Don't buy a car built on a Monday or a Friday...

They say you shouldn't buy a car a built on a Monday or a Friday. Monday, because workers are hung over from a weekend of imbibing and Friday's because they can't wait to get out of there to start drinking. I don't know what day of the week this old girl was assembled. I'll have to figure it out sometime. But, I have to wonder if it was a Monday or a Friday. More on that in a minute.

When these cars were built they weren't fully dipped or primed like today's cars. A lot of metal is exposed and the upper part of the firewall behind the dash is no exception. Several weeks ago I treated the surface rust on the inside of the firewall with some Duro Extend rust converter. It did a good job of converting the rust to a black iron phosphate. Normally I would have used some Ospho but I had the Extend sitting around so I thought I'd try it.

I planned on topcoating it for a uniform look and extra protection with some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. (I'm also a big fan of Zero Rust which is very similar). But there were a couple of things to take care of first.

The cardboard and fiberglass firewall insulation was in tough shape when I removed it. I really don't want to put it back in. There are some modern heat/sound insulation materials available today that are a better option. I've used RAAMmat BXT in the past which is like Dynamat but a lot less expensive and every bit as good or better. Problem is, large black nylon push pins secure the insulation to the firewall. Eliminating it would leave dimpled holes. So, I hammer and dollied the dimples flat and welded the holes shut.

Welded up the dash insulation holes

The other issue involved the area of the firewall where the Heater/AC box is mounted. Some "hack" has been into the box before which doesn't help matters, but that's another story. The fiberglass is full of cracks around the mounting points and two of the lower mounting studs were broken off. Fortunately, they were still there. Upon closer inspection I found the firewall wasn't flat where it should be.

Seems when they were spot welding this piece in at the factory, somebody jumped the gun on the trigger before it was in the correct position. A few of the welds on the seam missed the toe board altogether. They must have pushed the end into place to finish it off and just let it go.



Firewall pooches out at this seam.

With the globs of seam sealer removed on the inside you can see the dramatic difference. This defect not only made sealing the box to the firewall difficult but put damaging stress on the fiberglass when it was tightened down.

Pooched wall is hard on fiberglass heater box

Another curious find were two small tears in the toe board just below the seam in the same area. They were partially obscured with seam sealer but one hole had daylight shining through it. I'm quite certain it left the factory this way and didn't occur later. I welded them up.

I was afraid I was going to have to drill out several spot welds in order to push the panel in where it belongs. But since it wasn't really welded at all I only had to separate one weld then use a chisel and small sledge in the corner bend to persuade the metal back. A little hammer/dolly work, a couple of spot welds, and the area is reasonably flat as it should be. The heater box will be much happier. I know I am. Built on a Monday or Friday? Maybe. But fast and sloppy back then was the name of the game.

Nice and flat now. The notch in the seam is factory. This is the area they missed with the welder.