Porsche 356A: Replacement nose - advice

[Porscheke]

Hello All

I'm at the point of replacing the complete front nose of my Porsche 356A from '59

I noticed with the original nose that the metal of the inner edge is bended 180 degree

I bought a new nose at stoddard:

https://www.stoddard.com/64450301101grv.html.html

Here the inner edge is quite high and so this edge needs to be bend 180 degree

Did anyone replace the same nose and is there a trick to do this bending or is there tooling available to bend this edge nicely?

Grts
Bart

[Porscheke]

Did some research

There do exist tools to bend the edge perfect 180 degree.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2Q5vqTxbI

Its called beadrolling...very nice technique

But I'm now more looking for a hand tool to do this (probably as shown in the video above ..in 3 steps) ..because the size of the nose

Anyone here know a supplier?

Grts
Bart

[Drew.s]

Hi Bart
I am a bit confused, the Stoddard part you have provided a link for seems to have the correct lower 180 degree flange.
Can you provide some pictures of your nose highlighting the issue.
Regards
Drew

[Porscheke]

[Jbrooks]

This might work after a little hammer and dolly work on the nose. Wivco Design "The Skinner" Door Panel Installation Tool (WIV-TH15.000)

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=WIV-TH15.000&_sacat=0

I would make a matching radius buck from 5/16' or 3/8" plate and grind a wedge into the nose and go after it with a body hammer .

[Porscheke]

Hi JBrooks
Tool is not going to work...i'm afraid ......because this piece is all curved....

Hope I can make e buck and do it nicely with a hammer...it's going to be a big challenge

[Drew.s]

Hi Bart
Sorry I was look ing at the bottom of your nose, I now get that you are talking about the upper flange.
Regards
Drew

[DG58INNM]

They all come that way, even NOS noses. It is very easy to hammer them over to finish the inner lip. Don't do it until afer the nose is installed on the car. Its the last step. And of course you need it unfolded anyway when mating the lower hood lock sheetmetal with the nose. You can scribe or penmark a line to guide the fold with a small piece of flat metal running on the hood seal surface. Fold intitially on the marked line with pliers, then finish with hammer/dolly. You may find you need to trim some metal away after you have marked where you are going to fold it. Do a few inches at a time, fold, then finish over about 80% of the way. Then when it all looks right you can come back and hammer it the remaining 20%.

[Porscheke]

A little bit to late for that....had to hammer the inner lip to get the hood closed.....
It was way too high for checking closing gap of the hood

But I have big issues with the panel gaps of the hood for the moment.....no nice fit..

[Porscheke]

Last foto shows the bad panel alignments......any tips how to solve these?

[JTR70]

Actually that all fits very nicely for starters Bart; about the best you could hope for right out of the box. Where you highlight that the gap is wide along the fenders would normally be leaded for final gap. Where it runs tight in the corners along your new nose would simply be relief cut widened for gap and rewelded. BUT don't commit to any of that until you have your new nose in its best adjusted and final position. With the buckets out you can measure off of your suspension points for square and evenness side to side at the edges of the headlight openings and of course other sight markings as well. Hope this helps and best of luck with this. Justin

[Porscheke]

Any examples how you did the rewelding...."Where it runs tight in the corners along your new nose would simply be relief cut widened"...this is not easy I think with the curving?