Red 65SC gets floor and battery box

[Jbrooks]

We after a month of “road worthy driving” fun the SC coupe is side lined for new floors. Dick put three tanks of gas through the car getting it sorted. I went through the wiring made a list of this needs fixed. We bit the bullet side lined it and started the big fixes. She looks good, drives super, quick aggressive typical of a good 356. Has a few minor things,


The turn signal switch on worked on one side. Brake light were intermittent, has 1/2” thick passenger front floors, a square hole under the battery, flaky undercoating, poor original rubber seals. So the turn signal switch is a 3-5 weeks turnaround for rebuild, so while thats out, let’s fix the rest.


Bob has a hole in the shop schedule, Mike DeJong has sheet metal, at restoration design, the car has no lights so let’s fix all of it. We ordered floors, toe boards battery box floor and launched into the heavy work. Sheet metal took a week to arrive

Stalk and combo gauge out and off for repair.

[Jbrooks]

Cut out the battery box floor, made a new strip an out 2” tall along the outer wall removed all the damaged sheetmetal. Below is the removed floor section. The section under the battery cable was missing. Panel saw and 10 minutes it was out. Most of the edge was good except for right at the battery.


Cleaned it all down to bright clean metal. Fitted the new floor and replacement panels. Bob is amazing on metal repair. Floor was fitted and ready to weld in a day.
Used the “Panel Spotter” spot welder to install the new section, It’s a Karman body so it has a extra reinforced doubler inside on the tow hook. Battery floor in, toe hook rivets and bracing complete. Now awaiting epoxy primer, seal sealer and Wurth Shatz.
.

The new sheetmetal was easy to fit and trim, screwed sown to the existing flanges and spot welded back in. Will MIG the screw holes and polish the welds.


While Bob was working in the front Dick and I started in the back. Started all the small stuff. Things you would normally over look and keep driving. Replacing the Heater Cable, adjusting heater flappers and air valves. We installed a remote starter relay, rear starter push button switch. Pulled the distributor re- clocked the distributor drive gear to get No1 plug in the correct position. Installed a bunch of rubber seals under the car. Pulled the steering wheel, signal stalk, removed the seats, seat rails carpets to access the floor. Started poking and prodding with picks and punched looking for rust up in the smugglers box.

was a good week overall.

[Jbrooks]

Started going through the wiring. Pulled the turn signal Stalk and combo gauge, now it must has a dozen or more loose wires up in front of the wheel. I have one of Greg Bryan’s wire diagrams ( https://www.vintagewiringdiagrams.com ). Its a 18" X 24" color wiring diagram, with wire size, contact numbers and color codes! I can not tell you how easy this makes the wire checks. Having a full color wire diagram the size of the windshield, plastic laminated, so it stays clean to reference is amazing. I bought his entire set 356A,B&C 912 and several 911’s, looks good enough to frame. Real Man Cave stuff, that works.



Cleaning all the bullet connectors and cleaned up the rear light assemblies while installing new rubber seals. Converting to all the rear lights LED bulbs. The are the same brightness as the original, but way less current. Replaced one license light assembly. Rebuilt the interior light assemblies, the head light buckets, replaced all the rubber seals.
The turn signal stalk will be a while (2-3 months) to overhaul. Sent it out to a guy in Chicago who specializes in their repair. He is good but is way backlogged. This may end up being the driving force on the entire rebuild.

[roy mawbey]

Well John you three have been really busy for sure. That is a lot of work to have completed. Well done!
Roy

[Jbrooks]

Battery box is in , primed and sealed. Used 3M 08840 sound deadening pads for the bottom. There are similar of everyone’s tar pads, but have a urethane layer on the top to keep it’s from smudging. Used a heat gun to stretch and conform to the ridges. Battery bracket will get original color to match the car.

Also built up the remote starter relay! And put a remote starter button on the voltage regulator mount for ease of maintenance in the future . Now off to the floors

Got the pedals pulled out and the floors removes. Other than the Passengers side the rest of the floors were fine. But since we are in there they all came out.cleaning and measuring, should have the floors in tomorrow.


thanks got looking

[JTR70]

Looks like a very straight forward replacement. No vertical wall or flange repairs needed it seems...

[Jbrooks]

Justin

just a little patch on the back of the battery rear corner, about an inch of vertical wall replaced. Better than we thought when first looked in there and there was a battery shaped hole in the floor. Looks like the battery matt ate away the floor. All good now.

[Jbrooks]

Front floors are in. Went easy just some trimming. Old floors were not all that bad, just the one hole in the passengers foot area, the rest were solid and after we removed the fiberglass were actually fine.

[JTR70]

A very nice straight forward replacement but it seems like its going to get very tricky to fit and slide in the rear section in one piece? Its looking though John.

