Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[JTR70]

I appreciate that, Thank you again Roy!! I suppose I could take a photo of my clamps but you'd all be very unimpressed. I have just a handful of basic clamps I make do with. Like everything else in my shop I should invest in more. Though here is a shot of my tin snips for Steven:

Just your basic left, right and straight snips by Wiss which I bought from the local hardware store; nothing fancy. BTW: Right and left does designate which hand you use to hold them in. It means the curved sweep they will cut in or also the direction you can come at the work in from the same vantage point. (hope that made sense) They have lasted over 8 years of pretty regular use. The pivot bolt eventually works loose so they begin to chew instead of cut. You can retighten but they go loose and back to chewing within a few snips. A tack weld on the nut solves that problem. The "curl" of metal you see is the excess rolling off the snips shoulder. Phil had shared a link a while ago on these snips in action and I believe he even took a class on using them?? Anyway,the grey shears are Sears craftsman and I use those for long straight cuts. They are wonderful, about 10 years old with their original blades and will still cut through 20 and even 18 gauge very cleanly. If I can't get it with these then its a cutting wheel.
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Justin. Nice set of snips. I did not take a class, but posted a youtube video showing proper use. The 2 main takeaways are: 1) proper angle of the snips to the sheet metal, and 2) Cutting to only about 1/8" of final line, then doing a fine, controlled cut to the final line. Just go to youtube and search tin snips and you will find lots of good info.

Really enjoying your thread. Kinda like watching Days of Our Lives for shop rats.

Phil

[JTR70]

I'm glad you are Phil and thank you! yes, with all the constant drama it does seem like an old soap opera. Thanks again!


6/8/16
Begin welding up forward corner of right fender.

Hanging the first fender is sort of the easy part. Once that baseline is set it makes the other side a bit more difficult to install as it has to fit but also must match its mate as closely as possible. So getting the fender arches to match was sort of step one then there is getting them to mirror on another in slope and contour from this vantage point. They seem a bit off here but the right side is about 2 inches longer giving the impression that it swoops a little lower than other side. I'm staging them close here but I really won't chase it until I start hanging the tail on.


I was ready to retack the cap but I had to figure out just how far I wanted the fender to swing in so it would match the left sides distance from the frame more closely.

The game of best average fit began. Once I reset the fender brace to draw the fender in closer to match the other side it threw everything off. By pulling to top out to preserve my decklid gap the fender "stood up" steeply and seemed to cascade over the lower corner. I absolutely hated the way it looked and it no longer matched the other side! After many changes and fine adjustments I finally got the shape of the fender to hang like I wanted all the while keeping that lower in corner in closer to the frame as to match the left side.

With this new adjustment I lost the upper corner of my lid opening as you can see it sits well under the leading edge now. No choice, I'll be relief cutting this area as well before its all over.

Once I had that established I began tacking this initial cut back up. Actually with the fender set closer I had overlap again which I had to trim out first.

Forward section now tack into final position. Top frame remounted just to make sure the base bow was still spaced correctly away from the body.

There was a lot of stitching to do so I began welding and dressing small runs at a time beginning with this corner.

Continued to work my down by finishing up the joint on the flange side first to help ensure it would hold the right contoured shape with the end of the door.

Fender will come back off to finish the inner joint.

tacking up more of the cap relief run.

Still holding a good consistent line off the door. If need be I can tweak it as I attach it to the striker but if this shape holds through the rest of the welding it won't need much.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JTR70]

Okay Roy, here are all the clamps that I currently own. I warned you, its a very unimpressive collection but I manage to get by.

When I'm working with sheet metal(plug welding etc.) I find the needle nose and my small c-clamps my tools of choice.
6/9/16
Forward alterations buttoned up.

fender removed to finish out the inner joint. Picking and filing here like my old buddy Jason Bobruk taught me.

First test fitment with most of the welding done. So far so good.

