Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[John Pierce]

Great work, Justin. And a great tutorial for anyone redoing this area.

John

[JTR70]

Thanks again John!

12/3/16

Finishing off the front braces.

Part of rewelding the braces was to finish attaching it to the car. Ready to trim back excess tube lead and weld it to the wall.

Flanged opening and tube end fused as originally.


Tube leads into the buckets where also trimmed to final height.

Flaring the end with my die.

Tube end flared as originally done.

Didn't think I'd ever use those two tools again after my hardline fabrication way back when but it was nice to have them on hand.

Braces complete.

Now time to refit the nose to see what has changed after all the welding.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Justin,

Looks great. I hate to ask this: is the hole diameter in the light bucket large enough to accommodate the flared end of the tube? I looked back at the previous images, but couldn't tell.

JP

[JTR70]

Good catch on that one John. I had to open up the holes to clear the flare. It was a necessary evil as my flare die would never fit nor reach down into the bucket to get at the tube lead. Its just an extra sliver of filler metal when the time comes to weld these two together so it was an easy decision.

12/4/16

Things of course shifted a little after all the welding so it took a little manipulating to get the nose back into its spot.

To get it positioned again required some slight adjustment at the fender tabs from where they had been. Probably won't be the last time these get moved either; that's why they float at this point. I at least now have adjusted braces that plumb into the bucket.

Horns mocked up one last time just to be sure.

I can now confirm that original horn assemblies will fit correctly into this car. Done with the horns.
More nose adjustment to come.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[John Pierce]

That looks so nice! It's amazing how much you learn when you have to build it piecemeal.

JP

[bbspdstr]

Great work! Measuring is so much overlooked but often can't be as accurate as an experienced eye, but both together give the required results.

Gotta love Tek screws, too.

Things I have done for the flaring of the conduit other than making a bigger hole in the bucket: just weld it all up as a single tube without a flare then when all is stable, heat and tap a tapered (large) countersink tip into the end of the tube to create the flare, turning as being tapped....or, weld the underside with the tube cut level with the bucket entry hole and with a 3/4" rod/bolt/whatever in the two, tack and then weld the upper short length of tube on the top side (inner) of the bucket...or, weld the inside of the bucket level as you did the entry into the battery box wall and then add the flared length with the alignment rod/whatever and after three tacks, remove the aligner and make a nice additional weld. Whatever works...but check the ID for intrusions that can snag the wire loom as it comes through from inside the trunk.
Bruce

[roy mawbey]

Super job Justin, Makes me realise even though the factory had many jigs and fixtures it could never have been an easy job back then. So many things that move around, so much to get level and equal.

This thread has opened up my eyes to what a disaster it could have been if you jumped the gun before always so many checks. No way could that all go in a book, even though you and Bruce could write one for sure.

I must be a geek finding all this so interesting

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks John, I've been learning more than I ever wanted to know.

Thank you Bruce! Definitely, I was avoiding the need to cut and reweld any portion of the conduit for fear of any weld slag chaffing at the future wire leads. Heating and shaping the flare after the fact was certainly my next option.

I appreciate it Roy! Yes, dedicated locating and holding jigs would certainly help things along but for the amount I will ever do I cannot justify them or have them taking up space in my tiny shop. As Bruce mentioned I can only rely on measurements from my reference cars and sighting things to my liking. Well, books and even this thread can only take you so far as there is no substitute for first hand experience. My old mentor gave me a great analogy years ago, he said you could read every book about bicycle riding, study bicycle riding theory, get your PHD in bicycle riding etc. but even after all the years of study you still wouldn't be able to ride a bike until you actually began to physically do it. As detailed as this thread is there are so many things I still cannot convey as they can only come from putting in the time, making the mistakes and paying the dues of busted knuckles, grinder dust and hot weld slag falling down behind the tongues of your shoes. No shortcuts, at least not for me.
My thanks and appreciation to you guys once again!
Justin

12/6/16


Still dealing with this old collision damage in relation to the upper closing wall.

The wall rolls over a bit too tight and misses the mating flange on the nose. Through the damage, initial "repair" attempt and now my final repairs...

I've lost most of the lower relief bend (highlighted with marker) so as I'd force the flange back into position it now stood up too tall. I put it off and left it loose for as long as I could but its now time to fix it.

Here is the crease I need to put back on the other side to bring the flange surface back down where it needs to be.

trickiest part was putting that kick back in it without rolling the upper flange over making the problem worse. It eventually came to tying both panels together at the top to hold the distance then I could beat that right forward section back down.

