1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Going to have to cut the overrider tubes.
The bars at the stock length mounted into the bumperette with the stock hole reach way too far now making the end of the bumper look stubby.
Exploring different options like sliding the tube inward an inch...
but the shoulder would crowd into the shine up light "window". It wouldn't collide or touch it but would just look too busy and not correct.
No matter how we sliced it the required modifications will require rechroming once its all over. The tubes provided are new with perfect chrome so it seemed such a waste to start cutting on these.
What made the best logical sense was to acquire a donor pair of good originals with tired chrome for our purposes. Fortunately our buddy Matt Howard from Deluxe had a nice pair of donors for sale at just the right moment. Now the cutting can begin.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Hi Roy, I can understand wanting that small change. Those exhaust ports can get very sooty if you don't stay on top of them.

[roy mawbey]

Justin, my original 59 356A has no embossment for the rear light as you show in your 30/6/25 photo. Actually I had a question on the rear bumper when I went to look at my car in the late sixties.
I was told by the previous owner my car would have had exhaust pipes going through the chrome overriders but the first owner did not want that as he disliked the way the chrome became black with exhaust smoke and he wanted anyway a two pipe sports exhaust system. All could be returned to the 59 exhaust system if I wanted but I prefer also the sports exhaust. He also advised me the first owner wanted the smaller 400mm diameter steering wheel the same as a Speedster. This has of course remained on my car.

Roy

[JTR70]

Next issue raises its head:
Excess removed then onto shaping and heeling over the arch flange.
Locating the best bumperette profile shape fitment against the bumper. Confirming whether the existing mount hole for it was still in the right spot.
Bumperette hole redrilled slightly over into the needed location. Welding complete with the exhaust arch in nearly completed form. Getting dangerously close to being done on this side.
Again the bumper was dipped at some point so all the inner surface are clean and ready to go. Applying a quick coat of sealer to these surfaces before this mount goes back on for good.
We have both shortened and tightened the radius on this bumper so now the overrider tubes themselves became the next fitment issue. That next...

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Hi Roy, I meant to ask you a while back; does your car have that raised embossment for the 356B reverse light? Thank you! It was very nice to scrounge around and find a suitable donor to fabricate that bracket out of but its double edge sword as it becomes the wrong kind of positive reinforcement. I won't throw anything away as I may need it later! LOL! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin, so much work on that bumper many would have scratched their head and given up ! I think you have done so well on that. I measured today my factory original rear bumper deco position. My 1959 car was finished March /April that year and arrived in the UK early May. The distance from the end of tip of the deco to the end of the bumper is approx 42 mm and from the end of the rubber trim that the aluminium deco rests on the the distance is 40mm.

Because the ends are on the bend measuring is not so easy but yours looks like it is just right. Also how useful you kept that piece of scrap steel with the correct gauge to fabricate that part. You never know when these parts will be so useful !!

Roy

[JTR70]

Reestablishing the exhaust arches.
Paper template traced out from the original shape. You can see the remains of the old arch has just been moved over that one inch.
Trimmed back with both sides of the arch flanged over.
Time to reinstall the bracket temporarily so I can mock up the bumperette with funnel to check for clearance.
Initial mock up confirming ample clearance with the funnels' neck and out at the sides with the "bell".
Flipped the template over and repeated the process.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Repair patch complete. New bracket mount fabrication:
After several rounds of hammering and filing I had chased it about as far as I could. Deco mounted for a test fit against its final shape.
Will only need a swatch of filler to get that last 10% out. Onto the bumper mount bracket, second half of this repair.
The brackets are a heavier 16 gauge and the thickest I had on hand was 18 gauge and that's too thin to make these out of as these brackets deal with and mount directly to those really heavy gauge bumper irons. In desperation I was onto digging deep into my scrap metal box and eventually ran across the perfect donor. This is an old deflection shield from my bench grinder. Turned out to be the right thickness, with just enough width to cut out a complete part. It even had a shouldered bend at just the right spot; it was meant to be. New part traced out here for cutting.
Remains of the donor shield, paper template based on an original and the newly finished replacement bracket.
All set, only some final trimming and bending on the flanges left to do and the capture nut. Looks like the originals but most importantly its thicker like the originals.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Rust repair patch:
Began with a flat piece of 18 gauge.
Gradually planishing in a soft rounded shape to match the bumper profile.
All stitched in then onto picking and filing in the final shape.
Most of this patch will always be visible from the backside so some extra work was required to get it close and as clean as possible on both sides.
Onto a quick work coat to high light the lows and high spots that still need a bit more finishing.

