Thanks Steve. It looks to be a reinforcement plate of some type. The firewall doesn’t appear to be any weaker in that area as compared to other Chrysler vehicles that I have researched. Does anyone know why the A Body cars used this plate but other cars did not?
B & E body use a "donut" type seal that sandwiches between the firewall and heater box. A-body boxes don't have a flat surface on the box for a donut seal to seal against. Why I don't know; perhaps the A-body box design was less costly to manufacture and made the "plate seal" design necessary.
