Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[DG58INNM]

Justin, here's a photo of a C coupe that I just put a Trevor nose on. How do you like this lovely starting gap?



You could drive a speedster through the passenger side gap! But in the end it came out good. Only 9000 hours of tapping, banging, filing, leading, tapping some more.....banging some more, etc....But you know all about that of course.
DG

[roy mawbey]

I just don't know how you both manage to get the gaps correct however many hours it takes. Truly amazes me every time I look to see the advances. How you corrected the bonnet lid to get the gap correct on the passenger side I can't get my head round.

I presume? you had to cut the wing section and add metal, then lead it? Difficult beyond words probably.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks David! That's pretty wide but I guess that must fit around Trevor's sample hood? On an issue like that its been tempting just to add onto the edge of the hood versus cutting into all that complex trough work as you accurately state does not lend itself to moving very much but on a gap that wide you really have no choice but to cut and rebuild to suit it as you know too well.

Roy, all these alterations come purely out of necessity and sometimes require a bit rethink until I can get my own head around it.

9/4/17

Last of the left side trough and gap work.

Finally settled on sectioning this area this way to get it all to move over where needed. I of course jumped the gun and previously plug welded too far into this turn as a lot more of it needs to swing wider. At this point my easiest answer was to cut the loose section off reposition out where needed. All welded in here.

Below that I had to cut the shoulder free from the previously plug welded mating surface move it out then just back fill that newly created gap where it had been. A bit messed up but this is what I created for myself. Now the trough is free to be moved into alignment; about a quarter inch or so.

Had to extend the relief cut at the trough down a few more inches at the bend to break its back and allow for a gentle swing into alignment. A few rounds of torch heat and my dead blow hammer began taking it in the needed direction.


While the trough now aligned at the ends you can see that the approach angle below the joint is still too straight and needs more curve sweep added in. Before I could do that the end of the trough had to be secured first so I went ahead and welded it up.

Gas welded seam finished and replicates what was left by the factory. The remaining relief gap here allows for that contoured sweep I need. A few more rounds of hammer and heat next.

Dropped the hood for a test. I swept the upper corner transition a touch too wide but a mill or two of lead will correct that. Marked out the rest of the relief cut needed to get the rest of the gap opening I need.

Cut the rest of the way and tapped down. Just about have the gap opened up where I need it.

Its never straight forward as there is always the give and take. As the area is being moved downward to open the gap its also getting shorter so the lip is now falling below the surface of the skin as you can see here. The nose was initially set to continue on off the edge of the hood so now a slight overbite in this section is developing. I could just leave it and let the body shop build t back up with filler...

But the quick and more correct fix was to add another relief cut and move the lip back out into alignment with the surface.

Back to even with the edge of the hood.

Outer relief all welded and dressed. The new gap is all but set with just a few irregularities to smooth out.

One more unexpected and additional relief cut required but I wanted to preserve the original contour in steel as much as I could.

A little more than half of this gap represents what would have been needed in filler to bring that line back out.

PIA making little back fill strips like this one but this officially ended my ordeal on this side.

[JTR70]

Part 2

Left side gap and trough finished!


Entire run shaped and finished. This thing was a Mother-f'er; just in case my last post didn't make that quite clear.

I think subconsciously I knew what I was in for which is why I had to step away and finish the rest of the body first before I could mentally deal with this.

Everything at a level I can live with.

Have some welding slag on the underside to clean up


but nothing too heinous.


Final gap. Swung it just a touch wide on the upper transition but the photo makes look worse than it actually is.


It'll need filler but not too much. Anyway....I'm done here!


Now onto opening up the right side and finishing out its trough run.

Have some work to do but its all lined up here on this side so much to my great relief I've tackled the hardest side to deal with first.
Working on this final body related adjustment next.
Thanks for reading through all of this!
Justin

[bbspdstr]

My last Speedster was nick-named "Frankenspeedster."

"This thing was a Mother-f'er; just in case my last post didn't make that quite clear."



