Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[John Pierce]

Justin,

The transformation from the original chassis is amazing. You've done a great job! More importantly, you've documented how it should be done correctly for the rest of us. Thank you for that.

John

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Wow! Nice to see it starting to come back together. You have gone where few ever have. Thanks for documenting it.
Phil

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot John, I really appreciate you saying that! I hope your making progress on your coupe and am looking forward to any updates on it!

Thank you Phil, this is all new territory for me too! Thanks again you guys! Justin

5/16/14
Left inner frame section repair.

While I've decided to save this side for sure it still needs a few other nagging repairs other than new mount flanges. Rust holes along the profile of the old parcel shelf and a twisted-off bolt shank for the jump seat.

A carefully placed blob of weld for my vice-grips to hang onto and some torch heat fortunately took care of the broken shank problem.

Paper templates begin

I'm shooting for making this lower repair flange out of one piece.

Basic profile needed now in template form. Will begin contouring the new section to this shape tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JOP]

I am really happy that we got so much information given due to guys like you Justin that are taking photos of all your steps of the rebuild of a 356.
It gives valueable info regarding the way our 356 are put togheter.
If you ever wounder how or which order the sheetmetal shall lay...you get online to get more info
It was diffrent 20-30 years back .... no so common knowledge of the correct way of repairs.
So Internet and digital photos is after all good
Keep up the good work and take more photos.
/ Per

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot PW! It is always great to hear that some of this detail stuff might actually help someone else down the road. Sounds like you have a project waiting in the wings? Thanks again for that nice response! Justin

[MMW]

I know I speak for others in that I follow along all the time and always love looking at the updates & reading the comments. Most of the time I don't have anything to say other than nice work, looks awesome, etc. Can't really post that all the time but just so you know I'm watching & think it's awesome. I truly am amazed at the craftsmanship & patience you guys have.

PS - This is for all the other restoration threads too. I'm soaking it all in.

[JTR70]

Very much appreciated Mic! Thank you Sir!

5/18/14
Lower left frame closing section complete.

relief cuts now into the wall so the flange can conform to the seat pan profile.

relief cuts into the forward flange are next so it will contour with the wall.

Flange reliefs in and initially profiled to the original section. Very rough initial mock-up fitment here.

No way to clamp it for an accurate fit so a few screws had to be run in.

I needed the fit especially snug here so I could throw a tack weld on these cuts to ensure the correct position when I remove it.

New repair is slowly coming into better focus.

Reliefs are now set with a tack weld so final trimming and fitment to the old closing panel can begin.

The two pieces were fitted in the frame and tacked at the ends to establish the final cut line. I need a razor thin joint so I double checked and refitted it to the chassis; good thing I did because the rear portion was out a little. I've learned the hard way to check and recheck; particularly when the pieces are curly like this one is.

New lower repair flange cut to final shape.

Before any tack welding the entire run was first clamped into final position. Starting at one end would definitely caused welding and fitment problems.

Entire piece tacked and test fitted yet again to make sure.

So far so good..

New section all stitched on. Definitely some tweaking and adjusting as she goes in for good but its basically there.

Working on this rear corner closing section next. It would have been ideal if the weld joint could have intersected across the anchor plate but the perimeter kits wall unfortunately didn't go that high.

Begin templates to close this hole up tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Very interesting repair indeed. It goes to show if you started welding doing only that job, it could frighten you off doing anything else on the car. Your tips about measure, check, measure, check and weld only when positive makes so much sense.

You have to think all the time doing this work. I am in the middle of some awkward plumbing in my house at the moment. I am adopting your rules on measuring twice cutting once.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Roy! I just replaced a pair of sinks in our bathroom and one drain just insisted on leaking so it took a couple of tries to finally get it to quit; not fun.

2/24/14
Rear corner repair section in.

This is what I'm shooting for. The original inside of my coupe.

After a couple of generations of templates I had my pattern.

Locating and centering this window/ hole was probably more time than anything. onto to metal

New section in basic form and in for one of many trial fitments.

Hole now punched and continuing to refine the shape. Pie-cutting of the mount flange was of course required to make the turns.

The anchor plate itself became a useful tool in contouring this new piece.

Established its best adjusted fit and began welding along the bottom. Wanted to have it set before shrinking and shaping the top.

With the vertical wall stitched together the sloping of the top was next. A relief cut along the outer corner was required to gather-up the excess metal.

