Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...)

[dieselcruiserhead]

OK got a little more done on the firewall tonight. Definitely taking my time as usual, but got a little more than half done. I am waiting for a drill press a friend is bringing down on sat before I start doing serious work on drilling the holes and building the drivers side piece, which be semi complicated, probably take close to a night to build that one piece...

Anyway, started cutting the ~4" strip to go next to the piece I tacked in.. Then removed it, all welded up...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next, tacked and started welding in..

With the .030 wire I can use the high and low settings now. Still, very hard on the lowest setting to not burn through the very thin OEM Toyota steel.. As a results, welds look crappy but are ground down now so doesn't really matter...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here it is all welded in and ground...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

First pic shows a previous photo. I don't think this would have been an issue but it could have as its close.. So I cut out as shown so the new design will make it cut at about there the white line is...

I cut at the lower line... Again all this is with cut off wheels...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Once I had that done, started cutting the back panel.. I took measurements off the old firewall piece which was cut about 1" too tall to be perfect.. So I measured old then added an inch...

Tacked and welded into place..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Fully welded, final product for tonight.. Next again is the driver side that I'll precut all the holes for..

 

[usmcruiser]

Hot damn Andre you are tearnin it up.

The fire wall is going to look super clean when your done. Very nice, keep up the good work.

 

[1973Guppie]

Dre, come on man!

Is this all you have gotten done?

j/k, just had to get you back. s*** looks good.

Noah

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

LOL.. Cut out the piece for the driver side tonight out of pretty thick 14 gauge.. Got a lot of stuff RE mounting the pedal assembly to the new firewall.. But helped my buddy with the Isuzu start tearing out his stuck cyl sleeve (nightmare).. Anyway should have some progress on that side soon I think!

Cheers Noah

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

OK more updates..

I forgot my camera last week so no pics. I basically cut out the piece for the driver's site and finessed so it fits perfectly (lots of small trimming, etc...)

I used 14 gauge which is pretty thick for this piece, because there will be a lot of stress with the pedals constantly against it. Stock metal is paper thin but there are pressed ribs into the steel to strengthen it. Mine won't have this so the extra width comensates...


I knew this piece would take a while, spent all night on it tonight.. Again a little slow but I am pretty happy with overall quality of it..

First I wanted to say how much I love my welder..! I always turn off the gas at the end of the night. Last time I used it was last week, but it still holds the same pressure for over a week

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Started tracing drivers side to new piece of metal...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

From tracing of old firewall, I figured out where masters should go...


But ** I screwed up ** -- I spent a lot of time last week figuring out where to place the clutch master. I knew the brake master is fine because I used this master last time (would have liked to actually move up a hair, make the brake pedal **less** responsive because hydroboost is so powerful.. ) But I wanted to move the clutch master down 1" so I would get longer pedal throw to compensate for the different Dodge/Cummins clutch master.. But I forgot until after I drilled the hole. And I had so much time in this piece I didn't want to start over... I did figure out a solution though that will work fine..

Anyway, here are pics of figuring out where everything goes. Marked, drilled pilots, then the hole saws..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Forgot to mention...

Finally got a drill press, borrowing from my friend Bill who is doing the Isuzu rebuild in the shop.. Helped a lot for tonight particularly as I wanted to make sure the holes in the firewall are super clean.. It is easy to mess up holes with a hand drill when using hole saws...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next started indexing for holes for bolts on brake master (hydroboost)...

The top of the piece is not level so I had to figure out what was level and mark.. That is what the first pic is, markings to make sure level...

Next had to eyeball hole to make sure fit.. In the end I screwed this up a little...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

When I tried to bolt up, the big center hole was slightly off...

Eventually I enlarged the hole so the master will just barely fit.. This will not be noticeable though in the end...
Second pic shows it mounted...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is final product.. You can see the center hole slightly off...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next did the clutch master.. This one I nailed perfect...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

This is my technique for forgetting to move the clutch master down an inch.. Move the pedals up about 1/2" and back about 1.25". This actually makes the throw of the pedals more like a truck (probably not too necessary) but will let me get the throw I'll need to actuate the clutch...

This unit is the pedal assembly that houses the pedals...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next started working on hole for the passenger side vent.. My last pig (71) didn't have a vent. Some I have seen with foot vents on both sides.. Anyway, I want to reuse so I cut hole for that.. Traced pattern and put in new hardware...

Bottom of second pic shows the hole for the steering shaft.. Instead of reusing (the black tracing), I decided to fab up whole new one that will be non-removable and a single, cleaner, hole... (the blue line shows the tracing)...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

More of the vent...

Hardware, and burned in...