Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

To do all that work on the L/H side its not surprising it was not so easy to move across to the right side. This has been a long, long job.

Of course you have learnt so much on this full exercise like I have too reading it. This on-line experience has taught me one thing, that Coupe to speedster is far from easy. I bet the lifting of the doors on and off so many times is a workout in itself.Presume it keeps you fit though for your day job if, you are still fit enough to do it.

Nice L/h side job Justin.

Roy

[JTR70]

Its been extremely long Roy but definitely eduational for me. This conversion is not for the faint of heart but the donor car one ends up using really makes all the difference in the world. If I had used a shell with nominal rust and usable fenders all the way around allowing me to basically cap the rear end I'd have been done well over a year ago. Using a bare and badly rusted chassis definitely upped the degree of work and difficulty but its sort of a catch 22. If the donor is too nice are you really going to cut it up, Especially these days?
Thanks once again Roy!

3/28/17
symmetry issue left to right.

Right fender/nose arch profile seems to lay flatter and broader than the left.

Traced the back edge of this profile to paper.

Profile cut out and laid over the top of the left fender here. Its not an optical illusion. The left does bend tighter.


Went ahead and relief cut the weld joint allowing it to open up and "peak" more closely to the left side profile.

With this problem fully in mind I went back to locating the fender for best average fit.

Just about ready to begin adding a few set screws here.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

3/30/17

Right fender adjustments


Initial set screw position

Left the top loose so I could try and get that crown to match more closely with the left.

With my hood gap basically set I'm having a really bad alignment issue at the rear wired edge. To have a decent shot of symmetry with the other side I need to have the fender over shoot the rocker. If I align them in this position the profile will be way too vertical. It needs to sweep a bit more.

To allow that means moving the fender forward about 10mm. I sacrifice my corner pictured above but I'll be able to correct this with the new patch section going in.

Added the door back on while making this change.

General contour off the door is at least close.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[bbspdstr]

Justin,
A repeat, but here is my way of getting final door gaps before painting the car.
One now rigged on a Speedster, the other on an early Cabriolet.
Suspensions are on to stay and will be carefully masked when textured underneath.








The key is to anticipate the gaps by loading on the suspension with each portion of the shell holding a close approximation of engine, interior and trunk contents of gas and tank, battery and spare.
The chain and metal casters is the added weight over pushrod of a 4 cam engine. Everything is weighed on a scale and marked.


I can't imagine anyone doing this kind of work with such detailed results.....uh, never mind! A lot of that craziness is here on your site.....

-Bruce

[roy mawbey]

Yes Bruce, you have to be correct, strain on sections that are in between those strong front and rear fully loaded box sections, must have a tendency to move slightly.A slight dip or bow in the longitudinal or floor could affect a very fine door gap. I forgot about this info you posted a while back. Interesting to see that again, won't forget it now

I try always to be careful when going over those bumps across roads to slow you down ( we call sleeping policemen ) fully loaded the suspension really does have to work well. I have wondered in the past if you hit one of those at a fast speed just what damage it could cause to the underside suspension supports. Design is so important.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks for posting the details for that preload mock up Bruce. This will definitely be replicated when it comes time to gap it all in with lead for the final shape and width. I also have to get that sub-frame removed before as well.

4/8/17

Repositioning of right fender complete.


Now that the final position has been established I'm comfortable enough to begin trimming back most of the excess.

Trimmed, reinstalled and set screwed onto the rocker.


seems to be laying down fine. After the fender adjustment I rechecked the opening for center with that cardboard template. Checked out fine as the change is so slight.

Begin reset screwing it to the nose while attempting to crown it higher to better match up against the left side.

Decent general contour and most importantly no flair at the wheel arch.

Inched it a little closer.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

4/9/17

Getting the right side ready for final install.

donor section rough cut shape.

All but ready to begin installing this fender for the final time but...

I've got to grind tons of plug-weld heads and finish out the splash pan flange first. I can no longer avoid it.

door remounted so I could gap and index the flange for the eventual skin that will go over it.

Flange through the middle was dead even in relation to the door so a few MM had to be zipped out to compensate for skin thickness. Tacked into needed position here.

I gave up messing with this corner well over a year ago. Time to get'er done now.

Full flange run now tacked into needed position. Also eliminating that old spot welded lap joint relief like I did on the left side.

Templated the edge of the door to trim the back of the fender even closer still.

before I welded the flange up I finished out the most unpleasant task of smoothing out all those plug-weld heads.

Outer flange run fully welded and dressed. Splash pan duties complete.

Spot-weld detail followed which offically finished my to do list before installing the fender.

