Firewall, Vent Inner cowl and side outer cowl removal

[hotrod1]

I am curious if anyone has removed these panels and left them off.

Item #2 and #18 of this URL

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=23

I am building a hot rod 1956 (more like my son is doing it and I am directing) and dont care about the fresh air. We shaved the lip from the firewall and it did not turn out as we wanted it to. When you do this you have the inner cowl and outer cowl and firewall all coming together to form that lip. When you shave this off you have to worry about three pieces and it did not line up too well, and we are not happy with the results. We are contemplating replacing the firewall all the way up to the curve where the rubber for the hood is installed, so it will be smooth and flat all the way down. Has anyone done this? Also, the left and right outer cowl are rusted out at the bottom. Was just thinking about removing them and the interior portion of them as well. This would make a good place for speaker placement after getting rid of those vent doors and misc stuff there.

Do you think that these pieces offer structural rigidity?

Help.

[dwcsr]

The part number 18 has a bolt in it that the top od the fender bolts to. so you need that. The part number 2 , inner cowl keeps all the air out of the cab and give structual strength to the fire wall. These trucks aren't that well built to begin with and removing those part would make it crumble like tin foil if it got hit in the front.

take a look at this, imagine what would have happened if they remove some front sheet metal structures.

http://www.iihs.org/video.aspx/info/50thcrash

['58Patch]

That is straight up disturbing.

[Scottshotrods]

Originally Posted by gcelaya

I am curious if anyone has removed these panels and left them off.

Item #2 and #18 of this URL

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=23

I am building a hot rod 1956 (more like my son is doing it and I am directing) and dont care about the fresh air. We shaved the lip from the firewall and it did not turn out as we wanted it to. When you do this you have the inner cowl and outer cowl and firewall all coming together to form that lip. When you shave this off you have to worry about three pieces and it did not line up too well, and we are not happy with the results. We are contemplating replacing the firewall all the way up to the curve where the rubber for the hood is installed, so it will be smooth and flat all the way down. Has anyone done this? Also, the left and right outer cowl are rusted out at the bottom. Was just thinking about removing them and the interior portion of them as well. This would make a good place for speaker placement after getting rid of those vent doors and misc stuff there.

Do you think that these pieces offer structural rigidity?

Help.

Come by our shop you will see a 56 we are building for a customer of ours.
You can see the how we did the firewall for this truck.
Justin
www.scottshotrods.com
oxnard ca

[Kim57]

I smoothed mine all the way up. I did the part below the lip and then cut a piece for above it. The upper part leaned back so I had to fill in behind it to get it on the same plane as the lower part.
Here are a few pics.
Kim

[hotrod1]

That looks great. Did you cut out the old firewall or just go over the old one? If you cut it out what did you do about the inner cowl? What did you use, 18 gauge? Any other pics along the way, prior to the ones above?

[Kim57]

I cut the old one out. I took a ton of measurements to make sure I could get it back where it needed to be when I put the new piece in. I started by cutting the lip off and then it came out pretty easy.
I use 16 gauge on all my replacement metal. It's a little thicker than 18 but still thin enough to bend when needed.
Kim

[hotrod1]

Nice.

What did you do with the inner cowl (hard to see from the pics) ? Is it still there?

What about the trans tunnel? Will you have room for the engine and trans?

[Kim57]

The inner cowl is still there. I will have to make the trans tunnel and room for the engine when I get them into the frame. Not sure what trans I am going to run yet. I had to replace the forward cab floor also.
That's the nice thing about metal, it can always be cut out and replaced.
Kim