actually, i do...

just not on a 3rdgen.

my dads spitfire (now mine, but i still think of it as his) has the firewall, and "shelf" under it clean and smoothed.

the only thing mounted there is the paranah ignition box in the center, and the polished clutch and brake cyls.

what makes it really really clean is that the hood comes forward with the wheel wells... so its just the engine there... and thats it.

that modern ultrasmooth look that most people didnt like when he did it in the mid90s looks really uptodate now.

 

JeremyNYR, very nice bay...looks like your still using a heaterbox. smoothing out the lip on your strut towers would have been the finishing touch. beyond that though it looks great.

 

Thank you very much. Yeah, I'll be using a non-a/c heater box that is painted semi-gloss black for now but I may change it to body color if it doesn't look good enough to me.

As for the lip on the strut towers, they were somewhat smoothed. Pretty much, the ripples in the metal were filled in and smoothed over, but the step is still there. I didn't want to completely smooth over them because it'd require going much thicker with the fiberglass/filler. I wanted it coated with as thin of a layer as possible to avoid potential cracking in the future due to inevitable body flex. The guy that did the body work had the same opinion and so did the guy that worked on the Silver Camaro above. By the way, Paul's Camaro has been done for atleast a year or two now and is being abused with massive power and no STB and is holding up perfectly. This pic is very low resolution, but it might show what I'm talking about better.

 

Hey Jeff... didn't realize that was you, i thought someone made a similar name. Is this a temporary switch of usernames? Anyway, when are you planning to execute the engine compartment ideas you're putting together now?

 

already started however i won't be pure stripping the car til the end of the oct. i had to change my name in order to post....for some reason i could login but couldn't post.

what about filling the gap by welding it, something like a penny roll and smoothing it out?

 

I don't have experience doing this kinda body work, but this link should help you get in contact with someone that does.

http://newengland-motorsports.com/fo...ight=jeremynyr

E-mail, or PM the username BottledBird68. His name is Matt and he's the one that did the work on the flamed silver Camaro. He's a nice guy and I think he'll gladly give you some advice/feedback on your idea. Let me know how it goes.
-Jeremy

 

Jeremy - Matt hasn't been online in ages unfortunately, seems hes too busy with operating the shop

Although Joe (SLP IROC-Z) did the same thing on his car, which looks really good now...maybe he will post up. Ive seen it in person and it looks mint! He smoothed his rad support, strut towers, and frame rails, but left the mounting pads on the strut towers because he will be mounting the stock bottles there.

 

I'm curious... what exactly was smoothed on the radiator support? Isn't it basically covered by the fan shroud? I didn't think the frame rails were really exposed either with the multitude of wires that run along them. I've seen pics of Joe's car and they do look nice though. It's a shame he'll be romounting the bottles... that blue he chose looks awesome

 

Look at the corners of the rad support as to where it meets the fender supports...all nice and welded & smooth.

 

looks very nice, not smooth enough though.

 

anyone else with a clean firewall they would like to show off???

im painting my booster and heater box white. even contemplating the idea of loosing the heat altogether, thats my biggest dillemma right now.
im relocating my battery and running a CAI like Jeff's 4" on the old car, smoothing my fenders and all of the ripples in the factory sheetmetal, possibly filling in the holes in my frame rails, doing a little something to my rad support, and a couple more little touches with metal work. i never thought id be doing this substantial body work myself but it should turn out decent for me painting it myself.

 

Nice picture of Kallweit's '68. Can still remember that. I'm real good friends with his nephew and can remember the car when he still had it. Anyways, I've too wondered what a clean firewall would look like. Seems just much more cleaned up. Just my opinion, tho I don't know if I'd actually do it myself.

Gilley's86

 

This was taken a long time ago. But at least you can see the filled in firewall. No heaterbox.




Oh man, some more searching on my site, I found this pic of when I was priming it and doing the work to smooth out that area.

 

that looks very good!! makes me want to get rid of my heater, this car wont be driven much anyway...

but what i like more is the strut tower mounts. those are pretty slick, whered you get them/howd you make them?

 

Got them off ebay. They where 147 I think. Look kinda strange, but they bearing that is in there is the same one that spohn uses. A QA1 teflon self lubricating one. The plate is steel and pretty thick. The little round things that make it come up off the body are aluminum spacers. They also have really long slots for tons of adjustments. The fire wall has had more work done to it since then. It looks way way better now. Esspecially with the new motor and headers in there.


Glad you liked it.

 

I too have really wanted to axe the haeter box all together. Dennis, how does your car run? I have a very similiar engine combo, excpet mines a 355

 

I haven't turned it on yet....I still have to build an exhaust

 

I welded holes shut for tanks, welded sheetmetal over both battery trays, the hole for access to fenders on each side, and smoothed everything in with fiberglass filler. Painted it in a rush and it was my first paint job so I did get a few runs on rear of wheel well humps, cant really see though.

Just need to finish the engine get this thing running!

 

smoothed battery tray

 

Mother of ***...I wouldn't want to take that out on the road

Clean...drool...