Very happy and relieved as it will need very little lead to be perfect. All of which would be addressed when the final gaps are made.
I'll finish out the lower corner on the fenders final installment.

With that task pretty much done I went back to finishing up the cap relief.

She's getting there and am making my way toward the cowl and the lid.

good profile fit against the door preserved even after all that welding...Thankfully.
Justin

[ukinusa]

Ok,I seem to recall an expression...
" ...It's not what you got it's what you do with it that counts".

So having seen what Justin can do with his meagre supply of clamps, I am truly humbled; I guess I am a clamp junky - but I DO use (most) them all - promise !

[roy mawbey]

Guys,

I guess clamps to some men are like high heeled shoes to some women You can never have enough!

I don't mind going to shoe shops and can see immediately if the design does not look correct to the eye

But, for sure I like all your clamps they are in my opinion so valuable in providing help when you need it. You certainly have some nice options there to use. I realise I have a good range of 'G' clamps like Justin but a lot of those clamps are really specific to the task.

As a toolmaker long ago I collected and still have a wide range of dial indicators, magnetic holders and associated knuckle joints to get anywhere I wanted. Invaluable, so if I ever decide to start welding again both your clamp photos guys will be studied on what to buy.


This last series of photo's on the rear panel fitting Justin shows how well you are doing, that's no easy task and its going very well indeed. Not so many would have reached this point though without the experience. Super !!!

Roy

[JTR70]

Exactly Steve, its not what cha' got its how you use it.

Unfortunately I'm the exact opposite Roy, I usually don't buy tools until I find myself in a spot where I have no choice. The large blue C-clamp was my last purchase only because I got stuck while installing my front suspension and needed a deeper jawed clamp to drive out a link-pin. Thanks again you guys! Justin

6/12/16
Forward right fender alterations set.

Finished up the cap run several days ago completing the last of the major forward changes that had to be made.

Inside mount and flange area is teed up for final installation.

Begin relief cutting the lid opening and final trimming at the cowl. Getting very close to permanent installation time on this fender.
Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

6/16/16
Begin altering and trimming the upper run of the right rear fender.

Cut the lid opening relief just ahead of the shoulder to both hold the shape and reduce heat warpage.

With it loose I can now get it into the exact spot where I need it.

I'd be simultaneously fitting and locating the closing walls flange as well since it determines the height that the lid opening flange will sit at.

lid opening spaced just better than a paint sticks thickness with a consistent profile all along the lids edge. close enough anyway.

With that about set it was time to get the closing wall flange dialed in.

Wall flange tweaked for needed elevation and shape then tacked into position. Lid opening now secured to it.

Now that I have these flanges mated and set it was time to begin marking and removing the excess from the fenders edge.

Working from front to back I started very careful and conservative trimming from the cowl back to the lid. So scared I was going to trim away too much.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

6/18/16

Final trimming.

Cautiously trimmed back to about final length here.

Working my way backwards I tacked the lid opening to the excess skin so I could etch in the final trim line.

Trim line

commitment time again

Trimming finally just about done up here.

This fender is at last just about ready to go on for good.

Before I can do it I have to tie up a few loose ends on the inner closing panels first but I should be welding this on within the next couple of sessions. Thanks for looking! Justin

[bbspdstr]

Great work, Justin.
I am mirroring your work on the Speedster I am doing. Same parts, same issues.

Waiting for a left rear fender from Trevor, so straightening the right rear original (not as whupped as the left) and doing the front parts as well. The front original fenders are roughed-out but the highly touted Porsche-supplied front 'nose' required a graft of the front edge that Trevor makes for his front panels...that just happened to be in the hands of Rick Mullin for his Speedster project. Unneeded by Rick due to finding a NOS A nose that 'merely' required raising the horn grille and light holes.

The deficiency in the Factory, HA!, "Made in Germany", HA! nose was the land for the seal, ~half the width of the original:



Thanks for your continuing presentation of common sense work of making less-than-perfect parts come together to be and look as they should.

