The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Jack. Really appreciate all the advice.

Made a copper weld shield by bending it around scrap piece of wire, then trimmed so mig nozzle would clear:



Cranked up welder to highest setting and joined wires. Easy to clean up weld on top and copper kept it smooth on bottom:

[Phil Planck]

With this passenger nose abot rapped up its time to reinstall center nose section. The contour of the lower drivers nose was too flat, so last year got that reshaped "pretty close". I knew the center nose would also have to be arced tighter. Found the contour template and did a thigh tightening of the contour. Passenger side getting closer:



Drivers side not so much:




Hopefully I can do this on my thigh. Closest E wheel I know of is on other side of the state.

[Phil Planck]

Got the fender/ nose flange bent around the wire. Needs a bit of weld filler but essentialy done:





Did some more bending on the nose. Passenger side matches up pretty good.





Drivers side has major problem. All the old accident damage has been a challenge. Need to reshape the area to match template:

[John Pierce]

For some reason the pix didn't come through, Phil.

[Phil Planck]

Dont know why the pics did not display. Deleted them and readded same way as before and now they show. Anyway, need to decide on course of action. A patch piece from a donor nose would be ideal, as you can see other metal in that area is rough.

[bbspdstr]

Phil, I see the pictures that match the words. One of those words was "donor."

I just "donated" a part of a nose to a recycler of such pieces, Ed Anspach.

https://www.anspachautos.com/

That pile, picked over by Adam Wright several times, will still yield small pieces such as you need. Ed has been around old Porsches as long or longer than I have. I first met him as a partner in "Anspach und Frick" many decades ago and if what he took from me doesn't include what you need, he may have it from another "stash."

Nice work, get it DONE why don't ya? Maybe we should find and share a small shop in FL for the winter months so I might get my A finished?

Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Bruce
I have done business with Ed several times over the years. Im going to give it 1 more try, making a wooden form to put behind the metal to try to get the shape back. Really want to get the nose back on. After removing the painted over masking tape along the cut edge, that I forgot I had put there, the metal looks better. Going over to my wood working neighbor to borrow his band saw.

[Phil Planck]

Never made the wooden form, but spent several hours trying to get the right curve. Got close, but not close enough. What turned the trick was a narrow piece of pvc pipe that had a tighter radius than the final shape. This worked and now the pieces match close enough:

You can see the "tool" lying on the red stool.

With this problem hopefully behind me I had to do some trimming on the other side of the nose to match the nos passenger piece, especially at the top, as the cut I made on the nose was overlapping the new passenger section. Used the trick I referred us to from the metal shapping forum. Put blue tape along new passenger nose edge:



Then clamped nose in position and put blue tape matching the left side of other blue tape:



Then sccribed a cut line along the right side of tape, removed nose and cut off overlapping metal:



No more overlap and nice weld gap.

Put topcoat on undercoat and inner side of nose piece and removed all paint along butt and spot joints. I did discover an unfixed area where latch bracket welds to nose and the hem was ground thru, so cut that little piece out and will repair before final nose install.

[Jack Staggs]

Really nice work, Phil. Don't worry too much if the profile is not exactly the same from one side to the other. If they ever were from the factory, it probably was a mistake, hah! Just make sure that any loading at the front doesn't cause the wheel arch to bulge out before you weld. Hard to fix that later. Do one side, then tape/cut/trim the other. Stuff can move around more than one can imagine. If there is some tension keeping it all straight, so be it.
Carry on!

[Phil Planck]

Good tips Jack. This reminds me, should I weld fender braces at front of wheel openings befor or after? Obviously factory had to do it after, but with those parts of nose in place, maybe welding now would control the bulge.

[Phil Planck]

Am commited now. Did all of the plug welds along the top:


Tested hood fit before and after. Here is after:



Now on to the vertical welds. I checked wheel opening bow on passenger side. That lower corner is pretty stable and does not appear lime it will move much. Still think it might be good to at least tack weld the support braces before starting vertical welds.

[Phil Planck]

Trimmed a sliver off new passenger nose to refit old channel that has proper profile:




Welded in channel and started tacking in vertical joint:

[Phil Planck]

Made a small piece to fill gap at upper end of patched in channel:



Filled in folded flange at latch bracket by welding in larger piece, then trimming flush and welding fold:



Check fit of latch bracket:



Tacked upper part of drivers side nose joint:

[John Pierce]

Looking good! Have you checked the hood fitment yet?

[Phil Planck]

Thanks John.
Checked it 2 pages ago, looked okay to me.