I have a questions for those that have removed and re-installed the firewall on a factory AC car (this ones 81, I think others are similar). How did you re-install the rivets under the re-circ cowl and under the fresh-air panel? (pointed out in red below) to remove I ran the oscillating saw into the bond for the upper ones and used the same saw to cut the back off the ones behind the cowl. I'm thinking about just drilling access holes in the fresh air panel and that cowl has to come out right? but how? I can't get anything in there to separate it. TIA, Doug.

 

Ah, let me put this as nicely as I can, what in the name of the wild wild world of sports are you trying to do? It looks like you are destroying a car, or maybe it's a bad picture.

 

I have no idea what you're talking about, this certainly isn't the first picture of a detached firewall on the forum, and to my eyes it looks to be in the same state or better as alot of the others I've seen. But thanks for the helpful feedback. Do you have any fresh thoughts on how to address the specific issue I asked about?

 

I cut an access port in the lower fresh air vent area ,big enough to get a bolt and washer in there , and tightened it up from inside the cage , I kept the piece I cut out and glued it back in there and smoothed it off .

My 69 didn't have aircon so I didn't have to worry about that piece , but have you tried a heat gun to soften the glue a bit ? Also take pics showing the thickness of the glue on your pieces , it will help you put it back together when you cant remember why the pieces don't join up when you dry fit then later on.

 

I take it the picture is from the interior, now I can conceptualize it. Basically he's right . Glad it's your problem 😉 good luck

 

Quite literally "inside" this is behind the passenger side fender inside the plenum. This door opens and the fresh air door closes when running "MAX AC". Its so the cabin air is re-circulated and cooled rather than bringing in outside air. Below is the full firewall removed from the bird cage, the hole on the left is where the blower motor goes, this is behind that panel below that hole.

 

I have tried a little heat when I was taking the firewall off but switched gears to cutting the rivets to kick the can of dealing with this down the road. The heat does help soften it but you still need to get a putty knife or 5 in1 tool in there to split the pieces, which my delima - how / where the heck can I get a putty knife in here to break the adhesive? This is the fiberglass to fiberglass adhesive so its as hard as body filler. If I can't find some trick I'm going to end up basically cutting the outside adhesive lip off from the inside just on the outside of the where it fills the hole in the panel which means I'll also have to built a new connection lip for it to get glued back into place.

Here what it looks like from the inside, its pretty much just stuck to the outside of this panel with a slight lip through the panel.


This is looking down from the top, the lip you can see in black goes all the way around (the curve to the left of this is the blower opening. If you look to the right if this PITA you will see one of the rivet heads I cut from inside the hinge pillar.


From top still but a little closer, you can see I tried splitting with a putty knife and it broke that piece of the lip off. Its also got the attachment on the upper right but this one will split just tapping the putty down it sideways.

 

yep , I didn't bother trying to remove the whole thing .

I can see what your trying to get at , not sure if you want to go to repair in exactly same way as original , if you do you will need to get a buck in the front side of the piece for the no.1 reinforcement piece that sits in there. If that's the way you want to go , I can see a lot of work getting that out . I remember DUB saying he gets them out , with heat and patience !.

here's my repair,


you can see a rougher area in there , a 3 inch cut off wheel to cut the piece away , then a sanding disc on a 90* bend die grinder to clean out the hole . I got a nice stainless bolt in there so it will last forever . BTW the flapper still seals nicely in the closed position .Who is going to see it when its all back together anyway ?

 

Ahh, yes I see what you're saying. just leave the cowl in there and just make a hole through the side of it to get to the rivets. Yeah this makes a lot of sense, certainly less work then cutting the whole thing out and fabbing up a complete new attaching lip. And yeah the actual door seals way out on the end of the cowl so having the repair in there is not an issue!! I can see this being the way I'll end up going to go as well. I knew there had to be an easier way then what was running through how much work this was going to be in my head. Thanks for the advice!!