1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Right upper corner repair:
Decided to hold off on that inner patch to go ahead and finish repairing the inner sections first.
A real luxury having a clear shot at these internal structures.
corner and vertical wall patches installed. It worked out leaving that inner section for last as this hole gave me an access to clamp the patches tightly as the stitching went. Welds also dressed and cleaned up at the bottom of the hinge pocket; on this side anyway.
One last piece left. A lot of welding to clean up in here as it was a bit awkward to lean in and weld reaching up. I sure miss this thing being on a rotisserie!
Last piece welded in. I got a little greedy with the heat and blew this hole out at the very bottom. Its hard to convey but its little set backs like this at the end that can really try you during a session. This sort of gives you a tiny window into the realities of that speedster project above Roy; there is just not enough good steel left in it to weld onto.

[JTR70]

Thanks once again Roy! Right, it depends on what climate it spent most of its existence in but more importantly how it was stored through those years.
This recently unearthed speedster is a perfect example. It was left undercover in a back yard for 40+ years.
The owners I'm sure thought they were protecting it from the elements with all the generations of blue tarps and car covers through the decades.
but all they did was create a hot house and the rust went absolutely wild.
The rust has essentially burned it down to a set of torsion housings, its speedster specific parts and a VIN#. While it still would have rusted the car in general would have faired far better uncovered.

[roy mawbey]

Justin you have so much patience! Its hard to believe all these restored 356 cars do not have these issues above just sitting there waiting to be eventually found . I guess it helps if the car lives in parts of CA or Nevada for its working life but to see all the layers of rust on this area of the car must mean it sat outside somewhere wet for a long time. Although, it did not show all the problems when you started just like so many other356 cars many still probably, with hidden problems like you show above. After deciding to keep my car clear of wet roads after doing all the work in the mid seventies I reckon it would never have lasted another50 years without so much work.

So good for the owner to know even though he will never see it, these area's above are attended to properly. Its so true, the 356 shape just tends to hide the problems from view. Even in poor shape they still look so good to the eye. Or they do to mine !!

Great thread indeed.

Roy

[JTR70]

remnant wall removal and corner rust repair and clean up.
Rust damage always runs a little further than you think. The cowl removal above this intersection is exposing more rot that I'd never been able to address otherwise.
Last section of the old vertical closing laid over exposing the rotted area I could see from the door well. Now I have a clear shot at this rusted out corner I had started to strip back some time ago.
The remains of the top flange of the old wall go back and over a little deep than I thought (high lighted with the screw driver) I'll have to drill out a couple of more spot welds so I can lift the corner of the tough out of my way.
Four panels layer and intersect at this corner and all four rotted through. This outer most layer is the kick panel or speaker boss section.
Begin paper templates based on the rusted foot print of the old section. Small but tedious stuff.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

They are tricky at times Roy. If the damage you're after is under a couple of top layers or entombed behind a closing panel then there really is no other way around it unless you're just going to fish plate over the top of it. That of course would be a huge red flag when you go to sell it. Thanks Roy!