1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Conduit bender fab
Watched several videos on making your own tubing bender. Followed their lead and made my own shoe or profile die from a piece of pipe. Bent to a 90 that more closely matched my original reference examples.
Then it was onto build the base and fulcrum point. Other half of the pipe was used on the lever arm to pull and stretch the tube around the corner. All made from scrap and not pretty but it did the job.
The quicker and tighter 90 degree turn I was looking for.
Begin test fitments. A small silly detail but I was now feeling a lot better about moving forward with it.
Dialing the final stand-off length to match what was there originally.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Conduit tube in for good.
Last of the excess being cut clean and square with my trusty cutter.
Then flared the end as found originally. Tube now ready to go in for good.
Positioned to sit nearly square but with a slight upward angle to encourage any water that may find its way in there to drain into the battery box. Just making sure it doesn't pool and sit in the elbow. Both ends all welded up.
Every original undisturbed conduit I've seen received a two tack welds at the 3 and 9 o'clock position at the outer battery box wall.
Always shoot to replicate those original build details when possible.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Right fender brace installation complete.
Gas weld around the neck of the conduit sealing up the bucket. Leaving the plug welding around the headlight bucket for last in case there are any last minute adjustments that need to be made.
At the opposite end, the edges of the tube and flared hole in the box wall were fused around their edges as originally done.
Then it was onto the last two pieces of the puzzle. A full horn mock up would be needed to set and locate the base mount in its best position. The upper brace run was now a bit short with the new conduit. A small backfill extension in process of being added here. Dialing in the final needed length.
Upper brace lengthened and ready to go back on for good. Once this was tacked in the horn mock ups were next to set the base mount.

Right side fender brace completed. Horn mount set in its best position with gas welds replicated as my original reference shows. So much easier and cleaner to build this brace in the car to suit versus trying to wrestle a preassembled unit in to fit like it should. I missed a weld here BTW. The upper brace weld should be solid all the way around the conduit. I'll have to go back and weld up the center of it.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Last confirmation fit after all the welding. Horn clears the bucket and battery box.
Horn sits level...
and is centered in the window.
Then it was onto one more confirmation fit for seal clearance with the ring before plug welding.
Last little job on this side of the nose after the bucket plug welds was opening the holes for the turn signal.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Marker light holes.
Original T2 reference. Elongated mounting holes at the 3 and 9 o'clock position for the later stand -off pedestals. The center hole is also slightly larger to accommodate the base.
T1 mounting holes are at the 12 and 6 o'clock position as the light base mounts directly to the body. Both orientations just ensure that the chrome trim ring and its mounting screws end up at the 3 and 9 o-clock position when its over.
Pilot holes drilled and ready to punch out the big one then file and elongate the lateral mounting holes.
Punched and filed. My knock out punch is slightly smaller than the original but clearance should be fine.
I just so happen to have the super late A marker light assembly that takes the T5 lense on hand. Mounted on fine.

[JTR70]

Socket hole is slightly smaller but no clearance issues with it or the boot.
Right side metal work chores completed.
Moving back over to the left side to prep the bucket for final installation.
Before the bucket goes in I had to finish picking and filing the weld joint. I had to be able to reach in through this opening for direct access to the back of this weld joint to have any shot of getting it even close to uniform.
Slowly working my way over the top.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin now that bit of work just looks perfect to me. Very well done and not easy to do at all. Some of your tools really help you I think. The tools are so important !!

Nice photos too by the way !

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks very much Roy! I agree, it can become just about impossible without the right tools.

[JTR70]

Smoothing out the big weld joint:
Making my way up and over the top of the fender with small improvements to the surface with each pass.
Once I get down to the nose's horizontal weld joint access through the headlight opening won't be necessary . The wheel well opening provides the best access from there on down.
I'm dealing with old crash damage along with the welding heat distortion as I make my way down the side.
Fogged another tracer coat on but this area chased just about as far as I need. Pretty happy with the basic contour shape between these two panels.
A couple of spots that needed further smoothing down in here while that tracer coat dried. Getting close to bucket reinstallation time.

