Chassis 85517 Number 17 356 Convertible D

[roy mawbey]

I guess back whenever the person attempted that repair the car had nowhere near the value, its these days its so important to get it correct as times have changed on the restoration front. Mind you probably easier to do the correct job in the first place !
Looks good Justin.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! This wasn't a "person" but a Porsche restoration shop and all this steel and leadwork was performed just over a year ago so this car was certainly worth the extra effort. These entries are several months old so lots more issues like this one yet to come.
Justin

[JTR70]

Series of high spots along the weld joint in need of some heat shrinking.

Now I can thin down the filler surrounding these spot.

Obliterating more of the rocker shootz but no choice.

The main goal in all of this is to have thin uniform wired edge that does not appear to be caked in filler.

Now I can go back to straight body work.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin, today I glanced down at my exact areas you have been working on and especially the area you just advised the Porsche resto company got their hands on. Well of course thank goodness, mine looks perfect with the wired edges. I feel lucky about that. Just how could they have done that bodge work and charged for it too.!

Roy

[JTR70]

Hi Roy, Fundamentally it was a sound job but for whatever the reasons many corners where cut and as my work continues I'm finding more and more.

[JTR70]

Widening the hood gap.

I prefer a smaller and tighter gap and I have let my personal preference lead me astray for a while. After going over an old discussion I had with Bruce Baker it became clear that I needed to widen this gap by at least another MM. Final gaps should be in the 3mm range +or- so a raw initial gap should be approaching 4mm so by the time you account for primer and final paint thickness your in this 3mm width range. This flat bastard file pictured above is just shy of 4mm and made for a perfect tracer scribe.

Scribing around the back corners as even though the hood was moved forward these still ran tight. Lots of solder used in this area.

newly established scribe line down front. The gaps would have been way too tight after final paint. Just fine for my personal taste but not correct.

Now to bring the rest of the surface down level.

Hood and seal removed (yet again) to allow plenty of unobstructed light so I could see what I was doing.

[JTR70]

Carefully whittling it down one pass at a time.

A very slow and tedious process but getting there a section at a time. Surface to the left chased even.



This was small drain hole that opened at level with the initial surface when it arrived. As you can see a good 4mm now shaved off.

Nose all but carved out now heading up the sides.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Newly widened gaps complete

Opened a lot more generously than I like but its even and uniform on both sides and they'll only get narrower from here.



Sides seem even with the rear but actually the rear gap runs a little too wide (after the earlier hood adjustment)and will be addressed later. One disaster at a time.

Continued swatching and blocking the obvious in preparation of another sealer coat. Also getting the front bumper ready for a coat of sealer pictured here laying across the dash.

[JTR70]

Chased the front end group as far as I could.

Another round of sealer.

Prepping all the exposed lead with soapy water and a good scrub to be sure there were no tinning acids.

Begin sealing the front bumper first.

[JTR70]

Begin sealing over the last round.
The following session blocking and bodywork phase begins on the bumper. Fortunately it didn't require a whole lot.

Simultaneously blocking the latest sealer coat.

Chasing shape transfers , slight low spots, nicks etc. Though it looks about the same the blemishes and imperfections are getting smaller with each cycle.

Everything chased as far as I can and now ready to seal this stage off and see what I've got. Tedious and repetitive? you bet! It all just depends on how far you want to chase it and what level of final presentation is going to make you happy.
More later...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

First little test coat:

Getting down to the nitty gritty

Slicking the nicks and chips down in the jamb surface that will show.

At this point I need a little feedback in color so I'm mixing some old stuff together for an initial tracer coat. Man, some of this stuff goes back 15 years so it nice to be able to finally put it to some useful purpose.

Front bumper was shot first. Turned out a little darker than this Meissen blue sample but for this job it just needs to be in the same family. We'll call this version "nice -n- blue".

Only mixed up enough this time to get the bumper thoroughly coated but had just enough left over for a teaser; I was anxious to see the front in a little color.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Front bumper blocking...

Blocking color coat for low spots.

At first I thought I was down to just a few obvious low spots.

However as it progressed I found myself swatching a little more.

Super thin though and translucent. I just can't stand leaving waves and rollers in the reflection.

Same treatment for the area I color spotted.

[JTR70]

Front block sanding continues

Swatching in some areas

But in other areas like this trough I am pushing to make the fillers and top coats as thinned out as possible without going backwards and losing the shape or contour. I've gone through several layers though here. The body is getting better while the filler is getting thinner. Gotta love that..

Pushed the front as far as I can.

Getting used to the gaps. What matters most is that it is consistent and even throughout.

Another coat of sealer and a quick color coat next.

[Phil Planck]

Great progress Justin, and good demo of blocking. Thanks

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil! Just documenting the process.

[JTR70]

Second work coat

Front bumper body work completed.

Priority was the bumper and the excess was applied to the nose.

Closer still

Not satisfied with it yet but its getting better.

Once everything dried I mocked up the front bumper completely just to make sure. All that's left now is to sand this coat smooth and shoot the final color on.

[JTR70]

Quick front end mock up

While I was at it I thought I'd mock up the headlamps too.

Base seals snug in nicely.

Head lamps seat down fully with the seals in. So far so good.

Happy with the final bumper fitment as well.

The consistent reflection across that hood gap was very promising.
Onto the back of the hood to cowl next. A whole new adventure.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Onto the front cowl to hood transition issue.

Now with the hood all but set at the front and up the sides it was now time to face this rear misalignment and transitional contour issue. Both the back edge of the hood and the leading edge of the cowl are curling downward as they meet.

Looking at about a 4MM height discrepancy from the hood up to the cowl. Both back corners are close its just really low in the middle.
Certainly unacceptable to have a 4MM+ of filler on the edge of this hood so I was exploring my options. Began first by attempting to tap up the leading edge.

The result was mixed at best. The very edges of the two panels where more even but as you can see there was a sway-back profile; completely unacceptable. My next thought was to file the holes in the hinge and bring the entire back end up. This would have turned the trick here and smoothed this area out but in doing so would force the nose of the hood downward completely destroying the line and contour I just spent all that time on correcting. This was an oversight when the front end group was installed and this is pretty much the fitment on the day it was delivered here. The rake and height should have been set and established much more closely then the entire front end built around thisbase line. Well the die has obviously been set so I have to make this hood fit with what we've got.

The hood has been raking the seal forward as it closes so this was more confirmation that the back of does need to come up. My fix coming up next.

Thanks for looking!
Justin