SC Coupe Restoration

[tperazzo]

Thanks Justin and Phil, I'm just trying to keep it moving.

Along time ago I fixed the bowl that protrudes from the T6 battery box. It was rusted. So now, the mounting tabs need to be added and welded to the repaired bowl.

Here's what I did.



Things are shaping up and the punch list is getting shorter.
Cheers,
Tom

[JTR70]

I hear you Tom; you must take two or three steps back so you can go forward again. Nice work on that lower patch!

[foamcar]

Nicely done Tom. Will reference these pics when I put the nos right nose piece on Foam Car.
Phil

[tperazzo]

Wow, Thanks Per for the NOS shot. When I measured the relief distance I started at the rounded nose of the feature, so I got about what you show in the above picture. Thanks for the good reference, those bends are nice and crisp. Mine not so much!

No worries Phil on the measurements. I owe you several by now.

Today, I tried to attach my front fender brace to the original nose. Of course it snowballed into a bigger project. Both the brace and the nose were rusted thin so I started cutting because I don't want any defects to show up later on. This brace to fender junction will probably have some vibration and stress, so I wanted good metal here.






Brace extended



What's yet another patch...




Disappeared







Still need to plug weld from the inside, but I was too lazy to roll the MIG out. Thanks for following along. Lots of small repairs like this left unfortunately. I also finished the fender brace connection to the battery box wall too. Will post pics of those tonight hopefully.
Take Care,
Tom

[JOP]

Here is a NOS rear end with the measurements from seam.
So this must be one of the latest batches maybe....
/ Per

[foamcar]

Tom
Great solution to your dilemma. Sorry I did not take measurements off of Foam Car for you, but it's a Reutter and probably different.
Phil

[JTR70]

Nice job on that hammer form Tom, it seems to have worked beautifully! As Jack and Bruce pointed out there are no absolutes with the construction details of these cars. It's a nice luxury to have an original to look off of though. Good choice of splitting the difference at 7 inches on that embossment for the "best average fit". That's all you can hope for when it comes to these cars. Your bodyman's gonna love you, you're making his job so much easier. Keep up the great work!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Nice! I like how you think, Tom, to get to a solution. It's one of those little details that would bother me also. Thanks for showing how you got to the desired result.

[tperazzo]

Thanks Bruce and Jack for warning me about bumper indent inconsistency. Yesterday, I dropped by European Collectibles with my templates and asked to snoop around. After looking at 8 or so cars, I found out that the length varied from 6" to 9" as Bruce's pictures show. This measurement is not exact because its subjective as to where the lines end, but you get the idea. There was one unrestored car that I took dimensions from and they are basically the same as what John gave me. I ended up with about 7" long.

I started by making a backside form.


It has a little curve to it to fit the car.


Tack welded to the car and a brace welded to the backside so that I could push on it with a wedged in 2 x 4" Sorry no pictures of my woodworking



I ended up with about 3mm of relief versus 1mm that I started with.






I'm not sure if the upper line should end at the same dimension as the lower line or not, but I left it at this. Please comment if you think it looks wacky.

My painter will need to spend a little extra time smoothing this out because its been beat around before me plus what I did to re-form it.

Gotta love the ball-peen hammer marks visible in the pictures. What were they thinking? Or maybe it was some kind of picking tool? Either way it made a mess.

Thanks again for reading this.
Tom

[bbspdstr]

Yep. I have had and used NOS rear caps and quarters that would have made the Ferrari replacement parts guys proud. There have been some WITH the indent, some WITHOUT...and lining those 'with' have been iffy. It's odd that the vertical joining seam bisects that impression.

Here's an original paint C with only the rear bumper pulled back in it's past, and the depression is merely a hint, maybe a couple of mm. Others have been much deeper:



In fact, the impression is much further continued rearward, more into the curve, and the bumper hole is farther back, too, than other C cars I looked at just now. Strange. Here is a later C:



Jack is correct, there apparently is no true 'one and only way' for those body depressions for the bumper ends in shape, depth or length. Only an average and only what's looking 'correct' in any given application. The only thing I can say from my limited experience is that all B and C 356s had some sort of depression when new. How they were made and what part of production is unclear. May be time for another viewing of "Made by Hand."

[Jack Staggs]

That's another area where deviations are all over the place, from my observation, on factory cars. Any comments Bruce?

[tperazzo]

Thanks a bunch John, That ought to keep me busy for a while. If you need any measurements, just let me know.
Tom

[John Pierce]

Hey Tom!

Here are my measurements in mm and inches (a little more than 3mm or a little less than 1/8"). The template fits well.

Good luck.

JP

[tperazzo]

Thanks Justin, those are true words for sure. I guess that's what makes these cars fun in a punitive way.

Now, I'm trying to work on my rear bumper indents. They have lost their original shape and depth due to some strange body work in this area. Someone softened them and now I'm trying to restore close to original.

Would one or two of you be willing to measure the relief depth as shown in the picture below? Measured just in front of the hole.


Also, I'm not clear on the outer shape. Here's a template I made from the best side. It's a .pdf file linked here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9i4R-oybcZkbTJVMkpDRlZ6ejg/edit?usp=sharing

Perhaps someone can print it out and confirm it fits. I'm mostly concerned with the end with the hole. The template is a little wavy once it gets away from the hole.

Here's what I'm starting with



Thanks in advance for any help.
Tom

[JTR70]

I really sympathize with your frustration Tom and am sorry to read that its not turning out quite like you had hoped. Been there many a time and am sure to find myself there again. This reminds me of a conversation I had a few weeks back with Victor Miles when I had him restore my emblems; during the call he was expressing frustration over a Cab he was in the middle of wrestling with. The upshot of the conversation was that unless you have actually worked on these bodies yourself you will never appreciate what it actually takes to get them right. I told him that I always that felt that these car bodies were probably one of the most difficult to work on. From front to back its a continuous egg-shaped smooth flowing line with no breaks in it. On top of that none of it unbolts and what does unbolt (closing panels) offers relatively very little in the way of adjustment without more cutting and welding involved. By contrast an early 911 is flatter and has all sorts of breaks and gaps with its separate front fenders and integrated removable bumpers. Victor said oh yeah, 911's are breeze compared to a 356... Anyway just story to remind you that by design 356's are inheritedly problematic to get right, but you already knew that. Keep chipping at it!

Uh-oh Bruce, I may have to check my horn grill openings now..