Hello everyone I'm looking to prep my engine bay for paint soon as I'm cleaning up some of the wiring. I wanted to cover up the holes on the wheel wells and the firewall. What should I use ? Body filler ,weld them ? And how hard is it to smooth out, fill the line where the wheel well meets the strut tower ? Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks Chris

 

 

Your going to have to weld/grind the holes, The body filler will eventually shrink or crack and you will see the outline of the hole

 

Ok thanks for the input appreciate it. Will I have to weld the line/ seam from the wheel well /strut tower too ?

 

Probably up for debate. There are a few spot welds on it already, but it will help strengthen it a bit and keep it from flexing for sure. Better safe than sorry, if it flexs and the putty cracks you are back to square one. Me and Badnblk both have some good pics in the LS swap section and Tibo has one in the members rides - camaro section. I think there is a good thread about smoothing the bay in this section somewhere too, but I can't remember who's

 

You have to weld the holes and seams, grind them down and then use as little filler as possible. Some good fillers like the evercoat rage ultra that I love say you can use 1/4" thick of filler but for the wheel arches and firewall I wouldn't go above 1/8" and even that might be too much as both those areas are known to flex. "Removing" the seams and holes via welding, grinding, filler and sanding was a very time intensive process for me and if I ever do it again it will be many years from now after my wife has forgotten how much time it takes up. BadnBlk or greengrey may be way faster than me though.

I think in a weekend you could blend the seam on the top of the strut tower cap. All the holes will be another weekend and if you had the tenacity to remove the mounting humps on the wheel arches that would be at least a weekend.

 

Ok guys thanks for all the input. I will look at the other pictures you guys have.

 

Here is the link to my thread on shaving the bumps on the wheel wells. Tibo also has some good info in his build thread, as already mentioned. There is also some good info in the build thread by dennisbernalz. Both used my thread as a reference, so some of the info will be repeated.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...eel-wells.html

 

In my build thread I tried it the way 92 did and also tried a different approach. Learn from me, only do it the way that 92 advised. Try to get the flaps you cut as smooth and flat as possible with the hammer and dolly, its well known that MIG welds don't respond well to hammering, at least not nearly as well as an Oxy/Acetylene torch welding process. Can't remember the deal with TIG.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5967177

 

Thanks guys will read up on all your threads