Dave, your comments were very helpful. I spent the morning calling around for various types of stainless steel. The only mirror finish (#8) I could find was only available in 4'x8' sheets for close to $600 but I also checked out a company in Chicago which makes mirrors; they offered 0.031 stainless in small pieces like 12"x16" in a frame for about $50. Anyway I basically gave up on the mirror finish and found a company in the Air Park near me where for the price of a conversation about the Foreman's '40 Ford coupe I got a nice piece of 16 gauge stainless, 16"x24". Then for the price of two dozen donuts for the crew at Heritage Steel nearby (welding fabrication company) they cut a trapezoid for me 18" across the bottom, 16" across the top and 10" wide using their large sheer machine. That piece just slips nicely into the rounded cavity of the BeBops "firewall" and so I will have a (mostly) steel firewall after all. I will use stainless capscrews around the edge and I am finguring out how to polish the heads of the capscrews. "Kenny" who painted my car thinks he/we can buff the stainless to be a little shinier, but if I have to have it painted the same color as the body that will be OK too if it doesn't look good after some buffing. Actually it is almost free of scratches and has a pleasant dull reflective surface now without any buffing and of course it will never rust. I'll post a picture when I get it installed (soon). I am pleasantly surprised how rigid the 16 gauge steel is, it is really firm!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder