My 2CV Dolly had suffered from an extensive engine bay fire. Due to corrosion from either /or; flame impingement, fire retardant fluid and battery acid, a new firewall was needed. I could not buy one anywhere, so set about making one.

In addition, the toeboard, its crossbeam and the scuttle crossbeam were corroded, offering further "opportunities".

Using the remnants of the Dolly and a Charleston wreck, a firewall pattern was made on a large sheet of cardboard. I then found a mass production sheet metal fabricator,who would make it from an AutoCAD drawing on his CNC machine. A drawing was made using Claris CAD, and my friend Phil, gratefully made it into an AutoCAD 13 dfx file. The new firewall was made of 0.8mm. zinc steel. No one in Perth could emulate the original ribbing so stiffening upsets were used.

A new toeboard/crossbeam assembly was obtained & joined to the new firewall to allow unitised fitting of the assembly.

To enable use of a spot welder, portions of a wreck were fitted to the wall to allow alignment and fitting.

By this stage I had learnt that the thin steel on a 2CV cannot be patched successfully if there is any rust (due to welding burn through). Although a crossbeam could be made locally, I could not obtain a new right hand drive toeboard assembly. Considering the effort involved in this job a new Left hand drive unit converted to right hand drive was warranted. The new toeboard unit was made from 0.8mm steel, compared with the originals 0.6mm. The alignment of the crossbeam part of the toeboard was poor and needed reworking. The clutch abutment was replaced with a more robust original salvaged unit. A new scuttle crossbeam was made locally out of thick 1mm. zinc steel due to corrosion of the original. The reason for the extra thickness was because I felt stresses on this beam could be high.

The whole firewall & toe board was assembled as a unit to allow spot welding of the stiffening gussets. This method enabled prefitting to the shell on the chassis for positioning & cut out of the steering column hole. There was discrepancy between the profile at either end of the toe board unit, which I could not remove.

At last and suddenly the car's shell takes shape, a great thrill. The new scuttle crossbeam was spot welded to the vent box inside edge & braze welded to the C pillars . In my opinion, the original method of wrapping the crossbeam ends around the pillar onto its flange section, is poor. This design allows movement, evidenced by polishing of the mating surfaces on both the Dolly and the Charlie wreck .(A similar method of fixing is used on the original rear crossbeam). I decided to braze the radiused fillet between the crossbeam and C pillar, as well as doing the original spot welding onto the C pillars flange. The steering column/instrument binnacle was spot welded on the forward side & brazed for extra strength on the inside (some distortion occurred) Spot welding the parcel shelf to the firewall bracket called for some dexterity with welding tips & their angles of attack.