Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[roy mawbey]

Nice work Justin, The new diagonal really makes the underneath look nice especially when the new floors go in. The area where the diagonal meets the floor was always used over here for jacking up the car or was on mine before I bought it. Consequently the floor area just behind the diagonal had the impressions of many hydraulic jack lifting points. Its not rusty but annoys me. Have you seen all those marks on the old floors as well?

I now if I ever use that area place a wooden board underneath to spread the load. How nice for you to have that spit, that invention made life much more tolarable for 356 guys.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you David! Yeah, I find most guys are either one or the other; motor or chassis/body. A few guys do it all like my buddy here in town. I would like to get better mechanically though.

Thanks Roy! Yes I have, the floors on my coupe have all sorts of dents and scars but they don't bother me as much as they used to especially now that the car is off the hoist. I'd take the dents over cancer any day of the week though...

Cross-brace in 7/9/13
Finished all welding and grinding in the front torsion compartment and felt comfortable to install the diagonal brace this afternoon.

Ends trimmed and tacked into final position.

The large hole in the corner is a B/C detail so I'll end up closing it.

Tacked here but there will be alot of heating and messaging to get the contour correct. on that tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

7/10/13
Shaping and welding up the diagonal brace ends.

curved profile of the new brace of course does not fit with the original flange. Lined up the center first and worked my way outward.

Pretty heavy guage metal so torch heat was needed. Got the next section hot bent it out even then welded and repeated the process.

Shaping and welding complete on this side.

Seam weld runs up the horn for a bit which was great because it runs across my repair joint for added support. It then continues down the diagonal as originally.

My undisturbed original example.

Same process for the other side. The manufacture cut this side too short. Will have to make a small patch to correct it. It is All these little corrections that eat up the time.

[Carrera_The_Kid]

Cool stuff Justin, I learn something new every-time I check these post.

Thanks,

JK

[JTR70]

Thanks Joris! I am always glad to hear that these posts are of some interest.
7/13/13
left footwell perimeter repair.
With the forward sections of the frame all but complete I am now making my way into the longitudinal areas of the chassis.

Cutting the next little section to be replaced here. Its a short one which runs from the overlap joint to the left to that "patch" overlap joint on the right.

Rusted out section gone along with that backing "patch" exposing what is left of the "V" relief joint it bridged.

New section all trimmed to fit and now stitched into position here.

The new section continues that "V" relief as originally.

Inner "exposed" surface will show the continued factory joints once complete. The "V" relief on the left and the lap joint seam on the right. More rust still to address to the right of that joint.

Undisturbed factory joint that will be replicated.

Perimeter repair kits are commonly just "fish plated" over the top of the rusted original wall as the example above shows. While effective and never seen once carpeted I cannot bring myself to do it this way. In my mind its like double skinning a body panel. Though its a detail that won't be seen I just feel better about the repair replicating the factory lines without a false double wall.

Preping the length run of the longitudinal next.
Thanks for reading this! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

The heater tubes in the longitudinal look very thin with rust holes. What do you do there, are they even available to purchase? The jack spur no problem but there is a lot work on those tubes. Taking into account unlike the perimeter where you can lift a rubber mat to see a side repair, the heater tubes will I guess never be seen, so will you form and plate the area's which would work fine or....

Its clear I think condensation has had its affect on the tubes probably the top of the tubes are fine for welding? Also how often would the surgeon ever actually use the heater anyway? We have 28 degree C to just 30C over here for the past week or so. How on earth do you work in the temps you have? Is the shop air conditioned?

Good thread Justin!!

Roy

[Restomod]

AFAIK All the heater tubes and parts are available. I dont know how the heat in Justins area is (dry heat) but the high humidity heat here is no fun. And grinding and welding make it even less fun.

[JTR70]

Thank you so much Roy!
Those heater tubes are shot. Though the tops have not rusted through they are heavily pitted and weak throughout. They were just made of light exhaust type tubing so they weren't very stout to begin with. I have a line on some good Original tubes but if that falls through I can fabricate these out of various size exhaust tube offerings here locally. Your're right it wasn't just rain water that caused the corrosion in here; the condensation from the use of the heater itself contributed a great deal. As far as the high outside temps go I am very well insulated in the unit I rent. Mine is fortunately in a really sweet spot in the center of the building. The walls are all cynder block and the roof is poured concrete because I'm on the bottom level. The very back wall of the shop (that this chassis is leaning against) is below ground so there is nothing but dirt on the other side. It quite literally stays temperate like a cave in there. When its 110+ outside I open my door to come in and air feels like the cooler was running all night. I have a floor fan to keep the air moving around me as I work but thats all I need in there. I have swamp cooler but it works on evaporating water and I don't want my metal flash rusting besides I really don't need it as long as the doors stay closed. The opposite is true for the winter months' I'm a "bug in a rug" there. It has been a bit rainy so the humidity is a touch higher but nothing compared to what Brock has to deal with. Thanks again Guys! Justin

Knocked out the other short runner section yesterday before I really get knee-deep into a longitudinal.

Just tacked it in for now until I flip the chassis over. Most of the welding will again be on the other side so I can leave the weld seam alone for added strength.

