1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Begin stitching the trough and then a needed profile correction.
Began stitching the trough back on working from the center outward.
Had a good basic gap started but as I looked at it the center was just too blunt and flat.
Suspecting that the original hood though very nicely repaired all those years ago might still be a touch too curled over at the leading edge from the collision. I mounted my pristine hood and it confirmed what I was seeing. The hood is supposed to hang out just a touch more.
The rule is you've got to build around the closing panel but if its out so too will be the adjacent panel. These two wrongs where not going to come out right. I began pounding the edge of the hood out and in turn had to reprofile this center section. Its too much to recut, stretch and reweld what was just seamed welded up so a fresh piece was needed.
Profile shaping a fresh piece from some old original metal.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! There is a lot all going on at once and you have to cover all the bases otherwise you'll have to back track to take care of the detail you missed...ask me how I know. I'm shooting for minimal amounts of required filler lead or plastic so a little more effort is needed to get it there. The next challenge will be adding in the fenders and getting them to flow smoothly in with this new nose. Something new to look forward to.. Thanks again! Justin

[roy mawbey]

You must be so pleased with that effort Justin. You deserve that excellent result. I never ever thought , it would involve so much work to correct it all to your exacting standard. Mind you, without the Cellette jig and a known 356 in good condition to refer back to so many factory measurements ,it could have been so much more difficult for you. I hope many have followed this thread to become fully aware, of just how complicated a repair can be on a damaged 356 front end !

Roy

[JTR70]

Left lower brace in further solidifying the new nose into its final position.
Before it went on for good I had to hammer flat those incorrect rolled edges.
After a bit of checking and rechecking for square and even then the end of it was welded to the bracket mount. Had it at the needed length on the last try so no further adjustments there. I did move the fender tab upward a touch so the approach angle matched the other side.
Wanted the brace runs to appear symmetrical through the windows of the horn grill openings. Not a big deal but it was just bugging me until I made that quick simple adjustment.
It took some doing but this nose is now squared and evenly mounted with the chassis; spaced and angled to match my reference car and finally gaped and matched to the edge of this hood. A lot of ducks to get in a row for sure.
Now onto stitching it back up with the trough starting with the leading edge first.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

I have to Roy, I've been punished too many times in the past. LOL...

[roy mawbey]

Every job you do on this car needs thought before you weld !! Just as well you do that Justin.

Roy

[JTR70]

Adding in the fender braces:
Approximate distance from the battery box wall to the edge of the fender on my undamaged original reference car is 16 3/4 inches. This nose in its relaxed state is just shy of 18 inches.
I would normally like to set that outer bolt in the center position but with the preliminary measurement I'm getting the edges of this nose must do nothing but come inward.
So I'm going to shorten this brace a little more so the bolt starts the tangs inner edge giving me full adjustment to push the bodywork inwards. Chalked up my table here and ready hammer a little more of the shoulder down flat allowing the brace to mount inward a little more.
First mock with the reshortened brace now locating the bolt at the inner edge of the slot giving me full range to come inward. Brace sitting square upper conduit slipping in nicely so far.
Brace attached to the bumper mount. Gas welded along the sides as originally. Every undisturbed original I've removed were also welded and attached internally. With the conduit out of my I was able to get in there and catch the folded shoulders and attach them to the mount as the factory did. Moving onto the left side.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Thank you Sir!

[roy mawbey]

Well done Justin

Roy

[JTR70]

Can't tell you what a relief that it was to finally see this corner falling into line with all the trouble I've had with it since fitment began.
Basic gap and body profile off the edge of the hood established. Gone as far as I want to go up here for the moment.
Now that the nose is centered with the chassis and gapped to the hood I can begin tying it in further with confidence.

Fender braces and headlight buckets up next.
Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Tacking the rest of the skin up the sides of trough.
Went up the left side first by carefully shaping a filler strip to bridge the gap where the trough edge needs to be and where it once was at the skins edge. All tacked in with my 3MM+ gap and leveled off from the hood's edge. Of course this will change slightly as the welding continues so I'm only committing to tack welds for a while.
Then onto the left side; and again this damn lower corner still wants to sit low and not carry the line off the edge of the hood. I think this problem is a combination of some slight residual damage on the hood and maybe some tightness with the new skins profile. Either way most the give has to come from the skin side as the substructure will begin asserting itself if I try heeling the edge over more than a mm or two.
Before any tack welding along this side the skin had to be raised to the needed level with the hoods edge. Began adding paint sticks in behind it to get the needed height.
This compensation height now made the vertical lip too short along this troubling run so an extension strip was added.
Extension strip shaved down to needed height against the edge of the hood and then the right side was tacked locking in that shape. Not perfect but its all well within striking distance.

