Chassis 85517 Number 17 356 Convertible D

[JTR70]

Further lock post changes:
Begin tack welding the skin with its new flange but before I could I had spoon this upper corner level then tack below it. Its rolled over tight and if I just tacked below it in its sucked down position it would eventually cause all sorts of tension and levelness issues as it went. When I lifted this up I could see the these two panels shift laterally ever so slightly. Over the years I've figured out that you'll want the panel preloaded and set were you want it before you lock it into position with a tack weld.
Tacked and beginning to introduce a seal to complicate things further.
Door latched and now mocking up the rocker skin to dial in the general contour. I have the gap pretty much set, now I'm after levelness and transition off of the edge of the door to the quarter panel. Running into an issue from about the door handle on down. The fenders edge is too low.

If I pull the fender skin away from the lock post mating surface about this much...

I have this transition off the latched door. Much closer to even. I don't want to make this difference up in lead so as much as I hate to, the lock post is going to have to suffer through yet another relief cut. That next...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

One more lock post modification:

Relief cut down the center to allow the panel mating surface and its new flange to swing out in one piece.
Figured just better than a 1/4 inch of additional width at its widest point should give me what I'm looking for. Adding in the filler strip here. Theoretically this represents the amount of lead solder I'm eliminating had I not questioned where this part was holding the edge of the quarter panel in relation to the door.
Before I commit to fully to stitching it up it was back on for another test fit to see what I ended up with.
Edge of the fender with the latched door is well within striking distance and will only require a skim coat of solder to be perfect in the end.

General body contour across the gaps is taking shape. Now to stitch up long weld joint on that lock post.

[JTR70]

Lock post finished:
Glad to get this one behind me.
One tortured piece of metal but I've finally got a panel that gives me the fit I need.
Lock post mounted back on the car for the final time.
This modification has changed the skin to new flange just a touch so I'm going to cut the tacks free and try again.
General contour/profile shape of the fender matches the door and continues nearly level off the edge; all without filler just yet. Eventual Lead solder will be minimal. I'll get one more crack at getting it all adjusted just a little bit better tomorrow.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Stitching the skin to the lock post:

Skin retacked in its best adjusted position to its new flange which is now fully plug welded to the lock post.
A foot or two of seam welding to get all this to fit right with the latched door. One more seam weld to go...

Leading edge all stitched up and dressed.
At least up to the door handle area anyway.
Close initial raw gap maintained.

[JTR70]

More rear gap:
Will only require a swatch of solder to tighten this gap to 3mm represented by this paint stick.
And the other half of this door gap "coin" is the general body contour match with the profile of the door. Again only a swatch solder to dial it in the rest of the way.
Now it was back to finishing out this upper corner. Laying down some beads to attach and seal out the corner where it meets the lock post.
There is a small substructer Piece that runs across the top here and will reinforce the eventual cap. Copying and reverse engineering as best as I can from the left side.

New piece in with bottom edge left raw as I'm seeing it on the left side. All gas weld details replicated at the base of the "V" and along the upper corners.

[JTR70]

Unbelievably long and windy road with all of this but I'm finally all done in here. Everything else is external capping work.

Now adding the OG closing sheath back in.
Some small repair to do on the upper outer flange first.
Set screwed and beginning to plug weld it back into position. Got all the drilled out spot welds to relalign so I'm 99% sure its back where it was originally.

Plug welding continues. Capping the upper corner after this.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Finally putting a lid on it:
paper templating the new cap.
Before I could add the cap I had a small filler strip to add to the top of the lock post to finish it and the door seal channel all out smoothly.
Excess ground back even making this area now ready for the cap.
New cap trimmed to shape with plug weld holes and ready to go. Went with 18 gauge for additional dent and damage resistance.
Fully welded in and dressed. As with the rest of this leading edge the basic gap with the door will only need a swatch of solder to be perfect. Now its onto closing up this last hole up here.

