1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Upper wall repair continued:
Touched bottom and ready to build this joint back up.
Left side flange first and tied back into the bulkhead wall. Right side next which will lay over top.
Backfilling and lap joint complete. Lapped edge detail in front of the drain tube replicated as found.
Internal tie in with the interior bulkhead wall complete.
Weld repairs to this wall finally complete, both sides.

[JTR70]

Upper wall and flange repair:
Backfilling the gap and rebuilding the upper lap joint to replicate what was there.
Tedious process prep of grinding and drilling spot welds to remove the remains of the original upper closing wall's flange.
Flange remains to either side cleared for the repair but the rest of the run still needs to be peeled; later on.
Removing just enough on the right side to get past the damage.
Cleaned back and now repeating the process on the left side.

[JTR70]

Lower wall repairs complete.
Plate fully welded in completing the repairs out here.
Welds cleaned and dressed back here. Final finishing and trim to the lower flange end to carry on the original wall line.
Original gusset remounted and aligned with its original spot welds and set screwed into position to dial in the repairs.
Reproductions of this gusset are only 20 gauge so the plan was always to rebuild the bottom run of this original part.
The very versatile perimeter repair flange section will become the new bottom of this gusset. In 18 gauge of course. This repair shortly but headed to the top of this wall to finish up those repairs first.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Lower wall prep complete.
Vertical welds complete and dressed.
Made sure the weld penetration was thorough on both sides. After all the tugging and cutting I ended up with a bit of an air gap here but will back fill it once the reinforcement plate is in for an additional attachment point.
Ready to begin plug-welding this plate on working from the center outward.
A lot of holes to fill and it wasn't quite finished yet. A quick seam weld across the vertical weld joint for additional peace of mind. As the welding progressed I did repeated "pin pulls" to make sure the beam was staying put. The bottom pin is aligning perfectly and slips right in and out. The top still wants to lean back just a touch but the top of this wall hasn't been set at this point so not an issue and remains well within striking distance.
My little unauthorized addition will lurk under the factory gusset in total secrecy from either side of this wall once the work is completed.

[JTR70]

Fender and most of the upper closing wall removed giving me a clear shot at the frame panel. Back to that repair now.
After the relief cut this side of the beam was finally positioned correctly without load or tension. Lower vertical cut has now been back filled and mostly welded up except that last bit of upper flange. As you can see it was almost there but I just couldn't get the wall to give me that last 5MM or so. This is such a critical and compromised area with both a lower horizontal weld joint and now a vertical run that I felt it necessary to add in a back up plate to support this section and these weld joints.
Developing the paper template that will back up most of these weld joints while remaining concealed and undetectable under the factory gusset. I also wanted it long enough to overlap and go well pasthe toe-board bulk-head wall junction for additional strength .
Onto metal and its 18 gauge of course.
Final shape and numerus plug weld holes added for a thorough attachment along the wall. A bit more lower wall prep before this can go in but close.

[JTR70]

Last resort:
I was at my end by this point, between all the time and effort lost on repeated pulls and that final beam loosening try.. I just cut the damn thing. As much as I tried to avoid it I was out of time and patience. Time to move on.
Making more space to work. The upper closing wall is badly wrinkled up front and all along the top of its flange at the fender.
Its also rusted out as it disappears behind trunk wall and into the door well. Thought about saving it but it will be cleaner as a full replacement.
Only the top of cowl would be holding this fender on through that replacement and the eventual repair of its leading edge.
There's rust lurking under the cowl area too so removal of the fender was an easy decision. More on this next.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

With its back broken at that upper flange it came down with much less effort than before.
Fixture and plank reinstalled and...about the same pin alignment. But now, as you can see all of this downward pulling was putting a wave in the lower portion of the wall just below the brake line tab footprint and just ahead of the bulkhead wall. It was beginning to go sideways on me and was becoming apparent that the last few MM's I was trying to gain was probably in behind the bulkhead area which is now set in stone with the floors and longitudinals fully installed. This is a catch 22 as I wouldn't have dared to crank on this frame with almost no structural integrity through the cabin area.
An exaggeration, but I had visions of this old photo that Vance had posted if I'd attempted a pull on this body with minimal structural integrity through the center. BTW: Doesn't the look on that dogs face say it all...
The slight dent and bite mark from chain shows just how much load was being put through this side just to get this far.
At this point I was exploring other options as it was clear that the wall wasn't going to stretch much further. I was desperately trying to avoid cutting it so the idea came to drill out the spots along the beam flange to free it from the wall and reposition it where it was needed. I started drilling but the spots are bigger and very numerous. Factory spots are tough and these bigger ones are even tougher...After about an hour in I gave up on this approach. Glad I stopped before I had cut into that donut securing the root of the bump stop.

