firewall question

[jtm311]

guys I have a 100 more passes on the firewall :) my question is, when is the best time to drill the AC, steering column holes. Before paint or after?

Thanks,

John

55375

[rivs68]

Drill all possible holes before you paint....

[jtm311]

Thanks Steve any reason other then screwing up the new paint? I thought it may be easier to wet sand and buff without any holes
I should say I already have a 1/4 holes wherever a hole needs to go>>
John

[dontlifttoshift]

If you drill after paint....

you could screw up your paint

the holes you drill are bare metal so you have to go back and paint them

if you drill a wrong hole you can't weld it up, you are married to it

you could screw up your paint

it is WAY easier to plan things around bare metal or primer than worring about scratching your during mock up.

I can't think of any reason not to do it before paint.

[jtm311]

Thanks I will drill them before

[scherp69]

Looks good John. I see our firewalls smoothing jobs will look very similar. The other important thing.....make sure you mock everything up that needs holes before painting. Make sure that all holes are in the right spot. For example...completely install your steering column and all steering linkages. Take it from me....I learned the hard way. I thought I had the hole for the steering column in the right spot. I half a$$ mocked it up. I went ahead and painted my firewall. I then went to install the steering column and connect it to the rack and pinion (with headers in place) only to find out that the hole was off. I ended up trying to expand the hole, but butchered it and made a mess of it. I'm now going to strip the firewall and repaint it so I can fix the area around the steering column. (I also put a big gouge in the firewall when I was installing the engine so that's also why I'm repainting). This time, I will make sure that all the holes are in the right spot by installing everything first.

[jtm311]

Mike sorry to hear that.. What had done was made templates of each part of the steel I took out and where a holes needed to go I drill a 1/4 hole so from the inside I can locate the new hole :) Not sure if it is the right way but it should match 100% were the old holes went. We will see ..

Thanks
John

[scherp69]

Thanks John. Hope it all works for you. Post some pics as you go. With mine I'm not all that upset. I'm out the cost of the supplies, but it was good practice. I got to try my hand at laying a black base, then the color and clear. There were a few blemishes that appeared when the paint was done so this will give me a chance to clean it all up and make it better the second time. This time I plan on spraying the entire shell at once. Good luck with yours.

[CornHusker4Life]

Looks like you're heading in the right direction