I understand the bolt thing , but you better hope u never have a trans. explosion !! I don't have room for a blanket or shield, so I welded reinforcing straps across my tunnel , w/ the pinch seam welded completely shut all the way across.
I had a very violent trans explosion once , right on the starting line , in a 66 belvedere , they are quite a bit more well built than the A bodies and stronger --------------still tore it up pretty bad.
An alternative would be special holes in the right locations to reach the bolts from the interior , using a snap in plug to stop up the holes. They would only have to be big enough for a socket to go thru. -jmo
