Chassis 85517 Number 17 356 Convertible D

[JTR70]

Lower left corner contour.

With the body in white the cornered edge really began looking out of place to me. (green arrow)

Checking my original reference confirmed it. The corner is much more graceful and rolled under.

The way the nose and fenders are set together now means that there is just too much metal here to make the turn. It has to go somewhere so this excess forces the corner down to make the turn.
A quick relief cut fixes that.

Just about ready to throw on a tack weld but I wanted the corner loaded and set where I need it before I joined it back together. Bottle jack pushes it up where I'd like it.

Welded and dressed. Still required a heat shrink spot to soften the turn. Stubborn...

[JTR70]

Corner now falls into line with the rest of the flange.

Moving onto prepping the right corner for sealer.

Same story with this side but actually a little worse.


Filed it down to an acceptable thickness and thought I was finished but later had issues with the wire lead just behind it. That fix to follow.

Right corner in first coat of builder sealer.

[roy mawbey]

Justin, been catching up on this thread and really like the way you have solved some of the bodywork problems. Good photos and explanations. Tell you something else. I found on opening the forum and then selecting the thread area then looking over to the right the notification of when the last post was added to the thread. Along side that is a small blue box with 2 arrows in it. By clicking that small box it takes you directly to the last entry made. Now previously I missed using that box and was always going to the start of the thread sometimes years back in time.

Have I been daft in not seeing or realizing that small box takes you to the last thread entry??

Makes a big difference!!!! People as daft as me might be making the same mistake?? Or is it I am just getting old !

Roy

[JTR70]

Hey Roy, No its not just you I've had other guys ask. Yes, the rectangular blue box will take you to the latest post and so will these blue circles to the left of the title in the above photo. They'll disappear after your first view but the other icon you mentioned is always there. Again its still a new system for us all.
Justin

[JTR70]

Bodywork phase on the front end continues.


Begin block sanding the sealer to find the low spots.

Working from the edge of the hood outward.


After several passes the smooth taper and transition off the hood I was after is taking shape.


The lump at the emblem in the profile shape I was dealing with at the beginning now gone.

[roy mawbey]

Justin, that hood to front bodywork gap is looking perfection already. Tell me I presume the rubber seal is not fitted or did you make allowance for that. I remember on the Carrera and on my car even, a new seal can make it difficult to get the gap correct from a height point of view. Its taken years for my seal to compress to the right value. I know seal manufacturers can vary and its important to find the best one.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! Oh no, none of the fitment or gapping could be done without the seal in place. As a matter of fact it was a huge pain removing and reinstalling sections of the seal as the work went. You're right the seal thickness and profile can vary and wreak havoc on your closing fitment.

[JTR70]

Working the hood:

Hinge detail: With the hood now reset in its best adjusted position I Welded up the old alignment holes on the hood mount flanges.

And redrilled them to the hinges new position. One of the details guys in the know look for when you have your hood open at a Porsche event.

Begin blocking the hood to highlight the low spots.

Not as rough as it appears but it will require a skim coat.

Begin skimming..

[Phil Planck]

Following with interest, as will be doing this shortly. Justin, do those hinge pocket flanges have the extra 2 holes?

[JTR70]

Hi Phil, no, these have the one hole for the hood prop.

[JTR70]

Skimming and blocking continued:

Swatch and sand.

You can see that its only requiring less than credit cards thickness of filler to chase out that lump in the contour I was dealing with initially.

After several rounds I'd chased it about as far as I could so it was now time to get it all behind a uniform coat of sealer and begin the process again.

In sealer and ready to chase it all again.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Wish my front hood gap was as good as that Justin !! My 60 year old original wings and lid cannot compare to yours. I have to guess over those years things move somewhat. Sure its not excessive but when you see such even spacing all round on yours I find it hard to believe the factory ever got each car that good when they had to do it.

Super!

Roy

[JTR70]

Don't let these shots fool you Roy, I was still along way from home as the gap ran tight on the right side. I'll post all that work next. Well on a positive note good, bad , or indifferent original is original and yours still is.

[JTR70]

Hood gap chasing continued.

Okay with the left side gap so far.

But the left was running way too tight. I had opened it as it made the turn as it was all lead but just after the weld joint from nose to fender it turned all steel.

This middle run was tight and with no filler to carve out I was weighing my options. Could relief cut it but was trying to avoid that.

Then I experimented with tape marking the gap I needed and carefully ball pinging the shoulder back. This turned the trick!

Had to go very slowly and carefully for uniform shoulder but it was yielding the result I wanted. Another benefit was that the hood sat higher than the fender through here and once an area was tapped it swelled up nearly level with the latched hood. A complete win/win here.
More later...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Dodged a bullet on that one Justin. Nice job. At what point is the weatherstrip installed?

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil! The seal has been installed all throughout the process. You can see it laying off to the side in photo 4 above. This is one aspect that really couldn't be conveyed in these series of photos. I must have had that seal off and on over 50 times through out. When I shot the sealer it was off then reinstalled then partially removed as needed as the work went, repeated then repeated again. This was a real PIA time consuming part of the process to say the least.
Justin

[JTR70]

More swatching and sanding across the hood over to the fenders.



Right gap finally opened up even with the left side.

Even and smooth transition from the edge of the hood onto the fenders.

Smooth and consistent nose to hood profile with out that humped profile it showed up with.

Just about ready for another round of sealer. Which means the trunk seal has to come back out again.

Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin this is why a first class body restoration will cost so much money. That's a really good explanation on how not to fall into traps but take time and think.
Well done!
Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! Just doing the best that I can to get the body and all of its closing to fit and flow together. Glad you can appreciate just what can go into a job.
Justin

[JTR70]

Right lower front corner:

Needed a break from block sanding so I tackled this lower right front corner. Its too flat and too fat with solder. Paper template profile shape based on my OG reference car.

Lead pretty much comprises the illusion of a rolled lip. The end of the wire where it meets that flange was set to the outside of this flange the lead was there to also burry this small problem.

Lead removed and in process of heating and rolling this bottom leading edge under as it should be. Already relief cut ahead of that wire issue.

New Rolled profile shape. Close enough...

Wire lead at flange corrected and all welded back up. Greatly reduced the need for filler here. Heading up that weld joint to heat shrink a few high spots highlighted in marker.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Amazing the shortcuts some take. Nice solution Justin.

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil! The shop that performed this work slings lead like nobodies business but I think they relied too heavily on that talent at times.