72 K10 350, Engine hugging firewall?

[Vanhalen1985]

I've been in the process of replacing a leaking header gasket on my 72' K10 and I'm rather not happy. What was GM thinking put the small block against the firewall? I can barely slide a sheet a paper between the distributor cap and firewall, let alone get to the rear header bolts. Would I be better off taking the starter off and working from underneath? Anyone else complain of this problem or has my truck just put me in a bad mood?

Only other option I can think of is to take out the heater box for more room but geez I really don't want to do that. It would be a piece of cake on a 2wheel drive.