Tobias

 

tommy you took my idea of creating custom smooth battery trays and plates for the sides to hide the inner fenders!

but i also smoothed the rad support, fenders, and ripples in the factory sheetmetal

looks amazing man now get the motor done!

 

For those of you that have smoothed your firewalls....was it worth it? And do you think that the fiberglass that you put under the hood will hold up well?

I am sure it will but for some reason it makes me think. By the way it looks great.

Did you guys know that there is a company working on an entire front clip for our cars so that you will be able to just chop off the fenderwells.

Can't wait to see that.

 

Info now! ™

 

I smoothed out the towers as well. Also welded in a plate on the drivers side. Left the battery tray on the pass side though, cause I still have the battery up front.

The firewall is mostly smoothed out. I kept the non a/c heater box. Spring and fall can have some quite cold mornings in WI. Pics I have showed more wiring then I have now, since I dumped the nitrous system. So come spring I'll have new pics that should pretty much not show any wiring at all.

 

CamaroRUS:

Can you send me a pic or two of your bay? I hate to look at other bays after painting mine and seeing ideas I could have done, but I was pressed for itme and had to spend like 40 hours in three days to do this because it was the last weekend it would be warmer than 70 deg to paint in till spring and I wanted to get the engine in before my dad kicks me out the garage, along with all my parts.

Also, if anyone has creative wire hiding ideas or has done them show me. I have an azz load of aluminum tubing anodized in pretty much any color and im seeing if I can use it in some cool way with hiding wires, could turn out to be a bad idea, but im just brainstorming stuff right now.



gentile.john@gmail.com

 

Whatever you do leave everything REALLY long so you can tuck it up more. Thats what i did. My entire car is running a painless wiring harness, so I was able to tuck everything. I will take new pics tonight.

 

I know there is a company out there that makes a show car tpi harness that runs the fuel injection harness under the plenum, and mounts all the relays inside the car next to the ecu.


Found it!


Show Car Harness

Street Rod or Show Car Design Harness

from $425.00

This design fits all TPI model years. Both MAF and speed density designs available in two lengths: 36" from engine to ECM, and 80" from engine to ECM. All relays, ESC module and power leads are located inside the vehicle near the ECM. Injector leads branch off a single trunk that runs down the center of the engine under TPI plenum.

NOTE: Custom length harnesses built upon request.

 

the bay isnt much to look at now. i have a lot of work left b4 its ready for paint. ive still got to fill in the holes in the framerails etc

 

pass side

 

Looks like it is gonna be sweet. i never did get why there are so many little holes in the frame rails. I wish I knew more about cars and doing custom stuff when i was at the stage you are at. I would have done what you did (CamarosRUS). I am sure it will look real slick.

I found a use for a couple of the holes, but i am sure I would have had a better look just hinding stuff, but oh well, too late now. I also plan on driving the hell out of my car, so I guess the real custom little touches aren't the biggest deal. Def gonna look good.

 

thanks i appreciate it. i really have no experience with custom stuff like this either but i just dove in. ive painted a couple cars and done some small stuff but one thing is seriously leading to another and i dont know when it will stop. i plan to drive the car hard too but only in good weather....thats why my wipers are no more

 

CamarosRUS: Im posting a pic cause it almost looks like you stole mine for your one post.....but it was my first time welding and thin sheetmetal was too hard for me. turned out of in end i guess.

 

Other side before I welded the holes for tanks in. I wish i woulda had the time to smooth the endtire wheel well humps. Didnt though......regrets...

 

haha... thats awesome. at first glance i thought that was a different pic of my car or one someone changed a little. that looks really good. especially the finished product
im not welding in the side panels so i have easy room to my horns and parking lights if need be, plus im going to hide stuff in the fenders

my plans have once again changed tho, i now plan to make one (two pieces really) big cover plate to go on each side of the engine bay. starting at the battery trays like now but running over the fenderwells and back to the firewall. seamless

 

Man, I thought about filling in those areas similar to that when i painted my engine bay but in the end i started to worry about trapping heat in the engine compartment and chickened out. Let me know how it works out for ya............jt

 

jtmiller92, I came to the same conclusion. I think they look great covered up like that, but I didn't want to reduce the amount of air flowing through the engine compartment and risk higher engine temperatures. I also wasn't (and am still not) sure if I would ever use that opening for an air intake setup.

 

if you have a nice cowl hood or RAM air, your tems should be fine. Unless you are sitting in REALLY hot and crappy traffic for a long time. THen you might have problems as all the compartment turns into a bit of an oven, but Egh I would say even in that senario nothing bad woud happen.

Gonna look slick as hell

 

i know there are some people running completly sealed bays like that with seriously powered motors and been fine. i dont think itll be too much of a problem especially since this isnt a daily driver.

as far as the air intake...on the drivers side ill be cutting a 4" hole in the new battery tray and running a mandrel bent 4" exhaust pipe down from the TB to a cone k&n.

and it all started with JT's shortblock

 

Cool. ™