The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[213532]

As far as undercoating on the tubes, I've watched the video "Made By Hand" many times. Since I don't recall seeing any more additions to the chassis after undercoating, my guess is Dieter or Hans sprayed the entire underside but was cautious around the tube and any other areas that they didn't want undercoating on.

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Mike

The only undercoating I found was on the bottom of the axle tube, so looks like they did not come in from the fuel tank hole. Got everything cleaned, tacked the K bar in a few places, degreased, primed and top coated all the clamps and levers that go on the tube. Bruce, someone had put the bottom right angle zerk on top. Looks like I will be able to get it pointed down okay. Used wheel cylinder plastic plugs to seal the zerk holes. Sprayed cold zinc on the tack welds and back into the crevice on top of the rear K bar weld. Will let everything cure for 24 hours and then top coat the sheet metal with my last can of Krylon Rust Tuff latex. Will be ready to spray undercoat after that.

Phil

[213532]

Excellent rust proofing measures! The video only shows undercoating being sprayed on the bottom but then again, there are LOTS of details assembling a 356 that we would all wish they would have included.

If you're talking about the diagonal bars in the front (K bars? ), I've wondered why they were installed in a manner that traps dirt, grease, etc. rather than orienting them the other way.

[roy mawbey]

Yes Mike, I wonder why those diagonal members were made to accept all the road dirt that stayed often damp in the bottom radii. I have over the years cleaned those out a number of times.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Good observations on the K bar. BTW, seam sealer going on the trunk pan flange and other areas today before final paint.
Phil

[Phil Planck]

Well, I have finally drawn the line in the sand and am not making any more "improvements" to the front end inner sheet metal. Applied seam sealer yesterday. That can of stuff is starting to harden up also. Have been on the fence about an electric fuel pump. Foam Car had one and no mechanical pump when I bought it. After trying an electric priming pump on the PreA with Foam Cars engine and then using a priming bulb on the 912 I decided I like the priming bulb rout better. So, had to fill the 4 holes for the electric pump in the bulkhead:



Got those welded in, smoothed and primed:



Everything is now ready for my black top coat and then undercoat.
The 3M can of undercoat says max. of 60 psi so attached a pressure regulator to the undercoat gun. Anyone no the proper pressure setting for a T Reutter?

While letting all the cold zinc cure I removed the nice Stoddard fuel inlet line to the pump and modified the old one(as Jack said - don't throw anything away) so that I could install the priming bulb:



While removing the masking tape from the link pin assembly I noticed a damaged grease zerk. Pulled up the Stoddard catalog and they carry it. The link pin seals(item 19) were missing and I never had them on the PreA(didn't know about them till looking at the exploded view parts book). Also shown is a part between these seals and the suspension arm with no number. Don't understand the purpose of that or how it would work with the shim setup. Anyone know?



Getting so close to installing all the parts laying around the shop.

Phil

[Don C]

Phil,
If you're talking about the part to the right of #19 it is a stamped shim with a boss that fits into the pinch bolt slot on the trailing (suspension) arm. It is counted as one of the 10 shims used when setting up the link pin assembly. It also holds the rubber seal (#19) in place.
If you have a workshop manual look for the sectional view of the link pin/king pin assembly and you can see it there. Stoddard has them: #644-41-408.

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Don
That's what I was referring to. Added 4 to my Stoddard wishlist. Shame on me for not looking in the manual, as it is laying right out, open on my beater bag stand. I don't recall seeing those on the PreA or Foam
Car, but will look in my stash of shims.

Phil

[bbspdstr]

If you don't get the square-cut rubber O-rings to use with that flanged washer, save your money. Twenty spacer washers are 20 spacer washers.

I stack as much as I dare to get the front camber as close to neutral as I can. Jack may weigh in here?

I never understood the detail that captured (if very careful) that washer where it engaged (if very careful) the clamp split in the link pin eye. I suppose it was to keep the rubber from turning while it held moisture in the other shims.

Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Letting my latex Krylon cure before spraying undercoat:







Had to remove the loose fuel tank to get better access so have started putsing with that area. Plan to seal with POR15 like I did on the 912. Inside looks pretty good, but is only going to get worse with ethanol, so will do it while it is out. Gas gauge sender was missing arm years ago and found another back then but had not really gone over it. Did not show well on the ohmmeter so took it apart and cleaned up all the contact areas and it now seems to work okay. Found the shutoff valve and not remembering, I had rebuilt it years ago - yeah. Pulled out the bag of drain tube plates. Originals were very rusty so found another pair years ago and painted them. Repro rubber gaskets are not like originals, but I guess all that is available. Even though the parts diagram shows only 1 plate and gasket, I believe there are 2 of each, one set on each side of the inner fender. Will need to drill 4 holes for the plates, as original metal in that area was replaced circa 2001. Looks like 2 screws come in from inside and 2 from outside so need to move 2 clip nuts to the other plate.









Stoddard shows a drain channel(item 15 above). Not sure these were used on T6Bs, but only rubber neck has hole for one. Anyone know if that was just T6C? Don't have one of those in my parts bag.

[Jack Staggs]

Bruce/quote]link pins
[quote="bbspdstr" post=35461]

[merbesfield]

This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder "what's going to happen when all the old mechanics are gone"? These cars will become museum pieces I guess. Kids will look at them and think, where the plug?

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Jack - Have printed this out and will replace the page in the factory manual. Very good observations Sherlock. Will take a look tomorrow at my knuckle for this problem.

Phil

[Phil Planck]

Busy day today. Put a test patch of undercoat on my Krylon to see what would happen. So far so good. Did some digging in my box of baggies and found 2 bags of shims:





Turns out 2 of the pins had the rubber oring and metal cover, kind of grungy:




Collected all of my shims, eliminating the deformed ones and made stacks of 10. Think I have enough:




Took a look at the bushings and several were protruding:





I cannot file a square end on a bushing, no way, so found a stone to put on my drill press to do the hard work getting the bushing down almost flush:





I bought 3 80 grit belt sander loops to clean up the axle tubes. did not need that much, so they have been handy on previous axle tube bearing repair, and now for this project. They are thicker than some sandpaper so pretty durable. Punched a 5/8" hole and slid it over the 11/16" link pin:






Forced this into the knuckle and removed it to trim the excess at the I.D. Then marked the bushing and knuckle metal with a black Sharpee and proceeded to grind the bushing down flush with the knuckle. Surprisingly the 80 grit disc did not slip. Took a little while, with occasional brushing off of the build up, but now have one knuckle done:





Now for the harder knuckle, which has a deformed flange:





I got it partially rounded by clamping it in my 20 ton press and putting a pipe in and hammering. More to do.

During my lunch break the Stoddard order I placed Friday showed up with the new "square" orings. Look exactly like what I found, only clean.

[Jack Staggs]

I can't see the pics. Is anyone else having this problem? Help, Watson.