The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[Jonesy_356]

Must be a common thing, my little sand blast cabinet feels like a torture device. I really need to set up my shop while I have some time. Perhaps a good exhaust fan, plumbed in properly. Why do we insist on employers having decent, safe work environments, but we cheat ourselves? A biziarre aspect of human nature no doubt!

Jonesy

[roy mawbey]

Phil,

Nice work on the transmission Phil. It looks a whole lot better than the view of it when you removed it! Nice for you to know you did it!!

By the way I thought a few years ago of sleeving the brake cylinders with stainless steel sleeves like JOP mentioned. I already used SS pistons bought from Stoddard I seem to remember.

In the end though, I bought the complete new wheel cylinders copies of the ATE OEM parts. I checked one of them on receipt for bore and piston diameter size and it was perfect. They fitted fine and were so much cheaper than ATE. Been operating well since fitted.

I have kept the old cylinders of which I have more than a few just in case I have in the future the need to get them sleeved. I do change the hydraulic oil of the brakes about every 3 years to help stop future rusting.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Ref. wheel cylinders, I emailed Bill Brown in Lincoln, NE a few months ago as he has provided a stainless sleeving service for quite a while. Unfortunately his machinist is no longer able to do this(health issues). White Post years ago would put in brass sleeves, but changed their policy to full rebuild only so I assume would cost about as much as new ATE. I have used Silicon fluid for years as with my fleet(3) of old vehicles it was too much hassle to change brake fluid every 2 years. Now that I am down to 2, maybe I will go back to conventional fluid, as the 912 has conventional fluid when acquired last year.

[merbesfield]

Must be a common thing, my little sand blast cabinet feels like a torture device. I really need to set up my shop while I have some time. Perhaps a good exhaust fan, plumbed in properly. Why do we insist on employers having decent, safe work environments, but we cheat ourselves? A biziarre aspect of human nature no doubt!

Jonesy

I always wear a mask while blasting. I have to, if not my nose is so sensitive I will get a nose bled by the end of night. We don't use sand, we use recycled glass and I guess it is very harsh to my cute little nose lining.

[MMW]

Mark & anyone else, it is your nose that is the first defense for your body. So if that is giving you issues imagine the stuff that gets through. I know everyone has heard of the dangers of sandblasting & the reason is the stuff that settles into your lungs & just floats around that really does the damage. Your body has no way of getting rid of it & it just stays there doing damage. Picture a ton of sharp little things always moving around & making microscopic cuts & then the resulting scar tissue that happens. At least that is the way it was explained to me.

You should always wear a mask, a good paint mask does well but a dust mask is better than nothing.

[JTR70]

That's very sound advice! I no longer grind metal without my paint respirator on, as well as eye and ear protection. The paper masks are better than nothing but only better than nothing. A paint respirator I have found works best. I'll also leave the respirator on for a few minute afterward to give the really fine particulates a chance to settle out of the air. Its the stuff you don't see so obviously that is the real inhalation danger. Its scary when you consider that cutting wheel disintegrating into fine particulates as you work. Not only is the silica or aggregate dangerous but so is the base fiberglass matt its molded to. As Mic stated a lot of that stuff that gets past your mucosa and down into your lungs never comes out. I've been told that these particulates under a microscope have jagged hook like shapes that snare themselves into the lung tissue. The body eventually encapsulates them in scar tissue which in turn reduces the lungs efficiency over time and I'm sure other serious complications if exposure continues. I only started wearing a respirator in the last 5 years and only because I was experiencing a deep down irritation in my lungs after my grinding sessions. When I wear my paint respirator I'm good. If I use a paper mask I'll get some irritation afterward, this is why I say its just better than nothing. I think back on all the years and all the disc's I went through without a mask on. whatever damage I have is done but I've made the necessary changes to reduce my exposure. If only I knew then what I know now.
The only time I'd feel safe grinding without a respirator now would be outside with the good breeze blowing but if I'm smelling the disc burn I run and grab my respirator.