[JTR70]

New quarter panel patch:
Templating the profile sweep of the OG left side. Its gentle curve and I wanted to make sure that captured that.
Flipped over to give me everything I need; Onto metal.
Decided to make the new patch from this OG quarter panel remnant from my old project. What I was mainly after was the curved profile shape already in the metal. I also like giving old Original sections a new purpose other than taking up space in my shop.
New patch section cut to basic shape with lip profile etched in. Again it has a gentle sweep to it so the bend will have to be done in two stages.
Slowly working in the bend. Have to tighten it more but I'm slowly getting what I'm after.

[JTR70]

More patch development:
Just about there on the first bend.
Now marking and planning out the next bend to create the folded flange. That tapered profile keeps it from being too simple.
Slowly adding in the next fold.
Everything's lining up pretty well so I don't want to screw this up now.
Adding the last bit of this flange in next.

Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JTR70]

New patch complete and ready to install:
Building this little section from one piece proved just as tricky as all the rest of the parts that have gone into this corner reconstruction. Adding that flange with a slight curve all the while not messing up the slight curve in the panel section took some planning to get around but its finally trimmed and shape to suite and ready to go. soaking it in acid to remove rust now.
Sealing out the inner crevices before it goes on.
Slathered it heavy in sealer. Don't know how much of it will survive after all the welding and eventual tin soldering but its the best I can do.
Begin tacking it in next.
Just glad to have another one behind me.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Right side lock post and upper corner repair complete...AT LAST!
new patch panel fully welded and dressed.
Not a big area but complexity of this repair pushed me to my limit.
Lock post and jamb modifications which was my initial mission before I slid down this slope are now metal finished. Will take it the rest of the way in body solder.
Gas weld seam details put the finishing touches on this top mount repair. At last all done in here too!

Good general gap but the upper mid area gets wide. The OG left side shows a slight kick in this area which this reskinned door lacks. Will add this detail a bit later which will close up that shortfall pictured here.

[JTR70]

Top frame mock up:
Quick top frame test fit after all of that welding.
No issues or surprises.
One of the things I really wanted to confirm was clearance between the top frame and that new closing ledge. No issues.
Back to fitting the new rocker and threshold.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin, fantastic work there to end up with so little lead work to do. I am amazed at what a great looking repair this has turned out to be. A real lesson there not to accept the result till you are happy. I hope the owner appreciates the real effort to have the job done correctly.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Roy, my buddy does appreciate all the work and effort that has gone into this so far but to be honest he became a little weary over this last round of redo's. He's a well versed 356 hobbyist so he knows exactly what it takes to rebuild these cars but his frustration is stemming from the need to redo steel work he just got finished paying for. The previous work has put us both in a tight spot as he needs the car to be right and I want to do the best job that I can but at the same time the entire investment of this project including the car itself has reached critical mass. However, if we don't fix it, its going to kill him when the day comes to sell no matter how shiny the body is. If a hack like me is able to pick these mistakes off you can imagine the scrutiny it would have suffered during a PPI with an expert. They would have told him that its very shiny but we've got to have Bruce Baker go in and correct all those chassis and substructure mistakes. This would have been an easy 40-50K right off the top of their negotiation. So really no choice but to plow ahead. The saving grace is that this the last of the major metal corrections that I'll have to do. Thanks again Roy!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

I agree with Roy.

[JTR70]

Thank you Phil!

[JTR70]

dialing in the new rocker skin for best adjusted fitment:
The skin is pretty much in my best adjusted fit here and with that came this overlap at the rear corner. If I tried opening this up the rest of the rockers fitment suffered badly. No choice but to cut this corner shaped relief out and move it back.


Corner relief shape cut free and moving onto dialing in the lower gap and a smooth and even transition off of the fenders. rear wired edge will have to be relief cut and moved back to match the fender. The usual stuff....
Forward corner flange was relaxed so I can readjust the approach angle of the edge later on. Leading wire edge will have to be relief cut and angled outward like the rear.
Main mission for now was to get the skin located and established so I could get the threshold mounted and set. Pretty much there...
Fitting and dialing in the threshold now. Thanks for looking!
Justin