Thanks for looking.
Justin

[JTR70]

Left bucket repairs:
More residual crash damage where it buckled and was beat in and is very stretched at this point. I thought about smoothing it before the bucket went in but found I have better access through the wheel well.
Onto repairing the rust holes at the bottom.
and then it was back over to the leading edge to get it back into shape.
At long last the weld joint was finished to where I no longer needed access through the opening and bucket repairs completed. Ready to be reinstalled.
The first try of course didn't go as planned. Slipped in fine and with just over an inch left to go it locked up tight on me. It was so close to seating that I didn't want to turn back as I thought it would still go eventually . A section of 2X4 was laid across bucket then smacked in the middle with a dead blow hammer at various heights. I thought I was getting somewhere but soon realized I was deforming its lip and also creating a bend to the opening between the 6 and 9 o'clock area. I was now all done, out it would now have to come out to fix the buckets lip, restraighten the nose opening, relax the shoulder opening and fix the damage I was doing to the bucket itself from the extraction. The slide hammer was bit harsh but no other way. This all quickly snowballed into a real mess.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Cleaning up the first attempt mess.
Got it out but I had to get a little rough with it.
Back on the table to straighten out the damage from the slide hammer and repeated hits from the behind.
Then onto reshaping the leading edge.
Then onto raising the low spot in the skin. Dust coat applied to show me what needs to come up. You can see the shoulders or edges of the bend run across between the grill opening and the headlight mounting hole and just below the weld joint at the 9 o'clock area.
Several rounds of picking and filing with a few heat shrink spots needed it was just about there. One benefit here is after all the hammering this area is now harder than it was before and will be more resistant to buckling or bending on the next try. At least that was my hope..

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Left headlight bucket second installment attempt with a small adjustment needed.
Heated and hammered the openings shoulder down to relax it slightly throughout where it had bound up and then bent.
Followed with a light filing to clean up the edges. Now ready to try another installation attempt.
Bucket restraightened and fully seated into position here. The earlier relief shaping turned the trick. The fitment was still tight and positive but thankfully it went all the down without binding causing damage to it or the nose from the amount of force required to get it there.
Headlight test fit with the bucket installed. A slight orientation issue cropped up. The new nose came with mounting holes predrilled. I assumed Trevor uses these for sight marking and jig points. I didn't question their location and proceeded to weld in a capture nut several weeks back. Now that bucket is in their is no wiggle room and the predrilled hole location is tilting the light slightly giving it a sideways glance attitude.
With just a slight rotation to the middle all is right with the world. You can see half of the original hole peaking just outside of the mount tab. No choice, I had to relocate this hole. Just better than the width of the mounting bolt itself. Only a little off but making too big of a visual impact to leave alone.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Left headlight mount adjustment:
Drew a line down the center of the lense just make sure what I think I was seeing was actually the case. Confirmed; slightly tilted with a side glancing look to the light.
Then unbolted with the needed inward rotation. The mounting hole had to be relocated.
Bucket removed one more time and fortunately it came back out with just some firm taps. Capture nut relocated and ready to weld back in.
Bucket slipped back in and before I committed to any welding the light was remounted for this confirmation fit. Thankfully the right side was fine. All set.
Now onto setting the bucket in the sweet spot for seal and material clearances.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

One more test fit with a headlight assembly.
Headlight sits square and the seal's in....Good to go.
Finally ready to begin plug welding it in. Trimming excess length off of the new conduit first while making sure I could slip it into position.
Excess length trimmed at both ends and ready to add in the flared edge.
New conduit tube ready to install. Before I bought this tool I would have added the old top section back on for a correct appearance. Nice to make it one piece with no danger of internal weld burs or shoulders working into the eventual wiring harness.
Installing this next.

Thanks for looking.

Justin