33 Firewall question?

[wallace18]

After looking in my manual and the PDF manual there is no real directions for how to mount the firewall. I understand you can rivet, screw or bolt it down. The manual shows it being installed with the body on in the picture. The PDF does not. Is there a best way to mount it as far as up and down and L to R? I can move it around quite a bit. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. T.W. :confused:

P.S. it was not mounted to my frame when I got the kit. It was in a box.

[esff32]

Yeah. The firewall comes packaged in the box not mounted. Most everyone, including myself, had to grind the top curved edge of the firewall on the passenger side. I just centered and evenly spaced the firewall around the tube frame and then put the body on to test fit. I had to pull the top firewall piece quite a few times to grind off more material. Once you are happy with the fit, mark the backside and drill your holes. Someone else may have another tip or trick but that's how I did mine.

[ehansen007]

This is why doing the stage 1 kit is not a good idea. The body has to be mated up to the firewall because that's the main anchor point and all other alignment will come from there. So what you need to is put the body on straight, then set the firewall in to fit. You'll probably have to trim a bit on the passenger side as 95% of us have had to do. There's a post called "Dangerous Curves ahead" on the FFcars forum that will help you get the body squared and level and then fit the firewall from there. Also, when you do the doors, make sure the firewall is secured to the body and it's lined up as final other wise it will be off when you do the final install after paint.

[michael everson]

The firewall and forward part of the footboxes are made up of 3 pieces. The lower pieces are somewhat locked into place on a couple of frame rails. Not a lot of room for adjustments. Then the top piece gets lined up to the lowers. As others have mentioned, the passenger side of the firewall does not match the curve of the body and will need to be ground to fit. On the 3 cars that I have built, I drilled and tapped the three panels anywhere that can be seen from the engine compartment. The lowers cannot be removed once installed, but having the screws in the upper section is nice if you ever need to get back there. Also I think the button heads look better than rivets.
Mike

[wallace18]

Thanks guys. I ended up clamping the footwells in after I had to bend the inside lower edge up 1/8" to make them fit. There is not much you can do to move them around. Then the top firewall fell into place. I'll check out the other site and maybe mount the body. I'll use klecko's for now. I plan on using button heads as much as I can. That way if I have to take something apart later I can.