I spent yesterday fixing the dozen and half extra holes in the firewall from 32 years of brackets, coils, ballast resistors etc. It almost looks like someone had target practice with a .22 rifle.
Here is the before shot:
I was able to borrow a buddy's welder and grinder and ended up filling all the holes myself. Took a few tries but I eventually got the hang of it. I then used some chemical stripper to remove the burnt up paint from the previous owner's carb fire. I only removed what I had to, so I have a reference point to the original semi-flat black paint. And I didn't even burn down the garage either! Here's the after shot: