1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Rough staging the forward upper closing panel:
A lot of balls in the air all at once so now was just as good a time as any to begin rough fitting the forward closing wall. The center is marked on both panels.
and now onto trimming out small bites along the left edge until the center lines match up.
Enough excess removed to allow this panel to slide over into center.
A very rough mock up with the side wall but its a promising start.
Begin locating the latch mechanism next. A ways yet to go but its headed in the right direction.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Back to addressing the "center of the universe" for the front end of this car.
The Hood. It was tempting to just carry on adding components back on but the thought kept nagging at me as to what a mistake it would be to keep building around a damaged hood.
Now is the time to address all of its residual damage and build the body around a corrected hood. As you can see in the photo above the hinge sits cock-eyed on the pocket and rubs the side slightly. This angle does not allow me to slide the hinges in or out without a fight while mounted to the hood. In the end I have to be able to install everything smoothly as a unit as the final paint on the bolts should not be disturbed.
Once the bolts are backed off the hinge relaxes back to center where it should be. The mount flange on the hood needs some correcting.
Similar issue on the right side as well. These are tedious adjustments you definitely want addressed before its all painted.
While most of the problem is on the hood side, the hinges themselves do have some slight bending and twist in them as well.

[JTR70]

Carefully contorted back in line with a large crescent wrench; no hammer strikes. You really have to careful with these later version hinge mechanisms. They are half the thickness of the earlier AT1 and Pre-a version mechanisms and instead have a spring washer installed to move everything over to one side to make up for the thickness discrepancy. If the hinge gets too bent up or deformed the star and the lock get out of alignment with one another and won't mesh correctly. I've delt with that issue before and the only real fix is to disassemble the mechanism and straighten the frame back out separately. The earlier hinges are much more forgiving. Hinges now reset dead center and will correct the hood flanges to match this position as closely as possible.
As the mounting flange adjustment continues I needed another look at the bulge along the left side profile. Setting the rear gap back to 3mm+ here.
That thing sure sits proud. I'm at the point where I'm really getting my mind around all of the damage and the hood is not as unscathed as I had first thought.
A lot of grinder marks on the right side where the skin had been damaged and reworked. It was actually very nicely done as it wasn't anything that jumped right out. Anyway the hood suffered more collision damage than I thought.

[JTR70]

Aside from the hoods profile, the gap on this side is enormous with the hinges centered and the rear cowl gap set and even. Remnants of a buckle at the crown of this fender can still be seen here. The factory weld joint also has a crack in it next to the hood. While the right side bore the brunt of the damage this left fender did shift a little.
Now I was beginning to wonder just how much of this contour discrepancy was in the hood. This fenders damage could be a contributing factor as well?
To get at that answer I decided to mock up this absolutely cherry, unkinked and accident free hood from my '56 coupe.
Mounted on the hinges and dialing the closest 3mm+ across the length of the cowl.
Fits pretty well though its a little proud at the center. Close, but thats why these hoods were numbered.

[JTR70]

Good confirmation;
This unmolested hood bolts tightly against the hinges allowing them to float nicely in the center of the pockets. Confirmation number one.
Any needed future adjustments as far as the hinges are concerned will be to the hood side.
Nearly the same profile issue as before; the majority of the problem is on the fender side! Confrimation number two.
As I try to level the edge of the hood with the forward most edge of the fender everything behind it just falls apart much like it does with the car's original hood. So glad I tried this before just blindly assuming the original hoods profile needed all the correcting.
Not only that but the gap is huge the entire way down. The hood and its hinges are adjusted at center in a relaxed state. This is where it is staying! Everything including this remaining fender will be gapped and adjusted to suit, not the other way around. Remounting the original hood with new confidence to proceed.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[JTR70]

Dialing the hood latch mechanism:
Original hood remounted and the latch mechanism with base was engaged onto the hood shank then lowered down to locate the most centered position in relation to the hood.
Next is setting the base at an attitude that matches as closely as possible with the approach angle of the upper catch. I want to ensure full engagement without any binding or misalignment. The gapped and set hood with the cowl is dictating everything.
This initial mock up is showing a bit more tilt in the lower latch than I remembered but after referring to this undisturbed original there is tilt in this base.
next was adding the upper closing wall in to check for clearance with the latch base.
The new wall does crowd it backwards a touch and the base is now sitting too flat and off in angle with the shanks approach. No surprise as these parts never fall right into place on the first try. Some nipping and tucking coming up next to get that angle back to ensure proper mechanism engagement. I don't any issues with latch jamming when its all over.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin patience is a virtue and you were so right in not assuming things would just be okay. I like the way you proved that error step by step. Also so good again to have a spare item to confirm things as you go. I have over the years had my hood off a number of times and I do have a small difference in gap from the left to right fender. Its almost as though over 64 years the left fender has moved a small amount in the length towards the front nose. I could not correct it on the hinges but over that 500 mm length I could correct it with a little lead, but I won't. Also do you not need the rubber hood seal fitted but not glued in place just to make sure before painting as you need the compression to see the effect on closure height?

Roy

[JTR70]

Agree Roy, final engaged hood position can be tricky. Everything is constructed so lightly and with very little in the way of adjustment options once its all welded together and as you mentioned things still tend to shift and change slightly over time. Then of course there is the preload factor of the hood seal itself that affects its final position with the edges of the body. Just shooting for a final fit that requires the least amount of lead or bondo when its all over. Justin

[JTR70]

Hood repairs:
A voice in my head kept nagging at me stop here and make all the needed repairs to the hood first. I need to build around a hood in final corrected form.
I've repeatedly beat the hoods mounting flange in an attempt to get this hinge centered but it just won't give me the needed movement. The earlier mock up with my hood confirms its the hood and not with the hinge or the pocket.
Closer inspection shows a buckle and a jog in the subframe that is creating the mount flange misalignment.
I have three issues to fix on this side. The slightly high crowned profile along the edge( its not all on the fender side) , the mounting flange and the damage to the center portion of the subframe; all from the old accident.

I decided the best and cleanest plan of attack was to remove the substructure as a whole at the factory joints. Peeling up the pinch seam, cutting the gas welds and drilling the spots along the lap joint.
Its out. Now I can go to town all three of these issues with a clear shot at both inner surfaces. This side of the hood has almost no rigidity now so profile resetting just got a lot easier.

Thanks for looking!

Justin

[roy mawbey]

Well done Justin well spotted! that must the best way to get over that I reckon but, you just could have just been a bit more lucky and not have had that to deal with too.!! More experience I guess you will never forget. I will be interested to see how this repair turns out as nothing much is ever easy when good gaps are needed.

Roy

[JTR70]

I had flashbacks of this hood Roy. It had been run through the mill and had been repaired more than once with the hinge mounting flanges really smacked around to achieve an alignment with its car. While the basic shape was close it was just tired and I could feel it in its structure as the hood hung off the locks. It put me in mind of a sheet of paper that's been crumpled up then flattened back out a couple of times; though the initial shape is back the overall integrity is just not there. A fresh hood would have been my choice but too much had already been invested here by the time the car got to me. Anyway, I didn't want a repeat of this as I'd have to beat the hell out this coupes hood for correct fitment so the best end result was to dismantle the damaged area and build it back up to suit the car.


Substructure repairs at the center.
Beating the shape back into the large middle profile rib first then worked out towards the edge. The kink had actually stretched this last section so I had to flatten the lip to get my shrinker jaws on this area to gather that excess back up.
leading edge rolled back over taking care to add in the curved profile as it went.
Just a quick mock-up against the skin profile. Promising so far. So glad I didn't have to cut this area out where I had marked earlier.
Where we started. Looks like that would just pop right back into place but no the kink stretched the area and it was going away easily and especially with very limited access to get behind it. Onto the next deal...

[JTR70]

Mounting flange removal and repair.
Like the battery box repairs before, lap mounted layers of steel have to be removed for any real shot at getting the base metal ironed out thoroughly. Removal of this mount flange also allows a reset with the hinge centered in its pocked. Touched bottom here as far as disassembly goes. Back to prepping for reassembly.
Grinding away the remaining shoulder of gas weld to so I can hammer out that slight jog and deformation from the old accident.
High spots of the deformation in and around the old gas weld.
damage all pecked out.
Going to add a small gusset in here to bridge across the gas weld joint where they buckle.

[JTR70]

It would be criminal to leave the rust on these inner surfaces while I've got it all opened up so while I worked on the subframe I have the hood bathing in acid outside.
Discrete little gusset might buy a millisecond or two if the hood ever gets accidently forced down.
Made sure it bridged right across this stress riser.
Basic repairs on the lateral substructure run complete. The rest will be fine tuning with the hood as it goes back together. Again the mounting flange will be reset to the hinge resting at center.
Mounting flange acid cleaned then tack welded across the two halves so it didn't shift or misalign while it was hammered back out flat. Factory locating holes were also welded shut as this is all very much almost like building from scratch again.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin, really good information and photos on how you have attempted that repair. It would be impossible to put that just into words as you need to see it! Those stage photos are so good . Twenty years ago just not possible to do that so easily on a forum. There must be a few front lids around with the same problems and guys wondering how to correct it ?? Hope they read this!

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Roy! Agree, all this work would have been impossible to relay in any great detail but for all the modern gadgets we now take for granted.

[JTR70]

Hood work continued:
All the basic restraightening prep complete. Onto the acid bath next for this substructure.
Hood inner surface all clean and ready for a quick sealer coat.
While the substructure soaked I went onto welding up the rust damage to the nose. Took a step drill and opened up the rusted out mounting hole just big enough to get past the thinner metal and back to something I could weld to.
A scrap of old door skin repurposed for the patch. I had to dome it a little first to carry on the profile shape of the skin.
Patch all stitched in and then gas welded the lower rust breaches closed. This lower edge is not long for this world though. The pits are very deep out here and the backside is just as bad with advanced rust still lurking underneath. I'll have to confer with my buddy to see what he'd like to do. More later...

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Hood reassembly prep work complete:
Inner surfaces of all the components cleaned of rust and ready for a coat of epoxy and a top coat.
Epoxied and followed up with a quick of semi-gloss.
Ready to begin reassembly; That up next.

Thanks for looking!

Justin