-Bruce

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Bruce! WOW, that shoulder is stamped very short. "made in Germany" certainly offers no guarantees either does it? I am glad to know that its not "just me" and that these panels are just interpretations of original parts all requiring some form of correction to work and look right.

6/21/16
Tying up numerous loose ends before final installment over the last few days.

Finished up the "speedster" cap profile on this coupe version lock post.

Could not have been happier with the snug fit against the skin.

One loose end down before final install and onto the next one.

Next was finishing up the edge profile on the cowl side. This area swooped upward to much so it was relief cut, gathered then relaxed down into alignment with the fender to continue the line.

Finishing up the weld joint on the right engine wall flange next.

Welded it up past the end of the edge of the fender for accessibility and left the corner loose until the tail is set.

The right side of this lid still stood up about a MM too proud. It was removed so I could trim away just a touch more on the hinge mount. A zip wheel thickness more turned the trick. Its remounted and latched here and will require minimal lead to be perfect.

With all that above settled I could now back fill this relief which was required to raise this corner up with the lid.

Welded and dressed.

All set here...

Lid opening shoulder too high.

Heated and rolled over to bring it level. This was a PIA due to the compound curve profile.

It took some doing but it eventually leveled out.

Tacked back on here. I still have some gap trueing yet to do but I can take care of that later on.

What I was mainly after for the moment was a smooth transition from lid to fender.

[JTR70]

6/21/16 part 2

Last loose end before final install was at the rocker to fender joint. Did I mention there was a lot to do before the fender could go on for good?

To smooth out the wired lip transition I relief cut it on the fender side to relax the edge back to align with the rocker.

The transition was close but I need it to be smooth and undectable when done so I cut a small relief on the rocker side to relax it back into more of an aligned arch with the fender. Excess skin was also trimmed away from the joint.

wire tips were pointed for welding finishing up the last of the prep work.

Went back to studying the general contour shape before making any final commitments. Body lines holding together pretty well...

At long last this fender was ready to go.

and by this afternoon I was cautiously tacking it together at the cowl.

Continue welding on it tomorrow.
Thanks for reading all of this.
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Goodness you make it all look so easy I just spent some enjoyable minutes looking at your great photo's.

The transition of the wired rear fender to the rear rocker panel did interest me.For many years I had no idea how the factory did that. Until I sprayed the car years ago and noticed this extra thickness of the wired transition ( about one inch long ) at the point where the rocker is attached. I then could see from this extra thickness a quite wide welded strip going from the fender the rear of the door lock closing panel.

But they had obvious some trouble mating the wired edges. In no way is this a perfect factory join, as your fingers feel the bump on both sides of the car.

Of course when new it probably would not have been noticed by the customer, but your efforts show its not an easy job to do even then by the factory doing it every day.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Justin

And I always thought that hole in the rocker was to get the torsion bar out

[JTR70]

Thanks again Roy, appreciated! Yes, that joint is pretty easy to detect on the back side with the originals. My main concern is not so much the detection but a smooth consistent arch where the two panels meet. I've seen a few replacements with a slight jog there.

No not just for torsion bars Phil; that's a "worm hole" for c-clamps that shouldn't reach otherwise.

6/22/16

Begin welding right fender on.

started with tacking the skin and then joining the wire insert.

I got so lucky with a nicely formed molt that required almost no finishing to get the metal jacket around.

The wrap is just the piece I removed form the rocker during preparations.

ready to go. As with the other side this jacket laps the wires weld joint for staggered reinforcement.

edge welded and dressed. It will need a little more filing but its just about there.

Far enough here for now.

Went back to tacking the cowl area.

The Next phase begins.

Now that the right fender is all but set I'm officially onto the tail.

I'll begin tomorrow rolling and trimming the excess away from the bottom of the fenders to begin the layered process of improvements with fit.

Like the rest of the body I'll be working from the edge of the deck lid out.

A new adventure begins in personal uncharted territory.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin