71 Javelin Road Racer Build

[Bulletpruf]

Ok, the firewall is starting to look better.

You can pretty much follow the progression of the photos below, but I stripped the paint from the engine compartment a while back. Took it down to the metal.

Then treated with a metal treatment - Picklex 20, I think - kept it from rusting.

Then made some templates for the necessary patches using a sliced up manila folder.

Traced out the templates on a sheet of 18 gauge sheetmetal. Cut them out with a sheetmetal nibbler and then shaped with die grinder, cutoff wheel, hand file, etc. Took quite a while before I had them all fitting just right.

Then I prepped the areas to be welded - ground down to the metal with a angle grinder. After it was down to the metal, I sprayed it with Eastwood's weld through primer.

Since welding thin stuff gives me fits, I called in some experts - local AMC'ers Jeff Reeves and Jeff Puras came over to lend a hand. Jeff Reeves laid down some nice beads and affixed the sheetmetal patches to the firewall. Most were lap welds; only one butt weld. Anyway, big thanks to the 2 Jeffs for their help; it came out great.

I then ground down the welds with an angle grinder and painted with more Eastwood primer. Next step is to strip and prep the entire engine compartment for primer and paint.

Scott