Thread: Followed Me Home II

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Jim Robinson asked me to post a picture of the firewall mount I used. I picked up my '33 roller back in 2009 from Duane Noblett at N&N Fiberglass Reproductions in Belleville, Arkansas, now retired. As I was going through that project Duane had a bunch of cool tips that he'd picked up through the years, and he didn't hesitate to share when asked. One was that you could pick up a short chrome exhaust tip dress up part at the auto parts store, and mount that on the firewall to constrain the bottom end of the column where it penetrates the firewall and add a bit of shiny on the firewall. The "Pencil" tip, rolled in leaves a smooth, polished look that I liked on the '33 so I used it again here.

Here's the pencil tip exhaust pipe with the column in place. Yes, the first hole in the firewall was too high; the second one, still not patched was too far inboard and barely cleared the head with the column barely through the firewall; and the third is like Goldilocks third bowl of porridge, JUST RIGHT! Blind squirrel again...

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The inside, showing the tabs welded to the sides bolted through the firewall. This time I had the old tube from the first attempts that I couldn't use, so I cut a strip of it about 3" long, made a pair of relief cuts to form a square welding tab and flattened the rest. Bent 90 degrees, I twisted it to match the angle marked from the firewall with the column bolted in place, and welded them. Once welded just drop it in the hole, insert
the column and bolt down the column drop with the column seated, align the tabs and drill them for bolts. It worked slick! Carpeting will cover the tabs. i may cut off a couple of inches of the inside part, closer to the tabs.
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Had to shorten the upper shaft about 1.5", pull the column back and slide it all in place. I like the clean, simple look of the pencil exhaust tip, and I like that one only costs about $10 even better. It's just kind of old school cool, and once the firewall is patched and painted it'll be perfect!
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Been wracking my brain to see that I've taken care of everything I need to before I lift the body to tackle exhaust, fuel line, and gas tank mounting before blowing the chassis apart to paint. It may be coming off tomorrow.