The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[roy mawbey]

Phil,

Yes, nice you are back on 'thread', hope the dog is better too. Have you looked again at the stuck radius arm? Or as I would, dipping your toes in the water slowly.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Roy
Dog is doing a lot better also. I am working on the radius arm in parallel with cleaning up parts. Yesterday I enlarged the punch hole so I could get my air hammer punch in it. Torsion bar still has not budged. I guy on the 912 forum actually cut through the torsion bar just inboard of the radius arm to get the remaining piece out. I may do that as currently planning on leaving the camber compensator off so would need to go to a different bar anyway.

I should have removed this "assembly" before I installed the new rocker. At least then I could work on it a lot easier.

Phil

[Phil Planck]

Got the front mounts finally top top coated and in loosely place on the transaxle. As you can see in the parts picture, there are 4 wavy washers and one lock washer. The other 3 broke. Looking at the exploded parts book, the wavy washers go on the rear and the lock washers go on the front over the spacers.





I have the rear brake drums cleaned up and measured and they are well within spec. Pulled the front ones out today and both are below spec(oversize). Max. is 4.10 and the best one measures slightly more than this:





I was hoping to send off all of the shoes at one time for relining and arcing, but may do just the rear until I resolve the front drum issue.


Finally got the other radius arm off. Ended up drilling the hole in the end cover to 1/2", used a 1/2" bar as a punch, got a bigger hammer, and heated the spline area with my MAP gas torch. Took several good whacks but it finally started to move. The punch flared out so much I could not pull it back through the cover hole, so pried of the cover with the punch:





Of course you need to support the radius arm as you hammer. I used two long bolts in the lower rubber bushing cover holes with a 4x4 between the radius arm and the bolts:

[JTR70]

Phil, glad to hear both you and your pal are on the mend! Good to see you back knocking out some progress once again.
Stay well!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Justin. Yes, I missed it.
Got the radius arm cleaned up today and made a new plug to replace the one with the 1/2" hole in it. 16 gauge, which I had on hand. The splines at the outer end were dry and there were about 10 serrations that were pretty rusty near the outer end. I will seal the new plug with RTV to help keep moisture out.



Phil

[Phil Planck]

Going a little slow on Foam Car as am also turkey hunting and put a new generator and coil on the 912. Got the front brake drums degreased and cleaned up. A variety of bearings some showing wear so will replace those. Plan to ship the front drums off for new liners this week. Also, need to decide what to do about the camber compensator. Needs new rubber which runs about $1000 at Stoddard. Have not searched elsewhere yet. Leaning toward replacing the 23mm torsion bars with 24mm and leave the compensator off, as many say they really were not effective. Got both inner fenders painted and now ready to put undercoating on. I am using cold zinc spray on the bare metal followed by Krylon latex Rust Tough, as the cold zinc can says to top coat with latex. I have used this cold zinc(Rustoleum) on bare metal exterior door frames and no rust through for over 10 years. I have used the Krylon on my steel trailer fenders and it has held up very well for a long time. Not sure it is even available any more but I have enough for Foam Car.

[JTR70]

Looking good Phil! What do you like for scrubbing those drums clean? Steel wool with a little acetone or brake cleaner?

[Phil Planck]

Justin

I just put the drum in my part cleaning tank which has mineral spirits in it. Got the grease and a lot of crud off with just a cleaning brush. Then used scotch-brite pad to get it cleaner. For the fin recesses I used a rotary thin wire brush on an air tool. Then for the tight areas a little rotary brush on a Dremel.

Phil

[bbspdstr]

Phil, you wrote:

Also, need to decide what to do about the camber compensator. Needs new rubber which runs about $1000 at Stoddard. Have not searched elsewhere yet. Leaning toward replacing the 23mm torsion bars with 24mm and leave the compensator off, as many say they really were not effective.

A personal view;

The "camber compensator" was a "helper spring" to compensate for loads beyond the capability of the "comfortable" torsion bars the marketing people thought would draw more sales from/with a "touring" clientele beyond a 356 being "just a (raw) sports car."

Reasons not to replace, other than for "originality":

1)As noted, expensive to rebuild.
2)New next-diameter-up (or more) torsion bars are available for less than $300 so I think it's best to start fresh, especially if those that came with the car were not clearly marked with a reassembly orientation to repeat where they were.
3)The Factory helper spring adds weight in the rear.
4)Handling is better without, as the 'tuck' of the inside rear wheel in a turn is exaggerated with the helper spring pulling down.
5)For those still actually DRIVING a 356, the opposite torsion spring effect can be had with a simple reversal of theory such as sold by Vic Skirmants, but that adds weight, too.

The stiffer bars are the way to go....at least in my experience both with customer cars and my personal 356s.

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Got both inner quarter panels undercoated using Wurth rattle cans from Stoddard:



While waiting for brake drums and shoes to return I took on the last frontier of Foam Car, the area under the transxle. This appears to be unmolested original, so if anyone needs any detail shots/dimensions let me know.






Started scrapping off foam remnants and undercoating. Will remove tar paper next. As the heater tubes/clamps are solid, I am going to try not removing them but just derusting as much as possible in place.

[JTR70]

Rear wheel wells look nice Phil, You had to have been pleased with yourself. Are you officially done welding on this car or are you just taking a break from it all? Justin

[John Pierce]

Phil, how did the Wurth rattle cans work out? Good coverage? Adhesion?

JP

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Justin. I still have to weld the removed center nose section back on, after I fix the last rusty outer metal on passenger lower front fender(under h/l). But I decided to get the running gear back on to free up shop space and make it easier to move if something happens to me.

John, I bought 2 cans of Wurth years ago for a reason long forgotten. I first used it last Spring when I had to repair the rusty gas tank bottom on the 912. The 912 tank is undercoated. It seems to be holding up well on that tank. Pretty easy to use. Hold it 20" away and it gives a nice finish similar to factory. I next used it in the same area on the 912 as on Foam Car after replacing the spring plate bushings.

Trying to show the new undercoating on the 912 tank:

[Phil Planck]

Questions for the day. I finally got the Stoddard throttle bell crank rebuild kit. New bushings installed and reamed. New shaft. Now the questions: 1) the shorter lever with the ball stud is slightly bent inward - maybe 5 degrees. Is this correct, or did it get bent accidently? 2) The coat hook attachment on the other lever needs to be peened. Has anyone done this? Does the other end(working, non-peened end) get deformed during peening? If so I will just weld it on.



Thanks - Phil

[Jack Staggs]

I've been know to bend (ie: dog leg) the short one to allow the long rod to the pedal to be more centered in the relatively small hole it passes the the chassis. I don't like it when the long rod rubbs/binds on the edge of the hole in various throttle positions. I'd mount up the trans/engine/linkage first for best results. Don't know about the coat hanger attachment piece. I have never replaced one in my 50 years of 356 work. They were long unavailable, so I learned how to braze them up to standard size decades ago. The brazing seems to have more lubricity against the steel coat hanger, and I have never had to re-do one ever. It's interesting to note that Porsche used steel shifting forks in the transmission, coupled with steel slider gears, and they wore out rather quickly. In later years, during A model production, they switched to brass forks, keeping the steel slider. This resulted in virtually NO wear, even to this day! I also braze the coat hanger when needed, with good results. It's a tricky process, but I usually can do both pieces without any needed filing/machining.