Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[John Pierce]

Holy cow!! I see floors. What a milestone considering what you started with. Congrats!!

JP

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot John! Its a huge Psychological boost seeing that large hole at the bottom finally getting covered over.

8/6/14
Rear floor pan trimming and fitment.

Both the sides of the pan and the leading edge of this new vertical had be trimmed of excess. In process of being trimmed back here to my coupes original specifications.


A lot of time spent fine trimming to get the best overall centered fitment with flush fitments against the side walls.

All the while lining up the embossments with leading edge of the rear pan. A lot happing all at once.

Set screwed here in its best adjusted position.

With this rear section in I had to see it with the tunnel.

Happy with its initial fitment. Flanges appear to be lining up nicely with the floor embossments; so far so good..

What a fine day that will be when the new conduits are in and this tunnel is tacked on for good.

Will begin popping the holes in for the plug welds and attaching this floor section tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[Phil Planck]

Great progress Justin. Pan fit looks great. I have been slaving away on my grandson's 94 Buick Roadmaster wagon, but am learning a lot about my new bead roller. The patch panel I am making for his car is one of the hardest I have ever done, and it looks so simple. Project can be viewed here: http://allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=12053

Phil

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Phil! It was very rewarding to get that pan section in there for good this afternoon. I clicked on your link but I have to be a member and signed in to view the photos. A post in the off topic section of what you're doing would be great if you have a moment. Thanks once again! Justin

7/7/14
rear pan prepped and in for good.

Todays session was spent popping a thousand holes and finish-grinding my welds around the seat pan while I still had clear access from below.

Lots a holes

Pan now set with more screws to draw it in tight. Can finally begin welding tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

8/14/14

Rear pan section welded in

Wasn't much worthy of reporting over the Last couple of sessions; They were spent tediously leap-frogging from sheet-metal screws to draw it up tight and then the actual plug-weld.

A lot plug welds = Boring!

As of this afternoon however I did put the last of the plugs in to wrap this phase up.

Now for the even more unpleasant chore of grinding the heads down smooth. I have to take this in small sections to preserve my patience.

Next project for the floor is to fabricate the conduits and then I can get that tunnel on. Thanks for looking! Justin

[tperazzo]

Looking great Justin. Say, did you modify the hump where the rear pan meets the front pan to be more elliptical?

The reason why I ask is because my replacement floors have a very round profile and doesn't match the original floor or the tunnel indent. Yours looks right. Whose floors are those?

Thanks again,
Tom

[JTR70]

Thanks Tom! The lateral reinforcement tube half is actually kind of on weak side. The original in my coupe is much rounder and stronger in shape. I'll still have to install some reliefs in the tunnel flange for it though. Based on the Zinc coating I'm guessing these are RD floors. There not bad, the rest of the embossments are pretty nice and well defined. Thanks again! Justin

[John Pierce]

Nice work Justin! I think taking a break is good for your patience, but for me it's more for sanity. Those floors look like they are from RD.

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot John!

8/15/14

Shifter tunnel conduit fabrication

After several stops today I finally found the correct size tubing for this repair. The closest I could find however came only in Stainless Steel. A bit pricey and definitely overkill for this application but at least we wont have to worry about these rusting though anytime soon.

For templates I have both the original from this frame (above) and the original from my coupster. It was nice confirmation that there is no change from T-1 to T-2.

It was nice that a couple of my tools from my oil hardline project from my coupe will come in handy once again to complete this repair. My flairing tool for one will help finish the tips as done originally.

Aside from messaging the first tube I also had to prep the original outer threaded bungs for the parking brake tubes. Drilling out what left of the original tube lead.

Now the new tube section can slip into the bung for final welding as originally. one more to go here.

Right side parking brake run in basic shape here. There will of course be a lot of fine tweaking required before its over.

Tube section cut to basic length and mocked up with the original threaded bung. So far so good and should actually have this wrapped by Sunday, I hope. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[merbesfield]

I am amazed at your patience. As always thanks for the show.

[DG58INNM]

Just like Mark, I continue to be amazed!

What I would like to see soon is a recreation of that old famous photo of the bare 356 chassis being moved by the two rather sturdy German ladies. Though I hope you could find a few ladies easier on the eye! Maybe Bill could help with some of his bikini clad Malibu beauties!

Take care,
DG

[JTR70]

Thanks Mark! Hey David, It would be nice to round up a couple of Miss fitness models to grab an end for a quick photo Thanks again you guys!

8/16/14
Tunnel conduits and brackets continued.

Both parking brake runners now in basic form. Clutch cable runner resting directly over the left E-brake tube.

Clutch runner again here in red

Out back both e-brake sections mocked up into the bungs. The Clutch cable tube was by far the simplest as its just a straight shot with only a single bend back here just before the torsion housing.

With most of the conduit set it was now time to make the new cross brackets. Remnant sections of perimeter repair wall make for the right material thickness.

Fortunately this front bracket was intact to make a direct copy from. As you can see the drivers side gets a funky little jog in it making a simple bracket not too simple.

This jog creates a guide or cradle for the eventual throttle rod as represented here by the welding rod in my coupe.

Test fit into the tunnel to make sure the final length was correct; It was.

One down two more to go...

Unfortunately for the second and most complicated bracket I don't have one free for clear access to copy. The original was completely shot to hell save for the its throttle rod sleeve/guide and I butchered the one from my coupster.

My only reference is this one down inside the tunnel of my coupe. Again a bit more involved with varying heights to each side of the bracket where both the heater cable tube ends and throttle guide mount directly to. Have to get creative with paper markers to figure out the right dimensions in here. I can remember during my hasty removal of the bracket in my coupster that there were what seemed like a hundred spot welds holding it onto the floor pan. You can see most of them above.

Once I get past the second bracket the third is a straight forward piece once again. Turns out bending the tubes is the easy part, getting the brackets to correct shape and mount height is the more involved part. More tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Interesting diversion with the tube project. Nice work, as usual. I have never welded stainless. Any differences?

Phil

[JTR70]

Thank you Phil! I've welded a few stainless steel parts with my MIG and regular wire with no issues what so ever. In fact it laid down pretty nice. Of course the welds would eventually rust so if you're doing show stuff you'll need to TIG with stainless rod but for my purposes standard wire is going to work just fine here. Thanks again!

8/17/14

Tunnel Brackets continued

paper templates began

By the second generation I had the dimensions I was after.

Testing the template in the tunnel just to be sure before moving onto metal. It was a bit short so glad I caught here.

New bracket bent up. Would be harvesting that original throttle guide pictured next to it.

some slight tweaking but its a good basic fit against the walls.

Mocked up with original guide installed.

Test fit with tunnel installed over it.

So far so good. Well I thought I'd have this done by today but as usual this stuff always takes longer than you plan it out in your head. Finishing up the last bracket tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JOP]

Heay ya all,

I have done stainless steel welding with one of my MIG/MAG by just switching to stainless wire and used both the normal gas and CO2 with very good results.
And it doesnt rust