Fender test fitted against the mount flange; Its all teed up.
back to getting the fender ready for final installation next.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JOP]

God morning Coachbuilder,

Nice to see you getting further to your goal (end)

Maybe time for you to start do videos of you in action
You might be the next Utube star ha ha ha
Keep showing us the trix

/ Per

[JTR70]

I don't think so Per, those videos would be extremely boring to try an sit through. I get bored just performing the work alot of time.
Thanks again for the encouragement my friend!

4/16/17

Right fender prep nearly complete and about ready to be tack welded on for good.

Wrestling with hood gap width and best average contour shape/fit of the rest of the fender. Like the left side I'll end up sacrificing it for body contour first then go back and correct it once the rest of the panel is tacked and established.

It took a couple of trim attempts as I didn't want to take too much off but I finally got the flange relieved for skin wrap thickness.

Fender remounted after final excess trim and etched for the wrap around this flange. Fits nice and uniform; this area ready to go.


Excess also removed at the rocker, relief cut for profile shape and wire exposed and preped for welding.


This only leaves trimming away the overlap at the nose. After this I'll be laying down the first series of tack welds. Getting close
Thanks for looking!
Justin



BTW: Found this slithering outside my shop as I was getting ready to leave for the day. I tried herding him away but ended up scaring him into the unit next door where I have storage. By the shape of the head he doesn't look poisonous and he didn't coil up when I had him cornerd he just wanted to hide. It ended up slipping through a tiny opening by the roller door. I'm praying it left on its own as I don't want to find him in there but I kind of think its still in there. He's tiny but snakes just aren't my thing.

[Jonesy_356]

Hi Justin, awesome work as always. This is really helpful for me as I'm about to install my inner closing panel also (yep -I'm a little behind on my posts!).

A question, are you not going to prep and paint the inner closing panel / splash pan before installing to fender?

Regards,

Jonesy

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Jonesy! Definitely, you'll have to get us up to speed on your build.

As for sealing it up in and around the splash pan I did brush some primer on the deeper surfaces of the left side but it was nothing to write home about so I didn't take a picture. I held off really coating everything because I have to use torch heat to heel the flange over and it was just going to burn off anyway. Once its done there's enough space to inject a good coat of coverage so I decided to wait on the majority of it until I'm done welding. Thanks again! Justin

4/17/17

Final trim and installation

Last of the excess metal being removed from the nose. Commitment time again..

Fender remounted and on for good! Ready to begin planning my tack weld sequence so I can gather and contour shape the panels for best fit as it goes. That next.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

4/19/17

Tacking right fender in.

laying down initial series of tacks.

Now tacked just about down to the bottom; all the while checking for general profile shape as it went.

Both sides "peak" a little so I'll have to relief cut and retack along this line like I did at the center here but This is just some place to start.

With the front pretty much set I moved toward the rear. I left it loose so I'd have a chance of an emergency adjustment in case the fender shape got away from me after tacking it to the nose. The back was sagging on me a bit at the top so I had to get out my floor jack to preload it into position to get my body line with the top of the door back.

Now that I had it dialed back in again I set screwed it and moved down to begin tacking it to the rocker.

Tacked to the rocker and wire welded together.

Took a little extra time here as its not supposed to be dead nuts flat though it wanted to be. Eventually got a gentle arch profile that looked right and felt right.

Rocker at fender joint continues the line off the door.

No flare or crown at the top of the wheel opening with a consistent transition off the door. So far so good.

Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JOP]

Moin Justin,

Will this be like the last things you are doing on this transformation before handing it over?
It will be a large dossier that the Doc is getting for his globally well known Coupster.

BTW how is your new Guard Pet Snake doing in his new indoor facility

[JTR70]

Hey Per,

Thankfully I haven't seen it since. This car is getting very close but I do have several feet of seam welding yet to tie up however the fabrication part is nearly complete. Sure felt good to type that just now.

4/23/17


Slowly heeling the rear flange over.

Alot more tightening up yet to go as its still pretty fat but I was just thankful for the minimal distortion to the skin surface.

Entire run now crimped over. I must have learned something as it went a little smoother and cleaner.

Trial door fitment directly afterward.

Low in the middle but it should bump up just fine. They matched up alot better than I thought they were going to fresh from bending.

really happy with snug fit against the skin.

Preping the patch for installation next. The final piece of this puzzle.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Black Sheila]

I have been reading this topic since I joined this forum and I thought I will comment once the project is complete, but this weekend I read this topic again from the start, I could not contain it no more WOW! the work that has gone into this project is just amazing...Well done Justin keep posting the progress I look forward to every update.