How's that family tree going to look? Offspring of that above-referenced union will be part Coupe, part Speedster, part whatever the "mother" is. Trevor (Marshall) had to have donated SOMETHING into that mix.........jus'sayin'

Those of us who do this often think we see kids out on the street that look a lot like a mix between a humanoid and a bunch of 356 parts. A miraculous conception or just a bad dream? I know most of us all too often use that term...and others just as raw, and the old saying is: "If you can think it, it can happen."

-Bruce

[JTR70]

This car is a mixed up mutt just like the guy building it Bruce.
In that particular quote I was referring to that left trough though this entire project does fit the bill. All the welding, grinding and back filling was particularly unpleasant but I think it was magnified by my anticipation of just trying to get over the finish line already.

9/5/17

Right trough

Had to take a shot of my official final plug weld on this car! When I think back to just how many plug welds have been laid down on this entire car... I thought I'd never see the last one but here it finally came.

A great luxury having with these two ends line up without any fuss. Tacked up nicely.

Plug weld run dressed smooth and inner lip folded over tight.

Finished the session with the gas weld detail at the rear corner here. Just a few small things left to address then its onto the lateral hood gap.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

9/21/17

Right trough run finally stitched up.

Though I didn't have the misalignment issues of the left side, this opposite side still proved to be just as miserable and time consuming to finish out.

All tacked up with basic gap now open.

Not perfect like the other side but a little lead solder will clean up all the short comings pretty quickly. paint stick at the bottom roughly represents space for the thickness of the eventual trunk seal.

Now the slow process of stitching it all up.

Once it was all welded up I had the great pleasure of grinding and shaping those long runs down. For the past few weeks my shop visits sucked pretty bad. I was too depressed to even bring it up here until tonight.

Little bites... needed to grind and final shape small sections of this run at a time to be able to slog forward on it.


I eventually ran out of weld to grind.


Dressed the slag on the underside as best as I could but the shoulder shielded a lot of it and I just could not reach it with my grinder. Nothing major, just not as tidy as I would prefer.

a bit of weld scar and divots here and there remain but its as far as I dare chase it to keep from thinning this area too much.

One valuable lesson I did learn here is not to commit and begin welding too soon. Its too painful to correct after the fact especially when all your talking about is a MM or two.

Its a good fundamental shape I can live with.

This officially completes my duties of welding on this body!! I have some small chores to do on the closing panels yet but for all intense purposes I'm done.

area behind a coat of epoxy to close this chapter.

Hood remounted to see what I eventually ended up with.

This corner swung a little wide too so some lead will be needed to perfect that gap.


but its as far as I can chase it.

Like the rest of the body it will need a little more love and some filler to be perfect but not a ton of it.

I'm just relieved that the back of these fenders spill into the hood contour as close as they do. I had serious doubts when I began fitting them. Anyway, onto filling those rust holes in the front of this hood next. The serious heavy lifting is done.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

I have to say, I just don't know how you managed that to get such a good result without filler of any kind. Its beyond me and for sure when new, these bodies needed so much lead sometimes. The body flow also looks to my eye really nice.

I do think if this car was only half way through all that work I wonder if your hands and mind could have finished it. If nothing else its taught me forget ever thinking this bodywork game is easy even with replacement parts its rather mind blowing knowing how to proceed to fit them.

Its no wonder restoration costs are so high to get a good job done.

Now just how long will it take for that car to be finished? The amount of work still needed elsewhere is daunting. Another year or more??

Its been a great thread, and you deserve a holiday away from a mig, tig or any other torch if only for a few days to get over that experience!


Roy

[merbesfield]

Justin, now that you are finished with the mammoth task, can I deliver my 57 so you can complete the simple task of installing the pans? My car HS sat so long I could now sell it as a barn find due to the thickness of dust it has accumulated.

[bbspdstr]

"Its no wonder restoration costs are so high to get a good job done."

"Now just how long will it take for that car to be finished? The amount of work still needed elsewhere is daunting. Another year or more??"