[JTR70]

7/15/13
left longitudinal compartment repair
With that last little section of perimeter tacked in its now time to dive into one of these cancer ridden longitudinals.

One is just as bad as the other so I started with the left side since the car was already in position.Rocker removal first. Zipped and split the tiny gas-welds that secure the rocker threshold to the frame.

Rocker removed and chassis back up against the wall. Now ready to take off whats left of the longitudinal closing panel.

Will zip-wheel just ahead of the mount flange. I'll come back later then grind and peel off the remaining flange.

Gone. Not really looking much better yet...

OYE! There is alot of rott to address. The door well closing floor and upper heater tube bulk-head will all have to be fabricated from scatch. Lots of paper templates to come.

Same story to the rear. There is a whole series of joints and overlaps for strength under that rusted out area where the tube dives in. Cannot wait to asses the fresh can of worms that awaits me under there.

Cutting the tube free tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

7/17/13


Old heater tube removed.

This thing is dead. It hit the ground with muffled "thud" instead of a high "ring" that healthy steel tubing makes when it hits the floor. Its mostly carbon now.

Now that this assembly is out of the way I can start to address this nasty old corner.

Slowly peeling back the rotted layers to both asses and reverse engineer the new repair panels.

The first sub-layer that will have to be fixed first is the flange plate for the mouth of the inner conduit. You can see what's left of the original peeled upward on both sides here.

At the same time I'm planning the perimeter repair run.

This new section will take me right up to the embossed tube opening.
Thanks for reading this! Justin

[JTR70]

7/19/13

Prepping the lower heater tube corner for the perimeter longitudinal run.
The inner "mouth" of the heater tube section still in the frame had a flange around the opening that gets secured directly onto "new" perimeter.

Things became clearer once most of the lower rotted metal was removed. The lower opening of the tube has been cleaned in anticipation of a new mount flange plate that gets welded onto it.

The new section is based on what was left of the original. Just a flat plate with no 90 degree bend.

Length runner now in for a test fit. That lower flange gets welded directly onto this new section. There is a slight kick at the end to make it seat against it flush. A couple of relief cuts fixed that.

Basic outlet hole for the heater tube punched in now.

interior view. New section will flange under the rear section as originally. Fresh metal sure changes the outlook quickly...

A shouldered embossment will have to be punched in around the outlet hole as originally.

Mocked up the old heater tube just to see. Fortunately got that hole punched in the right spot.

The rear portion has been hole punched in anticipation of welding it to the new flange section and that "old" seam on the interior side.

I purchased an original pair of good used heater tubes and they are on route to me now; should have them Monday...
Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

Heater outlet embossment
The new longitudinal run is all but ready to be tacked in now. The only hold-up is the embossment around the outlet detail. With only basic hand tools and some loose junk on hand I had to come up with some sort of hammer form to get me over this hump.

I eventually found my answer in my round dolly and an old transmission part bolted to my work table to act as the cup.

I punched the relief on a slight angle to match more closely the approach of the outlet tube.

Test fitment with pretty good alignment.

Embossment complete. Not perfect but close enough for Gov't work..

With that out of the way the new piece is clamped and ready to be tacked in. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[JTR70]

7/21/13
Longitudinal repair wall in.

New run in process of welding here.

With the new section set and just about welded in I went ahead and angle cut the end to complete the look of this factory type relief joint. The welds on either side were dressed down in anticipation of the "bridge plate".

Bridge plate fashioned after what was originally there.


A remnant piece of perimeter made for a perfect plate. It was however just a little shy and did not cover the entire relief so a small fill plate was added up top.

Quick inside shot of the factory relief detail I wanted to recreate.


New repair runner now fully welded in.

Rear has been plug-welded to both my new repair flange and the old inner flange as it was done originally. Will finish up this corner shortly but am waiting on the new tubes. Will head to work on the forward section in the mean time. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[JTR70]

7/22/13
Front splash-pan removal
To really be able to get into that rotted out door well area the vertical closing pans must be removed.

Both the inner and outer panels will be removed. The outer is very rusty high up and a T2 version so it had to be replaced anyway for the T1 theme.

Began drilling out the spot welds that secures it to one of those inner walls I'll be addressing.

Inside view of the welds I'm drilling to preserve that flange. Also notice how rusted out the two pans are in between here. They had to be removed regardless.

The perimeter mount flanges along the edges were cut just ahead of the spot-welds. Will go back and grind down the remaining strip later. Center reinforcement bracket spot-welds at the speaker boss have been drilled.

Almost there; the pan has been pushed forward to expose a couple of welds at the center I missed. Always happens.

Closing panel now finally removed exposing a clear shot into this cramped and rotted out area.

T2 reinforcement bracket and lower hinge base also now removed exposing the rotted out wall section behind it.

[JTR70]

Begin paper templates so the removal of these rotted wall and floor sections can start.

Peeling it just like an onion so I am starting my first template on this outer most wall. Before I cut I need an accurate copy first.

Template now complete with accurately bent mount flanges. The old flange is still on the floor on the far right of this shot. This rotted lower section can now be removed to expose the next wall which also includes the floor.
Thanks for reading this! Justin