[Jonesy_356]

Absolutely, this is really important stuff, which is why I mentioned it. As is working position, which is where my 'torture chamber' comment comes from. I'm usually fastidious about workin positions, and have my bench set to a height that shorter folk (ie. the rest of my family) finds unworkable. Just dont have a good place for my blasting box yet. Hearing, eye, hand, feet and lung protection are not-negotiable in my workshop, no protection, no entry.

Jonesy

[bbspdstr]

No bragging rights about doing a 356 restoration yourself that's "to die for" but really dying from doing it.

I am worried about not using a mask for painting lacquer early in my career and then transitioning to the first carcinogenic Imron with the same bad habit. Almost 70 and so far, so good.

I have already lived longer than those who trained me....they smoked while spraying hot straight enamel...seriously, smoked. Even back then I knew THAT was just wrong.

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Good discussion and reminder to us all about being careful during our restoration fun. I have used this since I started way back. Note to self: time for some new canisters:



Finally got the back plates and brackets primed and top coated:



Unfortunately I should have measured the back plates before masking off the clamping area. Measure gap on one side at .172". When plates dry I will peel off the tape and measure. I installed new SKF wheel bearings.




Now for a question: what is the finish on the bearing retainers? I found no evidence of paint on either one and the manual looks to show bare metal:





Phil

[JTR70]

I would black-oxide those housings Phil. Another alternative would be to coat it with WD-40 or favorite oil and torch heat it to give a protective coating like an old iron skillet.

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Justin. I like the iron skillet method. Wish I had thought of that, as I use an iron skillet quite often and have seasoned several over the years. Even have some maintenance grease to put on the big one I use a lot.
Phil

[Phil Planck]

To speed up the project(after all it's been over 15 years) I decided to just spray some Krylon clear coat on the bearing retainers. Got the back plates installed using a tip Al Zim posted on the Registry back in the email only days. Put two studs in to help locate the back plate over the large o-ring:



With those 2 studs in place you can hold the back plate tight and install the bearing cover with two regular bolts. Snug those down and then remove the studs and put the other two bolts in.

Unfortunately one spacer had some deformations right in the area of the seal lip, so need to either turn it down or buy a new spacer. Need to get the diameter spec.



Here is the spacerless side:



With both back plates installed, time to move on to the rear brakes.



Oh the joy of cleaning up all the small parts:



The linings don't show a lot of wear, but think I will replace anyway as they may be grease saturated. Will see how they fit the drum.

Put the drivers side drum in the parts washer as it was so bad I did not even want to take a before picture. Still needs a lot of work on the exterior to make it "pretty" but clean enough to handle. Tomorrow I will measure the inner diameter to see if it is still in spec:



Phil

[Phil Planck]

Got both drums measured today with a tool someone gave me years ago. Fortunately both are well within spec. One should be trued a little as is slightly out of round:





How far do we go with a restoration. Looks like back plate bolts were black oxide so used a gun barrel marker to give them a fake black oxide appearance. Used new wavy washers as old one had some rust:



This stuff goes on shiny but dries a nice flat black.

Spent the rest of shop time degreasing second brake drum and then starting to clean up the exterior aluminum. Mounted drum on axle to use as a fixture to clean out the bottom of the fins:




At this point I would rather be working on the nose of Foam Car than doing all this cleaning.

I did measure the flatness of the spacer that has a rough diameter area in one spot. It is off by up to .002" so rather than take it to a machine shop to fix two problems, will order a new one:




Made several phone calls locally to see if anyone is still bonding linings on brake shoes. No luck so far. Contacted 2 national repair outfits but no response yet.

[356JAGER]

Here you go Phil,

http://mwthemachineshop.com/porsche-356-drums

Cheers,
Joel

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Joel

I have talked to Martin before. Interesting guy. Did not know he also did shoes. Will give him a call.

Phil