1955-1959 Chevy Truck Firewall Replacement - Firewall Fixin'

Here's the part of the steering column support that didn't require trimming, nice and snug against the inside of the firewall. Fits pretty good huh?

As the upper firewall has a return on the lip it makes clamping the new and old pieces together a little tricky. Using a Double D steering shaft solved that problem, though of course a length of x -inch box section would work just as well.

When the new section is clamped in place the aim is to have as minimal air gap between the new and old as possible, for a strong rosette weld. The lip will be cleaned prior to any welding.

You can't have too many clamps! Kevin welded the holes in an irregular order to minimize warpage, jumping between holes in different areas rather than working from one end to the other.

This is what you should be aiming for, nice strong rosette welds with good penetration. You can spot this as bad welds won't show any color distortion on the back side of the second panel, whereas welds with good penetration will `burn' right through the new metal.

Until next time, the hard work is done, just needing a couple of neat fabricated lower sections to finish things off.