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On both the LH and RH side I have a beer can thin piece of aluminum riveted to the lower firewall. These items appear to have been in place for a very very long time. The RH side piece has even been cut in half at one point. Maybe to run a wire? In case the pics are hard to make out, the LH side location is just opposite the gas pedal. In other words if you were to put your foot thru the floor board it would hit the aluminum. The RH side is directly under the heater fan housing. All looks good under these plates and nothing sagging.
Original? After market? Repair? Purpose? Shielding?
Drivers side, The aluminum thing is behind the parking brake lever. I do realize I am missing the splash shields and have them on the way. Passenger side same location as drivers side. If you were a passenger and pushed your foot thru the floorboard it would come out here. Directly above this plate is the heater fan. Battery cable can be seen in the pic. Notice how this side has been cut and there is a patch of a sticky rubber substance covering a hole. What is that sticky rubber gunk and is that hole original?
Thanks and yes!! One less thing to replace and removing them gives me something else to tinker with.
I'll remove the RH side but might just leave on the LH side. I can find no evidence of a flywheel explosion, or cutting of the tubs. It all looks good but dirty. The very worst is the edge and corner on the LH side where the splash guard/gas pedal bracket is located. Ages ago some body hit something.
On the back of the RH side cut piece I found lots of red over spray dust. I think the car was once red, lots of the car was red. As for the engine it is dated 12-11-2011 and is a GM crate engine.
I'll take lots of pictures to document these items then remove the passenger side for sure. Afterwards I'll clean the area and make it look like new. LOL, the car might look funny with the bottom half sparkling and the top half all dusty.
Thanks again for the help. I studied the AIM, CSM, suppliers sites, and every firewall picture I could find online. I could not find anything about this and it has bothered me since discovery a couple of months ago.
What does the floor look like under the carpet? I see lots of pop rivets in the plate (that does not belong there) and the gas pedal bracket, GM did not use them in production of the vette. The floor under the carpet is one pc from the fire wall to the back of the car from the factory.
Thanks for your thoughts and I do not know. Never had the carpet up. Underside looks pretty good though except for as noted above. I may be calling the name of it wrong and always assumed the piece was also for the gas pedal besides being used for the splash shield. I do see it on page 14 of the FAM. Although someone installed the one on my car backwards. I'll need to swap it around.
Can't tell, are there some cracks there? I see something but can't tell for sure.
Since that area gets blacked out as part of the firewall I would just get some random weave fiberglass mat and resin, use a dremel to feather out and crater the holes, and cut small circles of mat and fill the craters with mat and resin. A little fiberglass roller would be a good idea to compress the several layers of fiberglass/mat - you could even press and inexpensive wall paper seam roller into service for this small repair. Sand smooth and refinish with semi-flat black.
It's likely that someone installed them at some point in the past for some thermal protection to the interior. Especially if they added headers, the fresh aluminum (re: shiny) would have reflected a good bit of heat.
Thanks for the tips. The holes are a touch smaller than the ground terminal on a 3 prong power cord. A dab of JB weld might even do the trick. As for that larger hole. I need to research to learn if it is factory. My guess is that it is not which is the reason why someone cut that other shield. I'll stick a grommet in it.
Good eyeball and it sure looks like cracks. It is not. That pic was after a quick clean up with a putty knife. I've since cleaned it a little better.
Gusto, that is where I am leaning. Some type of heat shield. They even had Chevy orange paint on them from where someone touched up the engine(a different one) but never repainted the firewall.
Well curiosity got the better of me so I took off the LH side. Plus should the family ever sell the car when I am not around anymore, it would be one less thing for a buyer to worry about. Anyways, LH side looks good as well. Right as I was taking a few pics the phone died so I apologize for the poor quality.
Picture was taken right after shield was removed. The tub is untouched by me.
You can probably do an OK job with JB Weld since they are relatively small and it will be painted over anyway. Sounds like it probably was done for thermal protection.
The car looks so much better with them nasty things off of it. At one time I'd bet it looked rather nice, but subsequent owners and engine swaps paid their toll on them. I'll get it painted probably tomorrow. I ended up using glazing and spot putty sold by Bondo. It's a two part solution that smells like fiberglass.
11-27-2017, 03:19 PM
1965 - what is this aluminum plate?
agree. Didn’t see that when I did my body off