[JTR70]

Rust and old collision repair:
Here is how a stock 356A deco now fits. Like the bumper it would had to have been cut and sectioned just like the bumper.
By contrast here is how short that deco ends up being on a stock 356A bumper. Its no wonder the guy sent it back to me.
To make the needed changes to the bumper all the internal mounting backets needed to come out. The previous rust and collision damage made this bumper an even more viable candidate for the application.
The left side inner double bracket was cut apart so I could straighten the residual crash damage back out. This bumper was chemically dipped clean with only some trace amounts of old rust remaining in between the joints.
The right side lateral mount became packed up with moisture holding muck at some point and completely rotted both it and the skin pictured here. A new bracket would have to be fabricated.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Test fitting deco:
Locked in the needed shape and just about ready to commit to welding up this run. 90% of that buckle from a previous old accident was removed once the excess width was removed. It was meant to be.
Now fits neatly inside of stock A-T2 bumper.
Promising fit so far with the center bolts lining up along with the bumperette hole. Original inside exhaust port arch remains and will hammer in the other half once all the welding is finished.
The lateral holes don't line up so well. This was no surprise as everything at the corners of this bumper have been shifted. The important thing was that the tip of this deco terminates in the right spot.
Direct comparison between the two extrusions.

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! It was a very lucky break with that deco strip, sometimes things work out that way. Definitely it all has to look factory correct when its over; both inside and out. Thanks again. Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin well that turned out very well indeed for you !! A bit of luck having items to check and some parts too. I am sure as you say it will look stock when finished. Great post so well explained and super photos as usual.

Roy

[JTR70]

Making changes requires more changes:
One inch removed from each side is our magic number to achieve that uniform fit and reveal with this tail that we're looking for.
But once we make the bumper shorter and tighter to fit this car the existing deco is going to be too long. The tips of it are going to end up about here; way too long to look right. This deco would have to be cut and shortened and the best place would be under the upright mount area where this bumper was cut.
Then I remembered I had two super short original decos up on my storage shelf. I dug out the best of the two to see if it would work. I had sold this one years ago but the buyer returned it as it was way too short to fit the original bumper he was building.
It coincidently is an inch shorter at both ends making it the perfect part for this alteration. I was told by someone that this shorter deco was for Pre-A but after all of this I am not so sure about that. I can't imagine Porsche letting these late T5 tailed A-cars go out the door with such poorly fitting rear bumpers. Perhaps they made a Late '59 specific rear bumper assembly for these cars and this deco was once a special component of one? Just a theory of course.
At this stage a lot of prep and effort had already gone into this bumper for the mock up so decision was made to just keep building it. The alteration had eliminated most of the old accident damage leaving a pretty nice shell save for a large localized rust hole at the right corner. (where the big square hole is) Moisture holding road grime had accumulated in between the lateral bumper mount and this area severely rusting out both. That repair up shortly. Anyway, we now had our basic bumper and a deco.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Chopping and recontouring the rear bumper to suit:
We had this rough T2 bumper on hand so I decided to use it as the test bed for the best places to cut and for the needed contour changes. It was punched hard in the left upright causing that buckle but looking past this damage you can see its overall width shows the same fitment issues we are having with the gray bumper.
The T2 exhaust arches are a limitation as their locations cannot be changed so the best place to start cutting was though the center of those existing arches. During the direct tail skin comparisons earlier I was able to confirm that there was really no notable differences in these panels between the tail lights except for that reverse light embossment of course. The reveal and its shape through the middle matches well here so all the needed changes of narrowing and contouring will be out at the corners.
For this initial mock up the corners were lapped over the center by one inch.
And moved over one inch on this side. While not perfect the improvement against the width and shape of this skin was immediate.
Bumper is clamped directly to the body to better dial in a matched contour fit. Two inches of overall width out of this bumper is turning the trick. Doesn't sound like a lot but in reality its changing things quite a bit, especially how it effected the chrome trim which I'll show a bit later.

Thanks for looking.

Justin