1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[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

[JTR70]

Transplanting the brackets:
No way to get a clear shot at welding this bracket on with the flange installed so now was the time.
The apron bracket had to go on first as well. Dialing in its lateral position in relation to the strut bracket here. The apron brace is back into its original position with the strut tube mount centered with the hole in the body.
All welded with a seam weld as attached originally. Just a little more clean up prep and this new repair section can go in.
Switching gears for a second to clean the lateral walls of the flange remains of the shelf.
A lot spot welds. Drilling carefully so I didn't go through the lateral panels to keep the outside surface looking as undisturbed as possible.

[JTR70]

Flange repair continued:
Replacement section folded over into a new pinch flange. Since I'm only replacing half of it I didnt want it to look too fresh continuing on from the section that is staying. The factory used these enormous spot welds along the entire run. I wanted to mimic this detail as close as I could so I turned my hole puncher die over to the shouldered blunt end which produced this detent at just about the right size. This is just cosmetic to season its appearance a bit as this run will ultimately be secured with plug welds.
New crossmember and replacement flange section just about ready to finally go in.
X's are marked for the apron strut and the over rider tube mount placement.
Begin fitting the new flange section and final trimming at the outer corner.
Harvesting the tube mount as this and the apron strut have to be welded on first as there is no access to weld them once the flange is mounted.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! I always enjoy reading your thoughtful comments. I think for most, these posts are too detailed and the eyes just glaze over to ever care about commenting. I have a tandem post of this build going on the Registry and while its an active forum with a lot of views it gets very little feedback. But that is perfectly fine as these entries are intended to document what went into this car and what is really going on structurally underneath its eventual paint, upholstery and undercoating. This chassis will be known commodity so the next custodian can buy with confidence. Thanks again! justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin I am amazed at what you have just attempted. I am surprised there are so few comments about just what you have undertaken here Justin. I suppose? the number of people looking on at all this work you have done on this care cannot comprehend how they could ever do it themselves so they just watch like me and wonder ! I wonder how many other hidden surprises there are?
Keep smiling !

Roy

[JTR70]

Flange clean up continued.
Finally touched bottom in this left corner. Gusset and pinch seam cleaned of the last remains of the old cross-member. Still have to clean off that strip of metal down the sides of the frame which was the old mounting flange. That a bit later.
Moving over to the right side of the pinch seam. It became clear that this side did not fare well and was too thin and compromised to salvage.

Decided to replace the entire right side of it. Didn't replace more than I had to though and made my break line right whare the severe rot ended.
It was the right decision. As I was attempting to get the rest of the old cross member flange free in the corner the pinch seam was coming apart all around it as I worked the area.
Going to recycle more of this car's old original metal to make the replacement pinch flange from.

Thanks for looking.

Justin

[JTR70]

Wow! You sure could get a good car for a reasonable price for sure. Will do..Thanks.

[JTR70]

It never seems to end Scott. Yes, those are the optional gas heater mounts. You're really going highly detailed in the engine compartment I see. I understand you shaving those for cleaner look.

[roy mawbey]

So true Scott you have to be really fit and agile to get into these places to work on them. And yes Justin my 1959 car cost me £440- in the late 1960's and was in good original condition but not perfect. I had looked at several other 356A's before I bought mine in the £200- region but the old rust had got to them so so I paid more. Here in the UK so many of the early A's had rusted away.
in 15 years !

Keep working away at it.

Roy