[Jbrooks]

Floors are in and complete. Now working on previous hood kink repair. Forgot to photo the back half, prime and paint. We have the sound deadening and seam sealer inside complete. Looks well, not factory original, but with better modern materials. New toe boards from Tom Perazzo with trap door access.

The floors went well, then on to the hood. Reworked the hinges. Not too much wear, but dirty and very old grease in the three pointed star axel bushings. The little centering springs on the star bushings we’re binding the stars. These stars need to be super loose. Spin easy and move with gravity, so the lock cam and make then release. Also they need to be aligned so the cam and star tips align. It has a poor kink repair with a brazed misfitted lap patch. It was cracked and let the hood droop on one side. That’s cut out and replaced now.

[Jbrooks]

Hood repair done, cut out the old brazed lap patch and underlaying hood frame. Made a butt patch welded it back in. Then checked the hood gap and curve. a little tweaking to get the curve back to original. Went well removed the hood again for lead and paint.
Original repair is pretty ugly, brazed crack and holes from the slide hammer


new patch is a good fit flush welded and leaded. Used the “magic 6 mm pins” and got factory alignment,



Have a 2 mm gap all they way around the hood, I am a happy camper no external paint.
thanks for looking

[dougdadmac]

I love seeing a bent hood frame being repaired correctly!

[Rimcanyon]

John, Justin pointed me to this repair. Looks like I need to redo the repair I did to my hood. Did you fabricate the piece of framework that you welded in or is it available from the suppliers? I checked Restoration Design - they have the corners and fronts but not the sides.

[Jbrooks]

Hoods done. Was pretty ugly to start but other than new paint it went away. Hinges stars rebuilt and lubed. Looks good overall.

Before and after. Now interior goes back in and we get to wait on the turn signal assembly to come back. I may rig up a temporary bypass for the lights. Get it back together and drivable.

[JTR70]

This repair turned out great, like it never happened...

[roy mawbey]

Well done John, your car must have been really in good condition for its age before you started. The repair work did not extend further than it could have done as so often with so many other 356 cars. Floors look good and that 2mm front bonnet lid gap is just perfect. I used the pins as well when I had my lid off but still had to tweek a little to get the best result. I have often wondered if over 60 years the front wings move slightly ( only marginal ) from when new.? My gap is acceptable but in places a couple of MM wider than I would prefer. Could have leaded the problem 40 odd years ago but this aspect of restoration back then was not so paramount as I think today. When I think of some of the rust repair jobs I have seen years ago on 356 cars I shudder.

Nice photos to explain your work as I have said many times to Justin its not a five minute job to keep us all informed it is very much appreciated though!!
Roy

[Jbrooks]

Thanks Roy. Have the Coupe mostly back together, all the metal work complete. Terry stopped by today to have the clutch
and heater boxes adjusted. Raining so he wanted defrosters, went well. We did his car a couple years ago. so we had a pair red cars in the shop today, both 65’s one ruby, the other signal.

[roy mawbey]

Nice Pic there John. Ruby red looks good too!
Roy

[JTR70]

The photo above highlights it perfectly me, I've always been more partial to the darker blood red versions.

[Jbrooks]

Thanks guys. Justin the Ruby Red was matched by Glasuirt and the RAL color system. Its 100% correct. I have the mixing instructions for the 22 line if you need them, Nothing I like more than going to a show and seeing 5 Ruby cars together and they are all a different color. This one is correct.

Getting the interior back in now and awaiting to the turn signal stalk to return from overhaul. I can't tell you how nice it is to work on a pretty original car, All the washers are still there and everything fits. Heater box cables adjusted, heater rods and valves set perfect, Should have it home by Wednesday for a light wet sand, paint correction and polish. Going to swap out the lamps for LED individual bulbs, fond some on eBay that are a drop in. We tested them and they are all brighter than the filament bulbs, but need a electronic flasher but all work well, even the instrument and running lights. Has been a good project overall and it should be ready for many miles of driving. New owner is not afraid to use it, and pushes it pretty hard on our local two lane roads.

[Jbrooks]

Well it’s done for now, interior in back in

Wire brushed and cleaned the wheel wells, repacked the seam sealer into the joints. Shined up the rust spots, treated with Ashpo, a coat or so of POR15, then a coating of Wurth Schatz, not as clean as Bob’s but close
It’s finally back home for a wet sand and polish. Fun project and it’s road ready for a while.

Everything has been adjusted, lubed, and or painted. Heaters and fresh air vents are perfect, it’s done. Finally the disassembled boxed up missing parts auction car is complete. All I need is the turn signal stalk, (that’s out for overhaul) and it’s complete.

[JTR70]

She looks great! Nice turn around time too...