I now have everything important lined up on my plywood firewall. Both the clutch and brake master-cylinders are in their final locations and the steering column has been installed. I will now transfer all of the markings onto my steel and proceed from there.
Before I actually cut into the VW bug’s sheet-metal fire-wall, I need to be certain of the pedal and steering column locations. I cut a piece of plywood to match the steel fire-wall and transfered all the initial markings to get the pedal mount locations. I am also trying to line up the MR2 steering column so it can pass through the fire-wall. The dowel rods in the first part of the video do not pass through the plywood they are there just to mark each side to get a hole location.
The VW bug fire-wall has basically been completed and bolted in. I have also bolted in the dash-board plate and everything seems to be very rigid and strong. I will next need to get the exact positioning of the pedal locations and cut the holes in the fire-wall.
With the firewall plate bolted to the existing VW bug sheet-metal, I will need to add an additional piece of steel for strength. I will be using a 2×2 piece of angle to be placed from side to side in the center of the firewall plate. This member will use a few existing bolt holes in the front end sheet-metal.
2 New slide shows see page: MR2 VW bug pics page 6. MR2 VW bug pics page 6
I now have the VW bug front firewall constructed out of steel. I traced the outline from my foam-board template. I will strengthen the firewall with a piece of 2×2 angle iron and then I will attempt to place the MR2 pedals.
Before I reinstall the newly painted VW bug dash-board/steering-column support members, I need to create the foward fire-wall. I will mount all of the pedals and various other things to this plate. It appears that I can just bolt the fire-wall plate to some of the existing sheet-metal from the original VW firewall.
With the VW bug dash panel cut and fit, I must now remove all the support pieces and paint everything. I am pouring some of the rust bullet down inside the rear part of the fender wells. There is some rust down in there and I hope to convert it all with this rust converter.
I cut the steel dash-board stiffing plate from 18 ga. steel. This plate will be screwed on with 9 screws, 4 on the top holdin it to the original VW bug sheet-metal and 5 holding it to the new steering column support. This plate should add a lot of strength to the entire assembly.
I am now building a re-enforcement plate for the dash board. This plate will help stiffen up the dash-board/steering-column support. I will first build a template from poster board and then transfer the profile to steel. I will cut the steel and fit it in place.