The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[Phil Planck]

Hi John

No shrinking yet, but will go over the fender and concave surfaces with a shrinking disc eventually. The only filing I did was on the welded up crack at the H/L flange. A double cut bastard file.

Phil

[Jack Staggs]

Phil, be sure to fit both your undamaged headlight assemblies to both buckets, including gasket, BEFORE welding. A slight variation in this area can cause significant problems in the future.

[bbspdstr]

Great heads-up, Jack!



Just now putting in the left side headlight in a local customer's SC Cab. Gotta open the whole bag o' tricks on this one or delay the completion with a re-chrome of the rim that was on the car when it came in.

The lack of an even adequate groove for the thicker repro seal is the problem.

We did the repaint with the assumption ("assume" being the one word not allowed in restoration that I overlooked this time) that the lights that came in would be those going out....but no-o-o-o.....after a car gets better, the customer can often want it better yet ("the nicer it gets, the nicer it has to be" syndrome), so we used 'replacement' rims on the units at the last minute instead of having the original rims replated. Those originals were deemed "good enough" at the outset of the project, but not at the end.

The ONLY way to avoid this type of dilemma is to pre-fit EVERYTHING that will be reattached to the 356 BEFORE it's painted. Tiny discrepancies like this repro gasket and rim fitting can really bog a reassembly down. Professionally speaking, it's "get ya now....or get ya later" and later usually costs more in hours spent.

Good luck with that corner Phil!

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Thanks for the tips Jack & Bruce. I was planning on a starting point to line up the drilled out spot welds, as I am going to re-use the original buckets. My 55 coupe has this problem. Appears only accident damage it has had is drivers nose. Years ago I found out I cannot use the rubber gasket on that side. I will leave this to it's next caretaker, as I will be lucky to finish Foam Car in my life time.

I at least have re-fit the bucket after all of my flattening of the front flange so I know on this date that it still fits well.

Phil

[Jack Staggs]

Great heads-up, Jack!

The lack of an even adequate groove for the thicker repro seal is the problem.
-Bruce

Bruce, I use these ones for problem cars. They are a bit thinner than the other ones.
http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=111941191

[bbspdstr]

Thanks, Jack.....I had an older thinner gasket in the 'stash' and didn't know it was Beetle. Viola....a source! And inexpensive, too!
Thanks again,
-Bruce

[Jack Staggs]

Bruce, I believe that the thin beetle gasket was used on the 356 as original equipment. The repros have gained size over all of the copying. 911/912 used a thick one, unlike VW. Hope this helps.
J

[bbspdstr]

I'm back from a delivery trip and just now ordered a bunch of small things from Wolfsburg West. I hadn't ordered from them since 2008 but was treated like a "regular."

Thanks again for the lead, Jack.

Here are some shots of my delivery, my old 84255.....now with it's new aluminum tonneau. Could post them on 'Coupe-2-Speedster' or 'Speedster rear panels'.....but I hope Phil doesn't mind them here.







I had to demonstrate the 4-bolt removal of the tonneau and the installation of the folding top. It's new owner now plans to make an awning over the garage door with the soft top...."Speedster Claustrophobia."

-Bruce

[tperazzo]

Geez, how come I never get deliveries like that. All I every get is junk mail and an occasional used part. That polished head rest scoop is a real work of art! Great job on an amazing car!

[JTR70]

Bruce, your old racer just turned out amazingly beautiful! A lot of really great custom/racing touches for sure. Looks a 15 inch Les Leston wheel in there? The new owner had to have been like a kid at Christmas that day! Actually, I still find it unbelievable that you ever let this car go considering all of your history together but I'm sure you had your reasons. Thanks for sharing these shots this beautiful Speedster! BTW: wish you'd start a dedicated thread about this car as your last entry will eventually be lost and buried in the shuffle. That's providing Phil makes any further progress on the foam car. Justin

[bbspdstr]

Justin, I'll try to find time for scanning pictures from my 22 years with 84255. About 4 years ago, Tobey Ross did a great article for Registry magazine about the 5 of us who have owned that particular Speedster and how all of us lived at one time less than 20 miles from each other. Until owner #5, Chris, bought the car as my wrecked racer in the midst of haltingly being repaired, each prior owner raced and wrecked that chassis. It is far from perfect, but Chris likes the 'patina' and 'provenance' of the history. It now has one of my old de-tuned racer-reject engines in it with a BBAD trans but it still scoots! Fun car....and missed.

