where there was a large gap.

I decided to use some tig filler rod to help fill the gap and weld over top of that.
Cranked up the welder to insure I was melting the rod as well. I was very surprised that it actually worked out well. I don't think it was any better than the "padding" technique for gaps, but I could see using it to help recreate damaged leading edges and curves? But, IDK

gap


filler rod


filler rod in place


Ground down and rough finished.

[Roust]

Well, I was feeling like a big man, having all this progress and success so far. But wouldn't you know, I needed a humbling moment. And I sure got one.

pics aren't really capturing what is going on here too well. but I ended up chasing a flat spot in the cap contour and I ended up creating a flat spot in my new firewall upper profile. I didn't even notice it until I was cleaning up for the day and stood back to look at the whole feature as one.

This was probably exacerbated by me being worried about grinding too much original metal and favoring the new firewall. WHOOPS.

Now the passenger side upper profile of the firewall has a sag in it.



Compared to the dirver's side, which is much more uniform and subtle.


So I am not sure if I should try to fill it with something like USC's All Metla filler. OOOOOR I could try to adding material back to the profile with welding and perhaps that filler rod trick? I am worried about doing to much grinding and removing to much material and leaving everything thin.
I feel like I should walk away from this particular problem and come back to it later.

[Roust]

And now I am back to being up to date.

My next major step is to get the toe board made up and put into place.

I need some help with this as I don't know how to support it while trimming it and I would like some thoughts on how to stiffen it. I plan on making it out of 16 gauge metal. I don't have a way to put any contours or bead rolls into it. Perhaps spot welding some steel flat bar to the inside of it (in the cab)?
I am confident that I made the bottom leading edge of the firewall as true and straight as possible compared to the floorboard and rest of the cab. It is also the broken edge of the sheet so it should be damn straight.

Also, I am getting to the point where I need to figure out how to paint this thing as a go to protect the metal. I notice a lot of surface rust after a week or two.
Any thoughts on paint as I go from protection? Something I wouldn't have to strip off later. I don't even know where to start.

I may post these two questions separately in the general discussion section of the board to cast a larger net.

[Rickysnickers]

Still, looks like a lot of good work!! That said, no more F bombs.

[dsraven]

sometimes on a little screw up like that you just gotta walk away and do something else on the project for awhile so you can continue forward movement. come back to it later and maybe it will not seem so bad or maybe you will come up with a plan to fix it. if it is not a structural thing you could also shoot it with a thin shot of primer and see how bad it actually looks, sometimes the grinder marks catch the light and it looks worse than it is.
I like to use weld through primer on the back sodes of places where the parts will be hidden inside a panel or void of some sort. it is basically a zinc coating and some suppliers actually call it cold galvanizing. it does draw into the weld some, especially some brands, and can make the weld pop and sputtter a little when you first start. a fresh chisel cut on the mig wire is always a good thing for any weld. I have also used this on places where the part is bare metal and will sit for awhile. it comes off pretty easily with laquer thinner and a rag, then a sander. otherwise you gotta spray an epoxy direct to metal kinda primer which can be a little tougher to sand off if you still have work to do in that area.
firewall looks great. I have used the tig wire as a gap filler for spots like that as well. I have also used it with the tig wire as a filler wire like I would if tig welding, adding it to the weld puddle in spots. definately use welding gloves and insulate electrically yourself from the projectif you're gonna try that, lol. the other thing I have done is build up the sides of the gap with mig weld. I weld a spot on the edge of the gap quickly and leave the wire in the puddle when I let go of the trigger, so the wire is welded to the spot, then pull the trigger right away as soon as the spot has cooled slightly, that allows for a clean start for the next weld. another short spot weld and do the same thing with the wire in the puddle. not meant for longer runs or anything but sometimes when I need to fill a short gap or a small hole thats too small to worry about making a plug for. just make sure you're not simply adding bird poop that doesn't penetrate but is simply stuck to the surface.
keep on posting up your progress pics, it's gonna look great when you're done

[dsraven]

16 guage is tough to bead roll but I have done it on my el cheapo deluxe bead roller that I added some stregnth to. if you don't have a bead roller you could hammer some beads into the sheet but sometimes that distorts the panel as the bead takes metal away from the general area to make the bead. you could also weld some stiffeners onto the under side of the panel but I would advise to shoot the area and the stiffeners with some weld through primer so the voids are not bare metal. these stiffeners could be similar to adding upside down angle iron or a half round part or they could be sheet bent like adding an angled cross member to the under side of the floor. like a C channel part where one side of the C is attached to the floor.
just some ideas

[dsraven]

if thinking about hammering in some beads of your own, make sure to do the ends of the beads first and also the edges of the bead sides. this captures the bead stretch and helps with the sheet distortion. try it on some scrap first. i have done this method before and used a couple of pieces of metal welded to another piece of metal so i end up with something that looks like railroad tracks. it doesn't have to mimmick the rounded bottom of the contour, just the edges of the contour, the rounded hammer head or rounded tool is going to push that contour into the middle of the railroad tracks. the tracks need a hard edge, not a rounded edge, so it will capture and stop the stretch of the material right at the edge of the bead.

[dsraven]

if you end up using bondo, make yourself a contoured filler spreader to drag along the edge and get roughly the same contour, then do the same for a sanding block. use some sticky backed sanding paper that can be stuck to the contoured sanding block.
just full of dumb ideas today i guess

[dsraven]

to help get the crown out of your side panels you could try a shrinking disc or a hot laundry iron. google a shrinking disc video to see how that works.