1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[merbesfield]

Justin, I got one of my doors rough prepped today so I decided to review your door rebuild posts for a quick refresher. I see you have a tool for crimping the door skin edges. Do you think this tool is critical or can I use a hammer and dolly? I like having the correct tools for the job, but it's not like I will be doing door skins very often so not sure if needed. Thx, Mark

[JTR70]

Hi Mark,

You could certainly heel it over with a hammer and dolly but the skin pliers just make starting the 90 degree flange over so much easier.


They're only 30 bucks from Eastwood and it was money well spent.
BTW these pliers squeeze down only so far so I do sometimes follow it up with hammer and dolly work. Best of luck with your repairs!
Justin

[merbesfield]

[JTR70]

I found several widely spaced spot welds along the crimped edge

Plug weld holes punched where I found those 4 spot welds.

[admin]

Hi Justin
I was wondering if you might know the differences between a 59 T2 inner doorframe and a B frame.
Just finalized the work on the right frame of my 59,but the left is even further gone and the work was massive.
Thinking of buying the new inner frame of Dansk wich look the same as the 59 T2,ad says B/C tough.

[JTR70]

Hi Dave,

For all intense purposes a Low striker door from AT2 onto B/C is pretty much the same. There might well have been very slight structural detail changes as production went but nothing major. For instance the only difference from B to C that I remember where the addition of some loop tangs to mount the later arm rests to. Since you're looking at repro stampings from Dansk I'd worry about it even less as with any repro part there are always subtle differences from the factory stuff and what you are purchasing from Dansk is their interpretation of a 356 low striker door. For instance I've used their headlight buckets and while very nice in overall shape they where stamped about a half inch shallower than the original buckets which meant other adjustments had to be made to compensate. Hope I answered your question somehow. Glad to hear your making progress on your car. Think about starting progress thread... Love to see what you're up to.

Justin

[admin]

Thanks Justin
I will use the Dansk inner frame.
For sure i will start a thread soon,must say that not much stayed after we went to bare chassis.
I really thought about getting rid of the whole project for a few months.
Maybe 25 % of the chassis is salvable,the rest is crust so a big project.

[Drew.s]

Hi Dave

Which vendor is selling the inner frame? I talked to Dansk a couple of months ago about this panel but they wouldn't sell direct to individuals.
Please post pictures of the panel when you receive it.
Regards
Drew

[JOP]

Drew,
This one was the cheapest one I found when looking quickly to the web.
From Poland so good for you on ya litle island

[bbspdstr]

Dansk parts are an enigma...about 50/50 in my experience. I just returned Dansk 911 door skins because after trial fitting, I noticed that there was almost as much work to make the skins fit as it would to fix the original.

They looked nice at first blush, but putting them on the original inner frame showed too many areas needing work plus the depressed handle areas and the front upper compound curve juncture got a thumbs-down...so I fixed the door the old pre-replacement way.

Conversely, a 356 skin from Dansk was close enough to make it into a Cabriolet door for a high-striker car when it was supposed to be for a low-striker Coupe.

At least they tried. With the door innards found to be worse and worse, the new panel would be a godsend....if they fit.

-Bruce

[JTR70]

1/31/18
Sun roof slider prep.
Now that I have my head around how it all goes together and works I needed to get the hardware prepped for an accurate adjusted lid fitment against the body.

Began with a closer inspection of the footings. A felt liner shores up the contact with the rail but all these where bent open and slightly twisted. I would never be able to get a final adjusted fit with all this slop at the point of contact. BTW: these seem to be painted the same shade of grey that I had mixed up to match the steering column and wheel in my coupe.

Pretty damn close..

Column

Supplied diagram shows the felt liner and parallel flanges.

These where all opened way too wide and again slightly twisted from man handling over the years.

Pair of spanners where the right width for squeeze back to even and to reverse the twist without collapsing the tongs.

Some free style squeezing was needed to get that last little bit.

Looked at this felt I had on hand first but it seemed a touch too thin.

This other muslin type felt that I used for my headliner install seemed to be just the right thickness.

Quick temple for cleaner install.

Glued

Not too firm, but a positive and smooth fit on the rail. Even holds itself there. So glad I looked into straightened these and not just added the felt. Repeat three more times...

All set. Back to dialing in the lid.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

2/1/18

Initial mechanical mock up of S/R.

Reassembly of the actual mechanism is simple once you've done it once but since I didn't take this unit apart I had to rely on a photo and diagram to get me though. These corners can be the most confusing until you see one assembled.

Lid now fully installed with its repaired sliders. These were adjusted in stages to center the lid laterally in the opening and also for a positive friction fit with the track.

The actual sliding was a bit stiff and crude but I have to believe this is pretty much the characteristic of this style.

Initial fit with the lid fully engaged. To my relief it sat pretty close with a nice uniform gap all the way around. Its still factory so no real surprise there.

Nice and even at both this right

and left rear corner.

But slightly high at the center on the lid side.

I was looking for shims at the rear for maybe a quick adjustment but soon realized the mechanism itself dictates the final height. Again the corners were good so the center will require some bodywork to level that out.

Forward corners started out low so with the extra shims provided I added one to this right side and it all fell into place.

The left side required two more but the lid is now a little high at the center laterally there. Have to play around with it a little. Anyway this is how the initial mock up went today. Working on the headliner frame next.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[John Pierce]

The lid looks very nice Justin. I've spent hours playing around with my lid to get it to fit nicely.....a little shim here.....a little shim there. The repetitiveness will drive you crazy.

I ended up switching out the oval head screws that hold down the rails for oval head #6-32 x 1/2" machine screws as I didn't like how the weakly the screws held. They machine screws are indistinguishable from OEM and you can lock the nut down tight without having to worry about them pulling loose. Even with rewelding the holes. I mention this as your screws appear a bit long.

Cheers,

John

[JTR70]

Thanks for the tip on that John, Yeah, I don't like those screws at all.

2/5/18

Headliner frame repair.

A repop frame was supplied but the cancer is so localized that it would be a crime not to fix and use this original. Only the forward lateral sections and four of the attachment clips need help.

Want to get past the rust and weakness all the while saving as much of the original metal as possible. Decided on making the cut just center of the holding clip to both conceal it and to support the weld joint.

4 of the 6 clips need replacing but they could not be easier to replicate.

Left side provided me with placement and center for the release housing.

So the right side went first. New section all grafted in here. Repeat other side.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

2/6/18

Headliner frame repairs nearly complete.

Lateral repair sections complete and this thing is one piece again.

More clearance was needed a very long time ago in this slot opening and it was crudely tin snipped way back when. Decided to clean up the shoulder and file shape past the damage. Socket was the right OD to etch around

All set.

Last repair was to replace the clips on the header.


Quick mock up on the lid.

Extra clearance in that slot will come in handy.

Its nice to see the parts pile getting smaller.

New clips folded and ready. The OG clips had a small hole which I'm thinking was just a marker to ensure the clips where not installed backwards.

all the clips on the right side where cooked

But the left only needed one replaced.

First test fitment after repairs.

Its all seating together fine.

About ready to commit and fold those tabs down to mate these two once again for good.

After that I test fit it all with the car.

That next. Thanks for looking!
Justin