[JTR70]

Hi Roy, The cellette bench was so important for dialing the chassis but like you said, now its really providing critical confirmation as the nose is being fitted. The hood is really tricky and I'm not surprised that the gaps changed on you a little as the years have rolled by. You'd be amazed at how badly a previously nice fitting hood will behave just by simply removing the rubber seal. The hood really just floats in the latched position if you really think about it. Even the plunger on the hood side, if there is slight warped or walk in it you can manipulate the gap left or right just by rotating it. A lot of variables and the gap I'm trying to establish now is most certainly going to change on me as the welding progresses. I just have to make sure I've left myself enough wiggle room to compensate for that eventuality. Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin this hood fitment has been so interesting where you have to get the perfect 'gap' to body correct. What a good idea to check the rubber seal at this stage and again the Cellete helps to confirm your methods along with the wooden sticks as you have no special fixtures. So much to consider to get this gap correct. I make a point now which I expect you are fully aware of but its never been wrtitten down in any book I have on gap clearance settings. So don't laugh if I mention it below:-

I have removed my bonnet lid a number of times over these 55 years of me opening it. But a while ago I noticed on the left side the gap had increased to the right hand side. The increase in gap on the left side occured on the last 3/4 of the lid towards the front nose. I have never hit anything and it puzzled me a lot. I thought maybe the L/side fender had sort of moved or dropped in some way. It was annoying ! So I decided to go through the bonnet lid instalation again by the factory manual. I released the two nuts on the hinge arms each side and checked the also the 4 year old bonnet rubber seal . All hinges worked well no apparent problems at all. I then went through the procedure of resetting as per the book and I had the same clearance issue!

So... I then tried a thought I had to correct it. I left the two L/H hinge bolts tight but lightlyloosened the two right side hinge bolts. Then I lightly pushed the bonnet over to the left side and still holding this position I tightened the two R/side hinge nuts. When lowering the lid it had corrected everything back to even gap clearance left and right !!

This did surprise me that it corrected this extra 2mm or so error in the bad area only. This was done maybe a year ago no problems with the hinges it just solved my problem of getting an even gap all around.

Roy

[JTR70]

Nose fitment continued:
Hardest part of locating this nose to the chassis is that I don't have dedicated holding jigs. I figured out a way around that this time around. Measuring the distance from the battery box to the noses' edge on my original undamaged reference car I was able to make these standoffs out of paint sticks. The right thickness now holds the nose at just the right distance away from the box while also supporting its weight with a quick clamping. This solved a lot of placement challenges all at once. Now onto both centering and leveling the skin to the chassis.
After several rounds of measuring, clamping and remeasuring again I finally had the nose centered and leveled to the chassis. Grill openings are equal distance from the battery box walls. For additional confirmation the horn grill openings reveal a near identical amount of the cellett fixture.
Comfortable enough to begin tack welding it to the trough's leading edge from the center outward.
I am still dealing with the profile misalignment at the center of the hood with the center profile of the nose but I determined that I couldn't worry about it right now. I need to fully set and mount the rest of the nose first then I can come back and clean these profile discrepancies.
Continued working my way up the sides fishing the skin's edge up level with the hood as it went. Again note the noses' bottom leading edge with the cellette's holding fixture. This is about as square and even as I could have hoped for.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Back to refitting the nose.
Not there yet but I wanted to begin introducing the hood seal to plan for any future fitment issues.
And of course it stopped the hood well short of latch engagement. The left side run sits a bit high, so this and the thickness of sheet metal screw heads were the obvious culprits with this initial clearance issue. Again not quite there yet but this is critical aspect that need consideration as it goes.
Right side 3mm+ gap and shape with the edge of the hood re-established.
With the right side set the left side ran too tight against the hood. I had to reopen one relief cut and add in another to gain the distance and shape with this side of the hood. All set here.

Now back to fitting the new nose to the car.