Basic 356 chassis repair on Speedster 83142

[JTR70]

This is a side job I did in '07 for a guy who bought this abandoned speedster project. The car was very rusty and the previous owner had decided to give welding and metal repair a whirl. Every single repair was botched and incredibly horrendous. It amounted to be a huge waste of time for us both. His to install it and mine to cut it all back out. A very teadious and unpleasant chore! This project was resold before completion so this post and the others to follow will detail and cover repairs to the chassis only. They are the major and most common 356 repairs: Battery box, longitudinals, perimeter wall and floor replacement.


This is the way the car was purchased. A butchered mess sitting on this weird contraption the old owner made. This cart alone is your first clue to his craftsmanship.


A new floor and perimeter kit was bugard in. Tons of other rust issues still to address like the rear seatpan.


New battery box floor and front closing panel cruedly welded and patched onto rusty and bent sides and rear bulkhead. Note that overlapping patch from the side wall to the new floor at the top of this picture. I have no clue to the thought process involved here. this is just the start.

[JTR70]

The goal was to get it mounted on the rotisserie. To do this I had to rebuild the battery box first so I had a solid attachment point.


The front wall/closing panel now removed to expose whats really going on in here. All three of the walls were crunched and severely rusted out. It was media blasted at some point which clearly shows all the decay. Nothing has been cut or disturbed back here. He installed a new floor to these bent and rotted out walls. Incredible.


This crude patch panel has been welded right over the top of the rotted out original wall which is now entombed under it. It was all very frustrating to deal with.


Half of the trouble now gone.


Just the left half of the bulkhead wall to remove. All the rusty patches on the upper closing walls were the same as that large one in the first picture. Just Pieces of sheetmetal bugar welded right over the top of the rotted portion. Unbelievable work!

[JTR70]

Battery box side panels.


Drilled the rest of the spot welds holding the bulkhead wall to the trunk floor.

Split the two panels apart with a putty knife and a hammer. Also had to grind down the seam weld at the mouth of the harness tube conduit to get it finally free.

The remaining wall removed. Tons of prep to clean all the mating surfaces for the new Zims panels going in. Had to clean some old grease and surface rust as well.

Had to build the battery box first to create my attachment point for the rotisserie.

All flanges clean and test fitting of the new side wall beginning. Have prepunched all my plug-weld holes on the mount flanges. Its just about ready.

The upper closing wall is about in the same shape as the old battery box I took out. Crashed, rusty, thin and tired. Most of it would have to be replaced. I kept it here as sort of a guide while I put in the new walls.

[JTR70]

New right wall is now initially welded on at the front suspension "horn" as it was originally.

Looking to preserve and recreate that lap joint as the wall meets the suspension flange.


Test fitting the new rear closing wall. I could not wait to see what it looked like. Of course I have a fitment issue with this new part immediately which I'll tell you about next. Anyway, fresh metal sure can change a cars out look!

Preping the left side wall now. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

Left Battery wall fitment and install.


There is a lap joint at the trunk floor and old original left closing wall that I wanted to preserve. I cut the original just ahead of this joint and am trimming the new panel to integrate old with new.

New panel is notched in and just about ready to weld in.

Originally the battery side walls were overlapped by this "inner skin" which shrouds the suspension tubes. To gain access for removal and installation these "skins" had to be cut back a bit. Now that the new walls are in I can repair these lap joints for an original appearance. A new upper fill panel has been cut from a paper template. Plug-weld holes are in and the part is ready.

welding begins. Seam welding it to the rest of the original panel and just plug welding it to the new left wall.

Most of the welding done on the upper patch and paper template complete for the lower section.

New lower section now in steel and ready to be attached.

Almost there; a little more welding and alot of weld dressing to go. Bottom and leading edge will stay raw for a factory look. The split down the center will also stay as it was there originally as well.

[JTR70]

Flange/lap joint detail complete on both sides.


Now that these lap joint details are complete the rear bulkhead wall can now go in. I cleaned the face of the tubes and repaired flanges for a quick sealer coat of primer and paint to ensure good coverage.

Left side Once the wall is in place these areas will be nearly impossible to reach with a spray gun.


This detail is so deep in the chassis that very few will ever see it and most people would say "why bother" but this car's value now warrents this level of repair. Besides I just would not feel right cutting corners after all this trouble. Rear wall install is next. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

New rear battery box wall installation.



Once the new sides were in and set the first major fitment issue quickly made itself known. The new wall would simply not fit between the new sides. My first reaction was that I had put the sides in wrong but after looking at it there was no way I could have messed that up; they only fit one way. After some comparison and measurements with my original T1 rear wall in my coupe it was clear that this new piece was stamped at the center battery recess full inch wider than it should be.



I would have no choice but to cut it in half and take the extra length out of it. I just chalked it up as being like all the rest of the repair panels I have ever dealt with; just close copies that all need to be fitted to the car.



Here it is after cutting mocked up in my T1 coupe battery box before my 3rd attempt at the floor patch repair. Once the excess length was overlapped it fit and contoured out nice.


Much later once I went back to work on my coupe I had this original lower center flange from '58 coupe I was using for authentic welding info details. As you can see it too is a full inch wider than the T1 and they are both originals. It finally made sense. The new Zims wall was a T2 stamped piece. Reutter made this change sometime in late '57 or early '58.

Problem solved. Fits now...

The other giveaway detail that this was for T2 is that both front access covers are removable. My coupe and this speedster are T1 cars and only one of the covers is removable. The cover in front of the steering box was welded and set from the factory.

[JTR70]

2/1/14

I've had these shots of this speedster rebuild in my computer for years and I decided tonight to just load them up. I'll try to add descriptive text later as time permits but my current projects take priority. If there is any questions of course I'll answer them as best as I can.
Thanks! Justin

[JTR70]

Because this was a rusty open car I opened only one longitudinal at a time and left this crappy floor replacement attempt in for added support and only cut away enough to allow me in there to work.

[JTR70]

2/3/14