Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[JTR70]

10/9/14
Left splash pan in.

Inner and top run now fully plug-welded on. This piece really has fit up to the chassis very nicely on average. The fender mount flange is pretty close on the bottom run but as it moves up and into the corner the elevation is way too low and tight.

With its position set I can now commit and locate that upper mount flange elevation to the door. To accomplish this the opening will have to grow a bit so those manufacture spot welds on that relief joint will need to be drilled to allow the movement needed.

Once cut free the flange relaxed and just about gave me the elevation I'm after. Will finish that up tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[John Pierce]

Justin,

Ain't new metal so pretty? That's turning out very nicely. Just like all the other reproductions this one needs to be modified. Just the nature of the beast I guess. Thanks for showing the details in this area.

John

[JTR70]

Thanks John! Yes, fresh metal makes all the difference. Agree, all new panels must be messaged to fit correctly; unavoidable fact.

10/11/14
Right side splash pan prep and install.

Cut a few reliefs in and brought this flange close with the elevation to the door however I think it best to leave it loose for now until I am actually installing the skins. So with that I'm moving onto the right side.

original closing panel above the hinge must be re-installed first as was done on the left side.

welded back into position here. Will begin fitting the right pan on tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

10/14/14


Dash in for a test fit to see what kind of clearance there was with the crown of the new pan.

so far so good...

Once I saw the flange up against this old skin it quickly became apparent that it is the right choice to leave it loose until I'm actually fitting the cowl to it.

Fitting and prepping this side of the chassis for its new pan was next.

As Phil just mentioned on his build: you always find more rust! Just when I thought there could be no more. While fitting the new pan I noticed heavy deep scaly rust down in this flange with a few small breach holes to the outer walls .

I was tempted to leave it but in good conscience I could not. We've come this far what's a few more spot welds.. This repair and continued fitting of the splash pan tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

10/17/14

Right side splash pan mounted.

Before I could commit to the final placement of the pan the door was remounted again to establish the best average fit in regards to the levelness from flange to door surface. A lot of nip and tucking to come but I at least wanted it close for starters.

Welding began from the upper flange downward.

Made a profile template of the leading edge of the door so a more accurate cut to remove excess could be made to that flange. An idea that crossed my mind from doing the other side to help keep me from trimming too much off.

Most of the welding now complete.

New T1 style reinforcement also installed.

It's now ready for its new speedster dash cowling. Steve Hogue should be sending that out to me in the next week or two. Once I fit and establish that I can go back to building the windshield mounts.

While I wait on that, Rusty-Tubs rustled us up a New-old pair of Simonsens rockers with the ZIMs decal still on them. (Unavailable items from Zims now.) While I wait on Steve I'll go ahead and mount and establish the lower gap etc. with its new speedster doors.

Locating and gapping the rocker against the door also frees me up to finish one more piece of business with the longitudinals: Mounting the jack spurs.

Always a danger of orienting and mounting these too low if you try to free-style them on without the bottom edge of the rocker for reference.
I need all three items to be right with one another: bottom edge of door to rocker and bottom edge of rocker to the top of the jack-spur socket. Working on that next. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

10/18/14
Begin fitting new left rocker to the chassis.
The process of fine trimming and repeated test fitting began with this new body panel this afternoon.

First obstacle was getting the drain tray trimmed and narrowed enough to allow the rocker to slide forward and seat fully.

With the rocker nearly home I can see that the outer flange of the splash pan is a touch shy and may have to be cut and shaped a bit.

Rocker in basic initial position and door mounted for the first time to see what I'm up against.

Forward corner of the door is really sucked in and the rocker is a bit wide all at the same time which requires give and take from both pieces. Adding two more shims to the lower hinge would be next.


Two thick's added to the bottom which helped quite a bit. I'll be drawing the rocker tighter to get it lined up the rest of the way I think.

Another issue is the mount runner is not drawing up tight enough toward the rear.

I thought my new longitudinal closing panel might be too wide so I double checked with this other rocker assembly and it seems to fit flush just fine. Will the make the necessary adjustments as it goes.

A very rough start with various problems to correct but a start none the less. Thanks for looking! Justin

[John Pierce]

Hey Justin,

A bit of a slow process with lots of trimming to make fit. It looks like you've got a Simonsen piece and another vender's rocker. Can you give us a comparison between the two regarding metal quality, accuracy of fit (length, embossments, bends), etc? Will you have to strip the orange primer to put the epoxy primer on?

Thanks.

[JTR70]

Hi John,

Yes, the other rocker is an old RD rocker. I mean late '90's vintage before the Dejong's bought the company. To tell you the truth there are a few details I like about the RD rocker over the simonsen.

