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"No bolts
firewall" on my 1930 Ford Coupe Hotrod and fitting a heater/demister.
Firewall:-
As I'm trying to maintain "no visible
bolts" on the firewall of my Hotrod, I needed to find a way to mount the
steering column where it passes through the firewall. Here is how I did it.
| I made an oval hole for the
column to pass through and tacked welded the piece in. |
I made 2 bolt holders (left of
pic.) from 1/4" thick x 1" steel, drilled a hole and
welded the head of a bolt into a counter bored hole at the rear,
then ground it flush. |
Click to see the photos full size. |
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| The two brackets were bent
to the column angle and a slot was cut in each bracket. This is
necessary as the bolt will enter the slot at an angle due to the column
angle. The photo shows the final position of the brackets. The
length of the slots will depend on the angle of the column and the
length of the bolts used. The top bracket (right) was also reinforced
with a side piece as the bolt is further from the column. Probably
overkill as there should be little stress on the column. |
Here are the two brackets in
place before welding to the fire wall and column. This is the tricky bit
and I will tack weld all in place, remove the column and finish
weld. (MIG)
Care should be taken that there are no
flammable parts inside the column, before welding! |
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Demister:-
Here in Australia,
closed cars normally require the fitting of a front window demister system for
registration. As
I'm already fitting a heater (from a '67 Datsun Bluebird) that has a demister
function, it only remains to fit suitable outlets to allow warm air to clear
the screen. On an improved A model Ford coupe, which has an opening front
window, there are a series of slots above the dashboard through which it is
easy to blow air. All you need is some sort of outlet and then piping to the
heater.
(This is an
adaptation of the demister vents system used by Shane's 30 coupe on my home
page)
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These are the slots above the standard A model
dashboard. A hole will be cut as indicated, one on each side so the
tubes below can be fitted through the dash to the heater with the outlet
pointing up into the dash slots towards the windscreen. |
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A piece of suitable sized exhaust pipe was bent by the
supplier and I cut off the section shown. Two pieces can be cut from the one
bend. |
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The resulting oval hole is tapped in on the end and a small
piece of flat sheet steel was welded at the bottom of the hole to give an approximately
square hole for the vent outlet.
This outlet hole will fit under the dashboard slot and the other end will
pass through the round hole in the dashboard. It will be welded to the dash with a couple of spots of weld. The inside
of the pipe will be
painted black. |
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Here's the left side vent fitted into the dashboard. It
will be covered by the dash panel used in an A model coupe. All that remains
is to run a flexible hose behind the dash, to the heater demist outlet. |
Coming soon ?
How to fit a
heater without having ugly water hoses pass through the firewall
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Email
me,
especially if you are building
an "A" model hotrod!
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april 2000, updated 20 April, 2000August 12, 2010
Every effort has been
made to include accurate information only, but please accept that these
pages reflect my interests and ideas only.
No guarantees
are given or implied as to the suitability of this material for any purpose
whatsoever.
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