Thread: C5 gto
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Old 12-26-2010, 11:46 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Prescott, AZ
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Default Finishing firewall

What I’ve shown of the firewall so far has been the easy part. Remaining is the portion forming the inside top corners of the foot boxes. These are difficult because they are very visible (so looks count) and are composed of several angles. Most of the firewall I’ve shown so far will only be seen by those that look deep into the engine compartment as the engine, headers and supercharger effectively blocks the view.
I started these remaining areas by first making cardboard templates. I used single ply cardboard but probably should have used double ply as it better simulates the rigidity of the aluminum sheet.






Here’s the passenger side space I’m trying to fill with the templates in place. While the templates in the picture looked good, I made the mistake of cutting out both pieces at once and one of them had to be scrapped. I should have cut and bent the front panel first and then made the second template. It’s what I had to do in the end to get a tight fit down the angled joint and against the middle of the firewall. With both pieces in place, it finished off nice. The aluminum tank is for supercharger inter-cooler coolant storage.





The driver side was more difficult. It had to be made in 3 pieces because of the mount for brake fluid reservoirs. I did end up with a couple of pieces of scrap before getting the pieces formed correctly.











With all pieces in place, the firewall flows nicely around the back of the engine compartment. I was a little bit apprehensive at first about using the anodize aluminum but after seeing it on the firewall, it gives a very professional look. The next step is continuing to sheet forward from the firewall to enclose the sides of the engine compartment.


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