I held the patch in place again and wondered how I could fill this oblong hole that I had created. The flange and gasket that was native to the 68 just wasn’t going to work at all, way too big around, plus the rubber was old and stretched and would already leak water. I needed to use the one from the 89 but it couldn’t fit flush because the bend in the firewall cut across an edge. With that in mind I decided I could cut it so now I had to cut out the opening in my plate to make it fit in. So I held the patch in place and made reference marks with a sharpie and then cut the hole out round. I test fit the flange/gasket and it fit the hole nicely.
Next I cut the flange/gasket so that it would clear the bend in the patch and it fit perfect.
It fit great but the gap at the bottom would have to be filled. All this time I had been avoiding pulling the column back out but it would have to happen to swap this flange on. I knew that I really should just make a new patch but it was almost midnight so I decided I would figure out what to do the next day and I shut down for the evening.
-Richard