I had to cut a hole in my firewall to clear an intake manifold. It works, but is freaking hideous!

I was wondering what you guys think is a fair rate to get this redone professionally?

A local hot rod shop told me anywhere from $800+ to redo this, while laughing at me like an idiot for my DIY job.

The total area in question is ~12" wide, 18" total height, and about 2" deep.

Click on the pics for slightly larger versions....





The tricky part (for me at least since I'm quite the novice at welding) was this portion on the upper firewall. It is actually part of the cowl; I enclosed the area where fresh air would enter cabin. These two pics show this area.









Lastly, can anybody recommend a shop in DFW, TX that would be willing to fix this for me?

 

you know what.. f*ck that shop. if you came in to my shop with that bolted on or something, yeah i'd laugh in your face. that'd be funny as hell. but you didn't. you shaped it well, and you welded it uhh.. kinda ok (haha). it looks fine to me. have you test fit your manifold yet? is your mod going to work? if everything clears okay, just finish the job, that's all.

you need to take a green roloc disc to all your welds. grind 'em down flush with the surrounding metal. don't go nuts with it, just get them on the same level. when you're finished, spread some filler over the roughed up areas and then block sand everything smooth. throw somw high build primer over the body work, sand/scuff the primer, and then and paint it. that's how that shop would do it, so f*ck 'em.. you did yours at home and saved $800.

 

Thanks for the reply.

The manifold clears perfectly.

I found out after I did this that flux core wire and sheetmetal aren't exactly best friends.

I was afraid to use any body filler in this area because I'm afraid the firewall may flex.

Is there a particular grade and brand of filler you would use in this application? Evercoat Kitty Hair? 3m Long Strand?

Or does it even matter?


Modified by Jonathan_ED3 at 7:21 PM 6/22/2008

 

poly fillers don't like to flex, but they can deal with it to a certain extent. the key is to keep filler work to a minimum, less than 1/8" thick ideally. the stuff you mentioned.. the fiberglass strand filled filler.. that's only for real thick applications. no need for that. you'll want to find 'lightweight body filler'. i like Evercoat Rage the best. you can use anything though, including regular Bondo brand.