[JTR70]

Another round:
Plank and fixture reinstalled to see what if anything was gained. It was improved but as you can see its still a few MM's up too high. Again, I could loosen the base bolts, raise the fixture, insert the pins and synch the bolts back down for a mock up fit under tension but that's not what I'm after. I need a tension free pin insertion when its all over; especially at the bottom beam.
I had pretty much chased out any noteworthy deformation up here by this point. The next plan was cutting this lap joint full open to hopefully give me that last few MM's I needed.
I had to get at the topside of this lap joint so a little more of the trunk floor corner had to be peeled up.
Alot of spot welds holding this lapped flange together so there wasn't much left of it once I got it apart.
Fixture and plank removed again for another downward pull attempt to gain that last few MM's

[JTR70]

Various pull attempts:
Back to repeated pulls and releases while tapping on the remaining deformation on that upper corner.
I had the beam outward far enough but it was still bucked upward; I needed a straight down pull angle. A clean downward angle pull required the removal of the fixture and the outrigger base plank. A bit of a process but no way around it. Chassis is once again chalked and supported with that scissor jack at the bulkhead in preparation for this pull.
A baseline was marked at 8 inches off of the bench surface to track the downward movement. It needed to come down about an 8th inch. Not asking for much.
After several pulls and releases it always seemed to just spring right back. Another issue was as it was being pulled down the beam also went backwards slightly. Very disappointed and frustrating to say the least.
By the final attempt I really cranked down on it and went almost a 1/2 inch further than needed hoping this would overcome most the spring back and land it in close to the 8th inch gain I was looking for.

[JTR70]

Secondary advantage for the removal of the trunk floor.
Both sides of the leading edge are folded over vertical wall flange then heavily spot welded as you can see above. Don't know if it will be successful but will try drilling this underside first to hopefully reopen this lip and get it to lift off of the original wall's flange remains. If I can get that far I'll be able to grind the flange remains away. Thats the plan for now anyway. If that fails I'll have to add a new section on.
The center portion of the flange is fortunately open and accessible but as you can see there was an earlier attempt to remove it but they went too far with the grinder. Same issue I was left with on the tunnel flanges. Hate that this happened so close to the ID number but it will have to be repaired.
The final advantage will be joining these two together first once the repair and prep are completed. It will be far easier and cleaner to join them before the floor goes back into the car.
But first, back to getting this side of the beam back into spec. The main culprit is that upper corner just in front of the drain tube.
Here is the back side of that area where it remains bunched up and swollen. Again a clean shot at this area with the trunk floor gone.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks very much John! As expensive as it was to outfit its been an incredible point of reference. The fixtures I believe are made in Europe and R.D. markets them. They're very nice but still needed a few adjustments on the rear jigs. Oh man, it relaxed a bit but eventually it would give me no more and I had to resort to some relief cutting which I'll share next. It was all quite the challenge. I appreciate you forwarding this thread onto anyone who might be interested. Thanks again for all the great words of support you guys, it is always appreciated! Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! Trying to document as best as I can what really went into repairing this old car body but these posts are still just a small window into the process. Having done this work yourself, you know what a hard slog it can be at times.

[jjeffries]

Justin, this is incredibly cool. Celette system is the ultimate go/no-go tool, beautiful that you can buy new fixtures from R-D. The ghosts of the Reuter Karosserie metalworkers are cheering you on. All the metal relief you’re doing, step by step … us readers can feel the tension in the sheet metal gradually getting relaxed. Seriously, just as good as it gets, as all your work. I’m forwarding it to friends. Best wishes, John

[roy mawbey]

Well done Justin very good thinking on making it accessable to work on. Your photo's and method of working are as I have said many times really good. So many traps you cou;d fall into without giving everything such careful thought. I hope others are following this thread as its so interesting to see your efforts stage by stage.

Roy

[JTR70]

Had to have clear access to the back of this wall and the remaining deformation.
I normally make it a rule to stay clear of ID panels but after a bit of deliberation it became clear that I needed a clean shot at the back side of the damaged frame panel. Removing the forward section of this floor would give me needed access. The second advantage to removing this panel is allowing me to fix and open up this leading edge flange; which still contains the old vertical walls flange. It would be very difficult to straighten and open this up while mounted. Can't get at it easily on this bench(metal plated floor just below) and can't be done the rotisserie as my attachment point would right underneath and also in the way.
Drilling out the row of spot welds along the sides and cutting it in half along the toe-board bulk head wall flange. At mid-flange to both support and conceal the weld joint once its stitched back in. Foward panel removed giving me plenty of access.
This was the view I needed especially the upper rearward corner.
With this panel free I can both open and straighten this leading edge out on my table. As you can see its heavily spot welded along the sides and would be nearly impossible to fix this cleanly mounted in the car and me working upside down.

Thanks for looking.

Justin