That seemed to turn the trick. Mounting flanges on both panels now interfaced with a couple of set screws.

It of course wasn't going to be that easy and once I lowered the hood that became clear. The right wall is still holding a lot of tension and has now sprung the nose over to the left destroying my gaps. The panel elevation on the right side was at least close but I had a lot more tweaking to do.
Thanks for reading this!
Justin

[big jock]

Hi,I have been following your thread from day 1 and I am mesmerised by your talent and patience in the face of adversity.Can I just ask how you plan to clean all the surfaces of light rust before priming and painting? Especially those areas which are now hidden behind other panels.Will you blast the underside or dip the shell or????.Many thanks for a great read.

[badsix]

It looks like the hood is twisted a little to the passenger side. I feel for you i'm going through the same thing right. now not quite as bad but still a pain in the butt.
Jay D.

[Jack Staggs]

In a perfect world, zero tension is ideal for most panels. Unfortunately, we don't live there. That's why I suggested to not install the support brackets until after the nose, fenders and hood are fully positioned. All kinds of movement will be going on as work progresses, and tension can be made if needed by installing the brackets last. Bracket installation is often done without too many problms on complete cars, due to their propensity to rust out. Now you are kinda married to their location. Justin, please don't take this as undo criticism of your methods. I wish I had your skills.

[bbspdstr]

Jack wrote: "In a perfect world, zero tension is ideal for most panels. Unfortunately, we don't live there. That's why I suggested to not install the support brackets until after the nose, fenders and hood are fully positioned. All kinds of movement will be going on as work progresses, and tension can be made if needed by installing the brackets last. Bracket installation is often done without too many problems on complete cars......."

Here is a Dec. '55 build Cabriolet, sorta a T-1 but not quite all the way, where the original buckets were reused in a repro nose that was a combo of T-0 nose from Trevor and a lid from Trevor. Lots of tweaking but no serious 'issues' of fitment, especially with the braces.

Yes, there will be some lead here and there where things were too far to match but not bad enough to require the old 'slice-n-dice' as some other areas had to have.

Yes, there are some edges (such as the lid) where a straight line would have been appreciated, but rather than uncramp and redo, I just carefully added welding wire beads and filed it true.

That actually helped with trunk lid contours by shrinking the edge when it slightly 'sneered' vs the fender edge. Compound curves can be exasperating and a lot of patience is needed not to get lost. Justin's thread here is a showing/display of a LOT of patience!

Actually, the car was really hit and 'diamond'd' so stresses all around had to be relieved and every panel had to be carefully measured off of the centerline and cardboard templates made to compare contours side-to-side, panel-to-panel.

I have guys who moan..."Aw, you want perfection"....and I say, "No, I want to strive for perfection....but no one can make it any more perfect than Porsche did...and anyway, their work wasn't "perfect" at all!"

BTW, a plug here for a metal shaper's wares: I bought a new set of shrinking discs from Wray Schelin (eBay) and they work great (on a grinder) to 'iron out' wrinkles in metal. They came with a boringly intense DVD of instructions/video, but are great for that last 'straightening' of old damage when original panels are to be saved.

Bruce

[John Pierce]

Bruce,

Wray Schelin is a true craftsman/metalworker. I also have his shrinking discs (2 sizes) and they work very nicely. He offers 4-5 day metalworking courses at his facility in Massachusetts, which I took last year and learned a lot.

http://www.proshaper.com/classes/

JP

[bbspdstr]

Wray gave an open-house and demo session for a 356 organization's gathering a couple of years ago and I heard it was very well received.

I am blessed by having Rick Mullin (who knows Wray) 20 minutes from my shop. I can get "free lessons" from Rick at either of our locations when I get 'stuck' and need some help with a technique, an unusual situation or a special piece of equipment I do not possess.

As young men, Rick worked, as I did, for body shops that seemed to attract 356s on a regular basis. We both did the 'take apart and put together' tasks while we watched and learned. I stayed with Porsches when it became a career at 24, Rick managed to accumulate experience in the US and overseas for metal-shaping on Ferrari and Rolls products and move on up toward the 'perfection' status I will never achieve but still strive for. Rick, ha, has to ask me about the few 356s he sees and I need to ask him to take on projects for me that I either have no time for or the craft to create. Here is a 110 liter gas tank for a C-2 I am doing. He made the top from his own dies and patterns and used a repro bottom and neck. Not cheap but there is no better.

[roy mawbey]

Wow Bruce, that gas tank is beautiful to behold. Lovely job!

Roy