Worked on making a firewall during this past week.  I ended up scrapping the first one which was actually two pieces with a 90 degree bend at the top.  Our sheet metal brake at work couldn't handle the material thickness and the bend wasn't a full 90 degrees.  I tried a couple things to make the bends sharper but it just didn't look good so I went back to my original idea of a flat firewall.   Friday night I got the firewall cut out but discovered I needed to move the front transmission hoop forward.  Then I discovered I needed to re-make the bridge so it was taller to facilitate transmission removal in the future.  Once the hoop was in I dug out the old wiring harness and started to clean it up.  I shortened a lot of wires and removed a lot of the plugs I had left in previously but never used.  The second picture shows the harness after 3 hours of cleaning.

Since I won't have a large dash to hide the firewall I had to find another way to keep the wires from view.  I made two small panels and mounted them on standoffs which will allow me to conceal the ECM and the bulk of the wires.  This also allows me to mount components on 3 different planes maximizing the space available.  When I pull the firewall I plan on cutting a window on both sides to allow me to see the area around the inside of the tires.   I also have a bunch of other stuff to mount to the firewall, some more fuse blocks, power distribution blocks, etc.

On Saturday I headed to the junkyards with Jack to find some parts.  I needed a small pedal assembly and a Toyota driveshaft from a long bed with a carrier bearing.  The smallest and easiest to remove pedal assembly ended up being from a Samurai.  I still had to cut the pedals down about 6" since my floor is very shallow.  The gas pedal is from the Toyota parts truck.  I got the pedals and master cylinder mounted by Saturday night and then discovered I should have mounted the steering wheel first since the master cylinder was in the way of the steering column.

So on Sunday I shifted the pedals and Master Cylinder over several inches.  The bracket, oversized heim joint and quick disconnect for the steering wheel came from Afco Racing, steering wheel was a Grant GT from Jegs.  I did have to drill the holes bigger on the steering wheel to fit the coupler despite the Grant people claiming it would work with the coupler, no big deal but unexpected.  Jack supplied the other required part, a section of 3/4" dia. tubing for the shaft.  Once the wheel was mocked up where I wanted it I picked a spot for my steering valve.  Other than needing to make a new adapter to join the steering shaft and u-joint, this part of the project is pretty much done.

Part Numbers

Afco Racing

#30373 Economy QR Hub

#30380 Mount, Steering Column

#10400 Rod End, 3/4" Oversized Bore

#10140 Jam Nut (2 Required)

Jeg's

#470-415 Grant Challenger Steering Wheel (15" Model)

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