1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[roy mawbey]

Looking good Justin

Roy

[JTR70]

Repeat right side:
Installed and fully welded in with rear wire harness hole added. The top portion of the this hole was fused with a seam weld as found originally. A bit of fine adjustment as it went in to ensure it continued that arched opening shape of the cross member as with the left side.
Dead on match with my original pattern example.
Then followed up with gas welds along sides as before. Had to make sure the holes edge was blunt with no sharp edges to chafe into the eventual wiring loom.

This little side repair complete, onto the next deal...

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Cleaning and prepping the left corner first:
Remains of the original corner tab removed exposing this cavity and a bit more rust that would have otherwise been left behind.
Burned away the remaining rust and scale as well as closed up a few more tiny holes that made themselves known as the clean out progressed.
New tab now fit into best adjusted position and now ready to weld in . Lap joint detail preserved.
Welded into final position. Tab carries on the arch profile of the cross member.
Gas welded down the sides with the leading lapped edge left raw as found originally. Repeat right side.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

The next few posts should help it make better sense Roy...

[roy mawbey]

Justin it gets a bit confusing but the next stage will no doubt clear that up for me.

Roy

[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

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[JTR70]

Begin fitting the new cross-member.
With the new flange fully installed and dressed I could finally begin fitting the new cross-member. Of course it begins a touch too wide as this was as far as it would go on the first try. Bottom leading edge of the cross-member gets a simple folding over in the corners to seat into the side wall flanges.
It took a series of repeated test fits and fine trimming as it began slipping in closer and closer between the side walls before finally seating squarely and tightly against the corners.
Corner gusset foot print traced to so I could drill for the plug weld holes.
Dismounted one more time to drill the holes as well as other last minute prep before it goes back in for good.
New Cross-member back in for the last time. Before I began welding, I dug out the new engine shelf to both test for square and clearance. I try to never make the mistake of just assuming the next part is just going to drop into place...because it never does. Fitment here was close enough to comfortably proceed. Welding the cross member next.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Thanks once again Roy, I know you've been through this type of work before so you know exactly what your looking at. Yes, its easy to forget or lose the touch if you don't practice a thing regularly. I go through it when I pick up the torch to apply lead solder. I takes a little while to regain the ability to apply it successfully if I haven't done it for a while so I know what you mean. Justin

[roy mawbey]

Well done Justin its going to look really nice. As I have said more than once before, its no wonder to repair body work properly on a 356 its so demanding on ones ' pocket ' if you cannot do the work yourself !! I have my oxy/acetelene brass welding torch in my garage that I have polished so bright just to remind me, of the hundreds of hours I took doing mine, so that I would never forget!!
Trouble is after 50 years of not really using that torch so much on my car,I have forgotten now, in my eighties how I actually did it all !!

Roy

[JTR70]

Finally past all those spot welds. Glad to have the footprint of the old tray here as a guide to installing the new one. As you can see it runs at a slight upward angle.
Repeat left side.
Moved onto installing the new replacement right hand flange section. All tacked in now and onto fully stitching it in next.
All stitched and dressed right up to the corner.
New lower cross member just about ready to go in but before I could do that I had to repair these additional rusted out areas along the sides.

Thanks for looking.

Justin