74 Challenger Canadian Restoration

[daaboots]

We have a firewall!

[jimynick]

Good job! I had exactly the same issue at the floor/firewall hump and a piece of 4X4 longitudinally on a floor jack helped to achieve a half decent fit. I was nodding my head when you said you were going to weld the complete seam and that's exactly what I did and don't regret it a bit. Suggestions? Seam seal around the stacks for the vents. Water will lay in the top of the firewall and you don't want to give it a chance to wick/rot it's way into your interior. We bonded my cowl panel with a few spot welds. I used the bonding kits to seam seal as well. Some like to paint inside the cowl as well as the firewall before assembling; can't hurt. You've really grasped the "massage" part of an install and I can't see anything stopping you doing it. Nice job and we'll look for the second part of "as the cowl turns!" 

[Dmod1974]

Good job! I had exactly the same issue at the floor/firewall hump and a piece of 4X4 longitudinally on a floor jack helped to achieve a half decent fit. I was nodding my head when you said you were going to weld the complete seam and that's exactly what I did and don't regret it a bit. Suggestions? Seam seal around the stacks for the vents. Water will lay in the top of the firewall and you don't want to give it a chance to wick/rot it's way into your interior. We bonded my cowl panel with a few spot welds. I used the bonding kits to seam seal as well. Some like to paint inside the cowl as well as the firewall before assembling; can't hurt. You've really grasped the "massage" part of an install and I can't see anything stopping you doing it. Nice job and we'll look for the second part of "as the cowl turns!" 

Same here!!!  I ended up welding the entire seam because it fit so poorly.  I also seam sealed the cowl vents. 

One other thing I'd add, MAKE SURE TO MOCK UP YOUR STEERING COLUMN AND DASH FRAME BEFORE WELDING THE COWL ON!!!!!  I had to drill the spot welds out on the firewall column/pedal bracket and move mine because it was not where it should be.  I couldn't get the main pedal bracket assembly to line up with the various bolt and stud holes on that welded bracket and the firewall holes as it was installed.

[daaboots]

Good job! I had exactly the same issue at the floor/firewall hump and a piece of 4X4 longitudinally on a floor jack helped to achieve a half decent fit. I was nodding my head when you said you were going to weld the complete seam and that's exactly what I did and don't regret it a bit. Suggestions? Seam seal around the stacks for the vents. Water will lay in the top of the firewall and you don't want to give it a chance to wick/rot it's way into your interior. We bonded my cowl panel with a few spot welds. I used the bonding kits to seam seal as well. Some like to paint inside the cowl as well as the firewall before assembling; can't hurt. You've really grasped the "massage" part of an install and I can't see anything stopping you doing it. Nice job and we'll look for the second part of "as the cowl turns!" 

Thanks Ian!

I was looking at the seal around those vent stacks and thinking exactly the same thing!

What do you mean when you say "bonding"?

[daaboots]

Same here!!!  I ended up welding the entire seam because it fit so poorly.  I also seam sealed the cowl vents. 

One other thing I'd add, MAKE SURE TO MOCK UP YOUR STEERING COLUMN AND DASH FRAME BEFORE WELDING THE COWL ON!!!!!  I had to drill the spot welds out on the firewall column/pedal bracket and move mine because it was not where it should be.  I couldn't get the main pedal bracket assembly to line up with the various bolt and stud holes on that welded bracket and the firewall holes as it was installed.

Oh that's interesting! Guess I'll have to drag those parts out and do a test fit. Thanks for the heads up!

[jimynick]

Bonding is a procedure that uses modified epoxies to literally glue body panels together. It's used by many if not most OEM car manufacturers and I was a sceptic until I saw it demonstrated. Some have micro particles to give proper part spacing and they're available in short, medium and longer cure times. I also used them for seam sealing although they're expensive for that duty.. Dominion Sure Seal makes a couple of good, straight seam sealers too. #214 and 224 are good and affordable. You can buy spray cans of Krown rustproofing and don't be stingy with it! After all, who'd want to go through all this again in a few years?   

[daaboots]

Happy Friday folks! New video is up on the tube. This one is just a small panel fabrication to cap off the front of the sil.

[daaboots]

Been there, done that, and I don't miss or envy this stage of a build.

Yup, that cowl side piece fits like crap.  My AMD ones also had that incorrect bend and the notches did not line up with the OE pieces.  Also, double check the parking brake weld nut on the driver side.  Mine was welded on the wrong side!  That would have been really bad if I didn't catch and correct it before going together.

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with fitment issues. I'll check out that parking brake nut. What side should it be on?

It should be on the backside of the panel so that the parking brake pedal assy. sits flush on that panel.  On mine, and several others I've seen, the weld nut was on the wrong side so the parking brake assy. would sit on top of the tiny weld nut instead of flush against the panel.  It might still physically bolt up since the stud holes on the firewall are pretty big, but the bolt hole end is sitting up on a 1/2" diameter nut instead of fitting tightly against the cowl side panel with way more surface area.  That's assuming the bolt hole in the parking brake assy. isn't so large that the weld nut passes through it.  I fixed mine instead of waiting to find out if it would work at all.

Well would you look at that. Mine has the same issue! Thanks for the heads up.

[daaboots]

I've been slacking with photos lately, so here's all that I took during the door hinge and firewall replacement. All in all, things went decent. The joint between the floor pan and firewall on the passenger side could have been better. I think I'll fully weld the entire seam at some point.

[daaboots]

Enjoy another video showing the cowl installation 

[daaboots]

I fixed up the rad support and installed the new inner fenders.

[soundcontrol]

Great job! Just watched all the firewall/cowl and inner fenders parts videos, dreading to do this on my 73 when the time comes.

[daaboots]

Great job! Just watched all the firewall/cowl and inner fenders parts videos, dreading to do this on my 73 when the time comes.

It's a big job. I was really worried about the firewall, but it wasn't too bad once I got into it. Best of luck on your 73!

[jimynick]

Lookin' good lad, lookin' good! This would be the perfect time to buy and install the USCartools frt apron reinforcement kit. I did and it was an easy enough install and gives much more rigidity to these old flexy flyers. Glad to see you were aware of those two connecter panels between the apron and firewall! I wasn't, and had to drag back inside the scrap and salvage them for mine! Jesus, what an idiot. Glad to see your confidence growing and also glad to see your persistence, it's paying bigger and bigger dividends here. Keep up the good work! 

[daaboots]

Lookin' good lad, lookin' good! This would be the perfect time to buy and install the USCartools frt apron reinforcement kit. I did and it was an easy enough install and gives much more rigidity to these old flexy flyers. Glad to see you were aware of those two connecter panels between the apron and firewall! I wasn't, and had to drag back inside the scrap and salvage them for mine! Jesus, what an idiot. Glad to see your confidence growing and also glad to see your persistence, it's paying bigger and bigger dividends here. Keep up the good work! 

Thanks Ian. I always appreciate the kind words. I do plan on installing some kind of frame stiffing kit... I might attempt to make my own though depending on price. I should have the car up on the rotisserie in a month or so. I'm looking forward to finally finishing the metal fab so I can move onto the paint phase!