A little more mods / fab

So I have to travel next week (business), so my goal was to get most of the firewall mods completed today.

I finished welding the firewall, made up some gussets for the frame rails under the hood and added the inside gussets back to the tunnel/firewall.

I put the evaporator coil back in the car to see how the gusset would fit with it installed.  There was no way the gusset was going back in the same spot on the tunnel.

After a couple of test fits, I decided this was the best location. 

You can see the modification to the gusset for the evap drain.

The driver's side went back in close to the original position - there was some modification on the top corner.  I still need to finish welding and do some serious grinding to clean it up...  Too tired to continue today and be worth a crap tomorrow.  I'll get after it next week.

Clearly the anti-corrosion dip or electroplate that Mazda does to these cars inhibits the welding process too.  I cleaned the metal very well, but it was still difficult to get a nice bead, without burning through - so lots of stitching was required.