1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

New cross-member in for good.
Reinstalled for the final time and ready to begin welding.
Double checking for "square" in the corners just to make doubly damn sure. My biggest concern at this point was getting it all glued in only to find out that the shelf no longer seated in squarely.
All that careful dissecting of these corners was to have a chance of recreating this multilayer presentation as closely as possible to the way it was before I had to dig it all out. This area will get one small gas weld at the end down deep in the corner but is left raw otherwise.
Begin plug welding from the center outward along the outside pinch seam. It was tough reaching down in there to weld as my hand would also block my view as I went.
Once the outer pinch seam was welded then it was onto welding up the corner gusset plug weld holes. Crossmember officially all welded in at this point.

[roy mawbey]

Its all those difficult hard to reach area's Justin that take time and effort. You are doing so well with this car !!

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! Working in and around the corners of this cross-member with the tail skin still in place really threw a serious curve in the progress for sure. Thanks again. Justin

[Scott B]

Great work Justin and attention to detail. I don’t know how anyone could ever do this type of work on our cars without a rotisserie.

[JTR70]

Thank you Scott! I wouldn't attempt any of these deep underside repairs without the ability to roll the body over; not a chance. Justin

[JTR70]

Installation all but complete but I needed another diversion to keep going.
Getting to the plug welds down in here was interesting; as I'd reach down in here with my gun my hand would sometimes obstruct my view depending on the angle I needed to apply the weld.
It got ugly, especially along the unrepaired side whare I'd have to chase the edge as it burned away due to being thin. Eventually got them closed and bonded but I have a bit grinding and weld clean up to do. After that I'll just have to repair the outer corners that I had to cut away as they were completely fused with a gas weld. Which will be replicated but at this point I needed a break from this area.
This early '59 chassis show a low hanging corner tab that the engine's tin uses to seal out these corners.
Whomever it was that removed the original shelf from this car got a little carried away and cut the original tabs off. I doubt that they were rusty as the example above is from that super rusty '59 chassis in the photo before this one and both tabs were in good shape. You can see the remains of this cars original tab just under that lap joint.
Template made from the original examples from that early '59 chassis then finally into steel. Have one more bend to add and some fine tuning but the basic parts are there.

Thanks for looking.

Justin