65C Garage Find, front floor replacement

[dougdadmac]

Where is it? Bring it over before We reconfigure the shop for terrys 64C coupe repaint. Its not hard, but takes the right tools. We have only worked a couple hours a day in the evenings, this one was not too bad.

Next

This one will take longer. Terry started the floor, and last fall put aircraft stripped on it it's been sitting in an un heated building for a year. Surface rust and stripper balls. Will be interesting.

"Stripper balls" gave me a very bad visual. Great job on the floors!

[Steve]

J:
Thanks for the offer, but Whidbey Island is a stretch from North Carolina. I used to spend time at Boeing. Too much rain for me. Plus I am looking at the whole project as a character building exercise.
Steve

[Jbrooks]

Where is it? Bring it over before We reconfigure the shop for terrys 64C coupe repaint. Its not hard, but takes the right tools. We have only worked a couple hours a day in the evenings, this one was not too bad.

Next

This one will take longer. Terry started the floor, and last fall put aircraft stripped on it it's been sitting in an un heated building for a year. Surface rust and stripper balls. Will be interesting.

[Steve]

J:
Wow, those floors really looks great!

You are making me feel bad. My '65 needs floors and I have been putting it off for 11 years now. My car needs the backs also, but what do you expect for a car that spent the first 52 years of its life in Florida.

You whip yours out in two weeks. So what is my excuse now? Got to get motivated! Thanks,
Steve

[Jack Staggs]

Off topic, are we?
I heard yesterday from a guy here in Collegeville that his son outside of Phoenix said that he could crumple up a sheet of newspaper, throw it on the paving and watch it catch fire!

[quote="bbspdstr" post=39192]More off topic.. Thanks for posting that Bruce. It immediately made me think of the seminal bookstore (sadly long closed) "Fahrentheit 451 Books" that opened in Laguna Beach 1968, across the street from Otto's original "Sound Specrtum". This was the time that Laguna and all these little beach towns were sleepy little enclaves. We were reeling from the effects of the JFK,Bobby, King, assassinations, The draft, and the Chicago Demogogic Convention riots, described as a Police riot by FBI investigation. We got Dick as our leader. Well, I could go on, but give me a break. I'll be 66 on Monday...

[Jbrooks]

All done but the pedals. Bob Brooks is just fantastic with metal.



Use a 3m self leveling seam sealer for the edges. We like it since it's a 2 part, clear and fairly liquid so it flows well into the gaps. Has. 10 minute work life and smooths it's self out. You can brush it for a minute or two but when It's looks like epoxy, and sticky you step back and watch it glaze

Under side is sealed primed and painted, awaiting an altitude change for the rest of the under coat removal and treatment. Not doing that on my back.



After the prime, seam seal, a coat of Utethane Truck Bed liner. Not heavy but enough to keep the rain and snow drippings from your feet away form the metal. This I believe will work better than the Shatz. If you do this just be sure you get all the rust first. I will tell you in twenty years how it worked.




Soon off to the next project.
Thanks for looking

[bbspdstr]

Off topic, are we?
I heard yesterday from a guy here in Collegeville that his son outside of Phoenix said that he could crumple up a sheet of newspaper, throw it on the paving and watch it catch fire!

That it is over 120* out there.....and possibly like we learned in Scouts, with a magnifying glass...don't know the truth.....but this old guy is NOT going to visit his son for the 4th.

However, I have been in Vegas and walked out of a hotel into what felt like a hair-dryer wind and see the digital temps sign across the street say "117*".....but, as Justin says; "but it is a dry heat."

Ahhhh, ethanol and now global warming to make our air and oil cooled little cars struggle......

Bruce

[JTR70]

You poor things Last weeks record heat wave out here had the official temp still sitting at a 102 during the 10:30 PM local news. but it is a dry heat

[Jbrooks]

Jack
Up here if it gets over 80 they give out free bottles of water at the stop light, and open the city hall for us old people to sit in the lobby and discover air conditioning. Good thing the windows open.

[Trevor]

HAHA, true!

[Jack Staggs]

I agree. Anything over 75* we have to weld in shorts and Rainbow Sandals.

[Jbrooks]

Plugs in, grinding begins. We are having a heat wave, got up tp 72 in the shop today. Not fun welding with all the heat.





Both sides fit tight and we progress.

[bbspdstr]

The floor rust I have seen forever is inconsistent. I have seen one side rusty front to back and the other side of the tunnel just fine. I figured that the rusty side was down on a sideways sloped parking spot or next to a damp wall in a garage.

The driver's front floor is easier to understand. Various climates have at least SOME rain and/or snow and that comes in on shoes or boots. That side also has the most chance of a window left down when it rains.

That area has the most flex, too. Pedals and seats always make SOME motion effect while driving and overlapped seams and sandwiched sound-deadeners (which dry out and shrink) on bare unibody sheet metal add to the fact that the bare metal when built into a body was not coated with anything more than an enamel primer over what could be seen, not inside or between vulnerable areas.

"Rust never sleeps."

Add to that the absolute that Porsche DID NOT want or expect these cars around past about 1976 for the last of the 356s or 1983 for the last of the first 900-series. We are voiding the dictates that the Porsche accountants gave to the engineers....but we are also re-creating 'hack proof' automobiles....a new threat with recent or current vehicles that are computerized and connected to the net!

Oh, my additional theory on why Speedster doors have been the last to rust is due to them having no windows and an overhanging upper edge... even if rain can get in straight down (top up OR down)

Can I get an "A-men" for points and carbs, manual windows and transmissions?!

Gas tanks, T-6 in particular, are subjected to the evaporation of the gas as it vents and the ambient air, always having SOME moisture, condensing and making tiny amounts of H2O settle and build in the lowest part of the tank, the gas outlet area. Additional rust develops in adjacent areas if the parking is not level. Yes, ethanol (gasoline with alcohol) plays a part in woes but not much in the rusting aspect.

The earlier tanks were made from a tinned steel (I understand commonly used in Germany for roofing) that unless damaged, was almost a lifetime containment solution. Still, once that coating is broken, corrosion spreads and tanks are ruined. Again, NO parts or systems were designed to last forever...and here we are, attempting to preserve these cars to be around long after anyone cares.

[foamcar]

Anyone care to venture a guess as to why? BTW, T6 fuel tanks suffer a similar fate, but for different reasons

Lack of cup holders and acid from Starbuck coffee or some other west coast brew?

Ethanol?

[Jack Staggs]

Jb et al... Rot of the floors, limited to the area in front of the driver seat and rear of the pedals, in otherwise dry non-sunroof coupes seems to be a West Coast phenom. I've seen quite a few, and repaired several in just the same fashion as you. In fact, I have one in my stable with the requisit old school metal realtor "for sale" sign standing in for probably 20 years now. Anyone care to venture a guess as to why? BTW, T6 fuel tanks suffer a similar fate, but for different reasons.