1955 - 1959 Chevy Trucks Firewall Install Part II - Firewall Fixin', Take Two

Careful measuring meant a perfect butt-joint between the two new panels in the center. This will be TIG welded, along with the small side sections, while all the rosette welds will be MIG welded.

The new panels clamped and screwed in place. Let the welding commence!

Kevin used the TIG welder to tack the butt joint at the center and the filler sections at each side of the replacement firewall. He'll finish welding them after the panels are rosette welded.

Working his way randomly around the edges of the new panels, and cooling each weld with his airline, Kevin rosette welded the panels with minimum distortion.

A good rosette weld should look like this, with plenty of penetration through the lower panel. The self-tapping screws were removed once the panel was welded on either side of them, then their holes welded too.

With the MIG welding complete, here's how the right-hand panel looked.

The original floor had strengthening ribs, into which Kevin hammered the new panel's lower edge. He'll flatten the ribs on the underside too, for a neater appearance.

With all the rosette welds ground down and just the TIG welding to complete, it's almost time to run some seam sealer around the edges and apply some primer. Or is it? There's still the small matter of that rather large trans cover hole to finish off.

As our new panels are not recessed as the original firewall was, the trans cover no longer meets the firewall. To remedy this, the lower corners were folded up at the same angle as the firewall to enable the cover to be positioned in order to plan how best to modify it.

Usually Kevin would trim the entire front section of the cover away and fabricate a new section, but this job was being completed to a strict budget and the extra fabrication time wasn't warranted, so Kevin trimmed the front section from the original, bent cover and mocked it up to see how it'd look.

It was decided to go ahead as adding the original section was determined to be the best combination of appearance and fabrication time in this instance. With a threaded tab welded to the firewall to accept a mounting bolt, the finished item is functional and will seal the cab.