Picking up the front sheet metal discussion, here is finally a picture of the Porsche-supplied part going on a T-6B, followed by a picture of what was trimmed off just going into the trash can.





I had the choice of a Trevor Marshall 'nose' and the one from Porsche/Taiwan/maybe Scandinavia. Either would have worked, but the one from Porsche, while more money to buy, still is a better fit and finish. Trevor's would work, but this job is a repair and paint, not good restoration...and speed is paramount. "The best result for the least time" (and therefore, m-o-n-e-y).

-Bruce

[bbspdstr]

In a very gentlemanly way, Per wrote privately to me about my choice of the Porsche Classic part over the Trevor part for this particular job. He was kindly concerned about any sensitivity in that decision but I will post here my reply with a couple of pictures from work this afternoon.

Hello, Per-

The details make the difference. The contours of the Porsche Classic part were better than Trevor's. Therefore, there is less hammer and dolly work to be done. Time will be saved and in the end, the money will be the same either way.

This is a collision job from an accident, not a restoration. The owner hit a wooden fence at his home when his (single circuit) brakes failed.

The car was fixed badly in it's past from similar previous damage, so we need all the help we can get and it was a good chance to try my first one-piece front since Chuck Stoddard had them made in the '70s in Detroit. We were running out of NOS panels and I did a cost survey. The Stoddard panels looked like NOS but took an average of $900 (back then) extra to install. It was the details.

I have used many Trevor T-6 fronts and a few for the earlier 356s and always had some work to do in fitting but always I were thinking how much better that is than making one ourselves!

This would all be fine on Justin's site. Thanks for being careful, but this is not sensitive information, just a report.


Best regards,
-Bruce





Note the slit on the left inner. The hood was "too wide"

I hope Phil doesn't mind the pirating of his thread when he gets back!

[John Pierce]

Bruce,

Thank you for posting an update. I also bought the Porsche Classic nose piece a few months ago and it's nicely made with a several stickers on the inside that say: "Made in Germany." The contours are well made and the rain channel fits my hood spot on. I haven't gotten to the point of fitting it yet as there is so much else to do on my car. Your pictures are helpful to show how it should be done.....keep on posting!

BTW: if anyone wants to purchase one: go to your local Porsche dealer and order it. It is several hundred $$ less expensive than ordering it through Stoddard and you won't have to pay for shipping as it is delivered directly from Germany to the Porsche dealer.

John

[bbspdstr]

..... I also bought the Porsche Classic nose piece a few months ago and it's nicely made with a several stickers on the inside that say: "Made in Germany." ......John

John, I wish the lawyers at Porsche would suggest to their bosses that such things as "Made in Germany" stuck on many of their resold products is dishonest. A Porsche part number sticker does NOT mean it isn't made in the US, China or any other country except Germany, and that's fine if the part is good, but more than a few aren't.

Their lawyers have been chasing anyone who dares use a Porsche logo, a shape or ANY 'intellectual property' for years and it's frustrating that enforcement is so one-way.

Maybe it's Porsche's way of pay-back for not being able to stop Speedster kit cars or kit-car owners from sporting Porsche badging......

When one thinks about it, sites, clubs and parts vendors exist that express how gung-ho large numbers of people are about their products made 49 and more years ago. Porsche and VW should be damned glad Dr. Porsche got it 'right' so very long ago when 'the good stuff' actually was "Made in Germany."

Maybe Trevor's parts should get stickers that proclaim "Made in Ohio" but anyway, it's great to have more choices in repair panels now, many years on, than when I got started doing restorations and repairs on 356s....regardless of where they are made. Gotta remember there was a time when we had to make our own!



-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Bruce
Thanks for keeping this thread going during my 10 day hunting trip. We were 60 miles south of Buffalo and just 10 miles south of the heavy snow belt. Only had about 7". Progress on Foam Car may slow down for a while, as I purchased a 912 for our long road trips. The 55 coupe has been fun for the last 30 years, but with only a few more long trip driving years left in me I thought it was time for something a little more roomy and comfortable. So, Foam Cars engine has to come out of the 55, along with a few other mods(electric tach, electric oil pressure gauge(thanks Bruce), Blaupunkt Koln, etc.) to get it back to "stock". Then I will probably sell it as restoring Foam Car and taking care of 2 drivers is more "car time" than I have(plus working garage space). The 912 is all original, un-repainted with a Maestro massaged original engine(Webers, probably NPRs, and his cam). I am looking forward to learning about and maintaining the 912 suspension and brakes. It has 2 outer panel rust issues which I will address at some point, but not for a while.

Phil