The top was sloped, contoured and welded right up the cut leaving this excess flap.

flap trimmed and welding completed.

Some initial weld dressing and mount flange pie-cuts filled and shaped.

In for another test fit. I had my doubts on how cleanly I would be able to make this piece. There is so much going on at once in this corner and the repair has to conform quite a bit.

Almost ready to go in for good! Still have to clean and seal this inner cavity in paint but that shouldn't take long. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[John Pierce]

Wow! Quite impressive, Justin. Can you give some details how you filled in the gaps between the pie cuts? The piece turned out just like a stamped piece.


JP

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot John! One of the secrets at least for me is taking the time to make good paper templates. If you have to make 2-3 versions in paper to get it right so much the better as it gives you time to plan and really get your head around its correct shape before you move into steel. I used to almost never make templates and would begin with metal with very mixed results but mostly bad. Even if the part was very poorly executed I wouldn't toss it because of time I had invested in it. According to Ron Fournier this is mistake #1. Guys become unwilling to throw away a sub-par item because of the time spent and use it anyway. He says, One of the keys to quality metal work is to always be willing to throw a mistake away and begin again. Paper templates really help to eliminate that, at least for me.
The pie-cut fills could not be simpler; I just cut and weld tiny wedges of metal that fit into those voids in the flange. Thanks once again!! Justin
5/25/14
Left inner frame sections gets welded in for good tomorrow!

Spent todays session tying up all the loose ends so I could get this inner cavity in paint and get this section mounted for good. Those series of rust holes was one of the first things. Rat-tail filed the holes to eliminate the super thin edges then cut Tiny metal plugs out to weld onto. Sort of like I did on those pie-cuts John.

Acid bath was next to clean up all the rust on the inner surface.

With those rust holes plugged I was able to install the new replacement mount flange sections for the parcel shelf.

Its ready! just need to get the inner surfaces sealed.


remaining surface rust gets a coat of converter next.

2k epoxy primed.

Done! Finished in a coat of spare white paint. As with the conversation on Tom's post about sealing these areas; its really just overkill at this point. Aside from the apocalypse these cars will never be exposed to eliments as they were in years past. Welding this on tomorrow! Thanks for looking! Justin

[DG58INNM]

Justin,
I continue to be amazed at your efforts on this project. You realize you are the probably the first person to construct an entire 356 from the ground up in 49 years!
DG

[JTR70]

This frame was pretty bad but I did have a little bit to weld onto so its not entirely from scratch. Thanks a lot David!!

5/26/14
Left inner frame section installed

Had to add more holes along the flanges for the plug-welds and holes to secure it to the internal anchor plate. With that now done it was finally time to install.


Section was now flush mounted at the rear to the cross-member and adjusted to its closest fitment originally. It of course wiggled and fought me for a bit.

Since this area was most critical I began welding at the anchor-plate and moved forward.

In Tom's post we've recently been talking about mistakes; I of course just made a new one. I had fitted and attached the lower repair run first, the upper corner section was afterward. I got a bit lax during its install and did not fully secure the lower run when I set and welded in the corner. Well it floated a bit and bit me in the ass! With the rear fully mounted flush and correct the last 10 inches of my new flange was no longer making contact with the seat pan! I had to recut the weld this distance to move it down flush where it belonged. Missed it by that much! A lesson learned for the right side in not to get lazy with the test fits.

Anyway the ceremony is now over so its just straight welding from here on in which will be wrapped up by tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[Trevor]

Getting there Justin! Can you post a picture of the entire chassis? I'd like to see the forest for the trees.

[JTR70]

Thanks Trevor here's a couple as of tonight:



I try not to look at it from this vantage point because it exhausts my mind thinking about all that still needs to be done.

5/28/14

Left inner frame section welded up and finally complete.

Took another solid session but I finally got this section all sewn up and completed.

Still a little more finishing to do on the upper seam run but the welding itself is done.

My coupe shows a seam weld were the anchor plate flange and outer cover flange meet.

Replicated here. Went a little further at the bottom to cross the joint were my two repair section meet for a bit more support.

Another loose end which was so nice to finish off was at this upper cross-member joint. Took the torch and melted in the saddle for the deck lid cable conduit to pass through. This is the way it appears to have been opened originally on my coupe. Anyway it tied the ends together really nicely.

Conduit fits fine. Notice the thickness in the flange accumulating as all these pieces meet.

With the left side built and my confidence up I'll begin paper templates for this rougher right side tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin