My '71 firewall splash shields were looking pretty rough, so I decided I'd get some new ones. My drivers side fit just fine. The other I ordered from Ecklers, part #38400 which lists it as the passenger side:

I don't know if mine are original, but they seem to fit nicely while the new passenger side is definitely not right as it interferes with my exhaust.



I've rearranged my panels here, on the left half are my original, the right side are the new replacements:



This is the CC part:



You can see in the image how the passenger side is not right while the CC part seems to be perfect. I'm going to assume that Ecklers is at fault here as it should not list this part for 69-71.

I also seem to notice on my originals that the drivers side seems to be black while the passenger seems to have no color.

Can someone confirm that mine looks correct and Bubba (there's very little left of him on my car these days) didn't screw with me and put the wrong ones on?



SL

 

To make it more confusing, Paragon lists what looks to be the correct passenger side part but for only 68-E69, and it's *plastic* not steel.

So Paragon, CorvetteCentral, and Ecklers don't seem to make any sense to me as to what is correct. The only thing I know is that the CC part looks to be the one I wanted in the first place.

Freaking frustrating.

 

I am pretty sure Alan71 will have a very good picture of the shields to help you along.
r

 

Hi SL,
These are the shields from my 71.
The way the tabs are shaped (not incorrectly bent) has a bit to do with how they fit.
Regards,
Alan

 

I'd have to go check but I'm pretty sure my 72 passenger side looks like your "new" non-CC one
M

Apparently not, mine looks the same

 

Here are some shots of my 71 shields when i was making heat shields for behind them.

 

From what I can tell, the CC part lists it for L69-71, so if your 72 has same passenger piece as the one from Ecklers, that would be understandable and correct. From what I read, 71 is the last year that the passenger side looked like my original ones (except if you had AC, then they were slightly different).

 

Craig, your passenger looks correct and will be different than mine as your style is ever so slightly different than my original because you have AC.

 

Thanks Alan, those look exactly like I was expecting.

It seems pretty obvious at this point that CC is the only place that carries the correct L69-71 W/O AC passenger side firewall splash shield. All of the other vendors mark the 72 and later one as fitting a 69-71 which they will not, at least like they should.

I did order the CC part on Monday and it should arrive by Friday. I'll post the update then.

Thanks to all for your help. What are the chances that Ecklers will correct their part listing when I call and bitch and want to return it? I'll say 1%.

SL

 

I was looking through my pictures and the only one I have is cut off just before that corner, now I'm not sure anymore because Alan's picture does look familiar....
The Automatics had a modification to the floor right about that area that could have affected that corner of the shield....

I'm gonna go look under the cover and see
M

OK, so here's what I see on a 72, auto, no-a/c


AIM says it's part # 6263552, gm parts wiki says that's 70-72 and 73-75 exc AC
Maybe the Ecklers one is the AC version?
M

 

My car was originally a 4-speed, not sure about A/C but from what I can tell it never had it. This is what the A/C version of the shield should look like:




On page L79 of my 1971 AIM, it shows a small image in the top left corner which is essentially the same image CC uses:



The AIM lists part 7 in the image as part # 3976545-6, which I'm assuming means two parts: 3976545 (drivers) and 3976546 (passenger). Indeed, if you look at the CC parts 303304 and 303357, you will see that CC lists the GM part# which matches up with those in the AIM.

Now if I look at the GMPartsWiki for the 3976546 part, it will say that it was replaced by 6263552. If you click on the wiki "parts history" link, you will get a page that lists this:




I'm not sure if that means that it was replaced by a new part on May of 1972 or not.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the passenger shield I ordered from CC. It's a spot on correct replacement piece for my old, presumably, original shield:








IMHO, CC has it right and all of the other vendors that I looked at (Ecklers, Paragon, Zip, Mid-America, Corvette America, Keen, Willcox, and even Dr Rebuild) have it wrong. Buyer beware.

SL

 

Hi sl,
In post #11 you mention that the AIM lists 2 part numbers that are in sequence.
You're right that that means 2 parts, so know there're not the same on both sides.
In addition, the GM part number system is set up so that when there are right and left parts the right side part always ends in an even number and the left side part ends in an odd number.
Regards,
Alan

 

Alan, that's good information to know.