1970 Nova Firewall Replacement

[Young Gun]

Anybody know where I can get a whole replacement? The previous owner hacked off the sides of it in order to make the old fiberglass hood fit. Its a pretty sloppy job and needs to be replaced. The picture below shows the parts that I am talking about.






I used an image from Fesler's Nova build. They have no affiliation with the project and were not responsible for any of the damage done. They just take kick ass photos and a photo they took allowed me illustrate the problem. Just want to clarify that they had nothing to do with the problem!

thanks for the help!

[Jim Nilsen]

Those are pieces that would be a good project for you to practice metal forming skills on yourself. A piece of sheetmetal will be around $50 for a 4x8 18 ga.sheet or less and will give you plenty to practice with. A dolly and hammer kit will cost you anywhere from $10 at Harbor Freight to as much as you want to spend.

You can find a piece of plywood anywhere in a scrap pile of a remodel job or new contruction to use as a form for the edge you will hammer form over.

Get yourself a book on How To do Metal work. Ron Fornier( spelling?) has a book that will show you how. It's an easy piece to make and you will be glad you did when it is and done.

You have a lot of work to do on your car and the things you are going to learn are are either going to cost you a lot of money or they are going to make you a much smarter man with skills that you can use forever.

I believe you have enough desire to think about what you want to do and with the right effort you will learn quickly.

Goodluck, Jim

[Fesler built]

Jim is right, these had rust on them and we had to rebuild them, we make them look factory with a bead roller and some fancy hand shaping, practice this and you will get better at all metal work.

Glad our pictures can be put to good use by someone.

[Young Gun]

thanks Jim and Chris,
I was not sure if there was something on the back side of the pieces such as a bracket or anything that was really important. I bought a number of books this weekend about fabricating sheet metal and have begun to understand it while i tinker with things...now I just need to go get some more shielding gas and I can start welding up. Next on my list is to learn to play with fiberglass... I have so many cool ideas in my head but school prevents me from having the time to actually sit down and learn!!!

[71 RALLY NOVA]

Good mark has them they are the same for the 67-69 camaro.I just replaced the rt side piece on my 71 rally nova.It`s not bad to install them.

[Jim Nilsen]

Good mark has them they are the same for the 67-69 camaro.I just replaced the rt side piece on my 71 rally nova.It`s not bad to install them.

Now that kind of takes all of the fun out of making your own


The big question is if he is going to eliminate his stock heater box and go with something else or the smoothed firewall?

It is a good reminder that the cowls of Novas are shared with the F bodies. I am certain your info will help those that have to replace them on their Nova.