"Its been a great thread, and you deserve a holiday away from a mig, tig or any other torch if only for a few days to get over that experience!"

Roy, you have hit that nail on the head three times! Justin is to be commended for his work and attention to detail!

It is very difficult to do as a "full time job"..... so Justin is also shown to be amazing with his time management and enthusiasm. Many would have walked away and set aside this work long ago. Very few have Justin's innate talents and "eye" for old Porsches but he grew up with those...a huge plus.

A very few would continue with the "metal finishing" and lead work that would make this absolutely impeccable even if that level of talent and patience was available and affordable.

This journey has been a fresh breeze in our 'disposable' world where it is expected that when a item is used-up, it is discarded and a new replacement is obtained.....but wait! In this case, an old "used-up" 356 Coupe was discarded and a "new Speedster" was obtained through the 'magic' of hard work and what we Yanks call 'stick-to-it-tive-ness.'

All I can say is......wow!

-Bruce

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! Don't let the mat surfaces fool you there still remains a lot of small irregularities in it. The only realistic thing I could do was to minimize them but they are there. That is an excellent point while my involvement is nearing its end there still remains a long way to go in regards to final bodywork and paint. A really nice paint job could be a minimum of what, 15K on up to 35K depending. Then there is the cost of the drive train, wiring, Steering, suspension, brakes, fuel system, interior not to mention the Speedster specific parts like the seats, top and windshield frame and all the rest of the chrome jewelry. Makes my head and wallet swim just listing what is yet required for a final product.

I was just thinking the same thing about all the dust accumulation on my car Mark, when am I ever going to get my projects finished?? As Bruce said: "its amazing how long it takes to finish something you're not working on" That one has stuck with me.

Thank you so much Bruce, you are too kind! I've only been trying to copy the factory examples I have here on hand. I would have been absolutely screwed without reference examples for sure. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way as I'd never hung a nose, tail or even a fender for that matter on a 356 before. I've learned a lot and I now look at car body's and construction with "new eyes". While going over my fathers '66 911 these past months I realize what an absolute breeze it would be to build versus a 356 because it all unbolts save for the roof and rear quarters. All those angle gaps and breaks that unbolt are far more forgiving than a smooth continuous 356 body that must be fully "weld-committed" in the end all the while the while keeping the specter of "needed filler" at bay. I've always suspected it but I can firmly attest that assembling a 356 body is uniquely challenging to say the least. Preaching to the choir here but I had to get that off my chest.
Thanks again for all the kind words!
Justin

9/24/17
Left door loose ends.

Welding up slight modifications that had to be made like this relief slice as this corner was hanging out just a touch too far past the rocker.

Spear hole filling. This an NOS door once upon a time as it has no VIN ID so it was never fitted to a car by the factory. The side spear holes where drilled by someone and are too low. The spear should come right off the center of the handle, not below it.

Knockouts from my hole puncher made for perfect fillers.

Done with the loose ends here. Now the body shop is free to reset the spears across the car as whole. Onto the next the next item on my to do list which is getting very short.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

9/29/17

Trunk release conduit.

Just realized I hadn't reinastalled the trunk release tube. I swear one of these days I'm actually going to be done welding on this thing.

Before the tube could be installed I had another T2 detail to convert to T1. This arched relief for a trunk lock option needed to go.

Easy conversion as just a flat plate is needed. Toughest part was working down in that corner.

All welded up with conduit installed and directly welded to it as my T1 Reference car shows.

Done One more thing off the final checklist.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Jack Staggs]

Did this car get delivered?

[JTR70]

Hey Jack,

No, its still here. The painter the Doc has lined up is not ready to accept the car just yet so I'm in a holding pattern. Once I get a confirmed date I'll get motivated to build the dolly so it can ship. Once its on the ground I'll post a bunch of mock-up photos before it leaves.

Here's a blast from the past I got from Rusty Tubs:

Here's this donor just before it went to the media blaster. That old truck cab clip might be a tempting build.


Later without Truck cab roof...

[admin]

woa, really nice job!!!