A side by side comparison shows that the simonsen is touch longer at both ends. Being on the short side was a common fitment issue with the early RD units which Phil can attest to. They may have corrected that issue by now. If Alex sees this maybe he can elaborate.

Another detail where the RD rocker was more correct is the knockout embossment. The inner shouldered flange is stronger than On the simonsen pressing making it more correct to factory.

The other detail that stuck out was the flange joint from the sill plate to the rocker face. To be factory correct the edge of the rocker flange should be even with the sill. The old RD rocker is even where the ZIM's flange is much too short. Another detail in this area was that the RD rocker had only a handful of spot-welds attaching it to the sill plate where as the Simonsen is attached much more thoroughly. Again this may have been addressed as well.

The red primer will stay for now as the entire car should be media blasted again for flash rust once the body is built.

[JTR70]

10/20/14
Left rocker and jack spur fitment continued

As trimming and jockeying continued I also tried out the new striker post.

The initial fit went surprisingly well. I'll have fully operating door in here shortly.

Before today was out I was finally getting glimpses the elevation and door gaps I'm after.

Door now basically centered in its best raw position in the rocker saddle.

Gaps and corner back here looking close as well. Another bonus is the torsion hole lining up almost perfectly all at the same time.

liking the Sill and door bottom relationship too.

Wasn't all good news of course, with the rocker all but positioned its clear I'll have to cut and space out the splash pan flange.

With the rocker now well established I began looking at fitting the jack spur and of course there is a fitment issue. Its too tall to allow the spur to seat properly so the top will have to be trimmed and shaped.

Drew a line of the rocker sill flange before I removed it. As you can see with the spur seated fully against the long. the top encroaches.

Initial trimming here and will finalize the shape of upper mount flange next.

With the spur seated again its now below the eventual rocker sill. Another reason to double check with the rocker first; if I had just free-styled these spurs on no questions asked I'd really be kicking my self the first time I would have tried fitting the rocker. Continuing on tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

10/21/14
Left jack spur preparation and placement

Trimmed and shaped the left spur for needed clearance from the rocker and a more authentic appearance.

Began tapering the upper flange so I could at least get it to clear the rocker for a test fit.

Now that I had the clearance I needed I decided to take it a step further and taper the bottom flange too as well as trim back the snout to weld seam as it was done originally.

Looks much more accurate compared to the original spur on my coupe.

By direct comparison the new spurs come very raw but with a little detail trimming they shape up quick.

A little heat was needed in the corners so the mount flanges would contour a little closer to the profile of the longitudinal.

Close enough; I can draw it up tighter with a few screws then shape fit it as the welding goes. Its ready to weld on.

Aside from the elevation in regards to the rocker I also needed to get the spur in the right spot. Factory manual says its center is 415MM from the center of the rear lower spring plate bolt boss.

There's 415MM right about here...

Center line for the new spur established.

Rocker re-installed and the spur now fitted to final position.
Confident with it enough to begin drilling holes for the first set screw.

I'm happy with the placement of all three parts right here.

Good jack clearance as well.

Removed the rocker and screwed the spur down the rest of the way. THEN I reinstalled the rocker again just make the attitude of the spur did not change. Once I clean the mating surfaces of paint tomorrow I'll be welding this spur on for good. As you can see by the upper line I jumped the gun trimming the top flange that close. I could have saved more of it. Oh well, I'll clean it up and I learned something for the other side when I get to it. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[John Pierce]

Justin,

Thanks for all the details. They'll come in handy when I get to that point. It looks well placed.

JP

[911quest]

Love it

Details details details....

[MMW]

Great work as usual. I am jealous of anyone who has the skill, the time & the patience to do projects like this. That goes for all of you guys who are doing restorations on this site. I do watch them all & thanks for posting as much as you do.

[Tony G]

Great work as usual. I am jealous of anyone who has the skill, the time & the patience to do projects like this. That goes for all of you guys who are doing restorations on this site. I do watch them all & thanks for posting as much as you do.

.....or the tools and space! LOL Keep us posted Justin with your awesome craftmanship.

[JTR70]

Thanks very much you guys! Knowing that some of these post might help you down the road makes the time that I spend writing them out more worthwhile! Absolutely, having the space to work in is a lot of it. My little two car garage at home would never cut it also my neighbors wouldn't tolerate all the grinding, hammering and painting fumes that go on at regular intervals. My thanks to each of you again, Appreciated!
10/22/14
Left spur mounted
Didn't get a whole lot of time on it today but I did at least begin the welding.

Before it went on I wanted to get the inner surfaces in good coat of epoxy. I stripped the black paint off then coated both the mount area of the longitudinal and the inside of the spur.

Installed for the final time.

Got most of the upper flanges plug-welded before I ran out of time. finishing it up next. Thanks for looking! Justin