The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[Phil Planck]

Time to reinstall the fog light bracket:



All welded in:



Passenger fender and nose about finished. Still need to shape the circular area around parking light better and probably a little finessing here and there:



Now on to the same lower nose repair on the passenger fender. Cut out a blank and got it shaped(actually just bent) to match the NOS piece:



Both front fender areas had lots of accident damage and lead. This is passenger side a while back:



Phil

[Phil Planck]

As a diversion, I found some Febi axle boot clamps, I think on the Samba. These install very similar to my 912 boot clamps. Picked up a pair of clamp pliers.



Phil

[John Pierce]

Phil,

That metal looks a bit beaten up!! ouch


JP

[Phil Planck]

After antoher hour of dent removal on the passenger nose I decided that Foamcar deserved at least on good, unpatched, un beat to crap section, so am going to use the NOS passenger nose piece. Did a lot of measuring to determine overlap to original nose and looks like only 3/8 to 1/2".




Got the spot welds removed along the trough and am ready to slice this beat up nose section off.

[Phil Planck]

Cut the crappy passenger nose off and have NOS nose clamped in place. Very good fit. Currently overlapping 1".





Center nose section had 5 holes that were welded up, and lower flange area in bad shape:


Formed a patch and tacked in:



Finished welding in, need to smoot welds.

Phil

[merbesfield]

[JTR70]

That NOS section is really going to make for a nice repair.

[bbspdstr]

Mark wrote:

This is a topic for Rick or Justin, but here's what I've known from personal experience:

"Good supply" of original 356 parts ended in the '60s. Much was scrapped from dealers, then later became "buy-back" and/or surreptitiously diverted from dumpsters or bought from a Porsche distributor as obsolete parts, cheap.

When the "green metal" got a sprayed code number or an X on it, it was cheap. Came out of a dumpster, usually over a fence. Bad parts also got in the throw-away disposal but later miraculously appeared at swap meets.....so one must be careful.

Then there is the good stuff: whole welded together NOS T-6 front 3 pieces (2 front fenders and nose, plus cowl) sold ~25 years ago for $3,500. I thought that was steep. HA! My guess is that same part(s) today could bring $15k or more, maybe a whole lot more.

In my past life in a bigger shop, I had a wall 16' high with a lot of NOS sheet metal hanging on it for safe inventory and storage. It didn't last long. We'd then need to make our own or remake lesser repro.

Doing many early 911 rust repair jobs in the '70s and '80s, we would buy NOS floors, complete, from a Porsche dealer for under $1,000 and just trim off the front lower gas tank support back past the 'hump' for steering and store for future use as the cabin floor.

Porsche now lists those parts for over $5,600 and they are NOT "NOS." I needed the early floor, but you get "one size fits all...through the '67S I'm doing....and on" for starters, having to make it match the remnants of the car it's for...then a mix of RD, SIC and Porsche Classic for the rest of the body needs....customer said "order 'em all, find what fits best and is most accurate, and I'll sell off or return those parts that don't."

That is now how old Porsches are "properly repaired." Most big jobs have more in body parts costs than I ever paid for any Porsche....and I have owned a few. Unfortunately, I cannot afford one now.
-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Nose piece is finally finished. 8 hours of dent removal, 5 holes welded up and bottom repair patch:



Stripped green primer off of NOS passenger nose. Surprising amount of surface rust that needed removal:


Re-primed:



I cut out a section at the gutter to get it flush. Justin, you will be happy to know that even this NOS has some fit problems at the gutter:


The 2 troughs do not line up. I started by lining up the inner trough and checked hood fit:



Looks good from a distance, but gap too tight at bottom and top:

Will have to line up outer (weather strip) trough tomorrow to get this corrected.

[Phil Planck]

Aside from the trough, NOS fit is very good:\




Phil

[merbesfield]

Thanks Bruce. Good story.

[Phil Planck]

I'm wondering if I have a Karman passenger nose with a different water trough design than my Reutter body.

[bbspdstr]

Humm, the ledge for the lid seal looks more narrow than the original.

I am not aware of any dimensional differences on that part from Reutter and Karmann or D'Ieteren. Same PN 644-503-011-06 for Coupe, Cab/Hardtop, Roadster, and Hardtop61.

I have a customer who bought an "NOS" nose on eBay that was the "proper" green primer with the appropriate amount of rusty scratches and crayon marks. He gave it to me to use and I rejected it due to.....yes, a ledge that was too narrow and other minor areas that were formed incorrectly that would have been more in labor costs to correct than a better repro T-6 nose from Porsche.

For the short run on yours on which you need to make right, I'd cut it apart as Justin has shown on one of his threads and just make it fit and weld it back together again...but inspect ALL of that part carefully before committing.

Merry, Happy......and have fun!
-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Bruce.

Or maybe cut off and use old ledge from removed piece, which will fit perfect. That NOS piece from Sierra Madre.

[Phil Planck]

Mulled over Bruce's excellent input and decided to just replace the water gutter and widen the w/s flange by cutting off the water gutter and part of the flange from the old nose piece. Did this as the shape of the NOS water gutter was wrong.
Old water gutter removed:



Here is reworked old gutter matted up to NOS w/s flange:



As usual, checked hood fit several times and center nose piece for alignment to reworked gutter. I plan to install this reworked piece last after the NOS piece is welded on and the nose is reattached. That way I can get it lined up better.

Checked the headlight opening to make sure it was slightly outward:



Both sides have the same gap to the straight edge.

Installed bumper brackets for fit. A little inboard, but not much option to center except relocate hole(nope) or put a spacer between bracket and body.



An interesting discovery for me was that the factory left a sliver of overlap when installing the nose. This is only at the water gutter. I had cut this area off, assuming that the NOS weather strip flange and water gutter would match, so had to weld it back on to the larger piece removed from the old nose. This same sliver can be felt on the bottom of the drivers side gutter at the nose/fender joint.



I think I am ready to weld this replacement nose piece on. Plan to tack it in place and use the slice and peel method Bruce taught me