SC Coupe Restoration

[tperazzo]

Continuing the hood alignment to the nose area where the new passenger nose half will mate up.




Now, I'm beginning the necessary work to get the flanges near the hood perimeter to match the factory side.


Here is how it came shown below.



One of the bends was hammered flat and the rest cut off since I left the original drip rail intact.

There's no way this would work as received because these bends are really sloppy.

This summer, I only get maybe an hour a day to work on the 356. Its easy to gobble that time up just checking the hood fit and staring at it from a million different angles.
Take Care,
Tom

[JTR70]

Looking good Tom! I feel for you, cleaning rust and grime off manually is for the birds. Keep at it! Justin

[tperazzo]

Several hours of tedious de-rusting and only one photo to show for it.

Without removing the nose it's hard to reach this cavity. With only half removed it's still tough but doable with wire brushes on extended rods.
I took lots of rust out, treated with SEM and epoxy coated.
Also got the headlight bucket to fit without any cutting.
It did need some serious hammer and dolly work for a nice slip fit.








That's all I got for now,
Take care
Tom

[tperazzo]

mmm...mmm good stuff Bruce. Those pics make the rust I'm trying to remove from behind my drivers 1/2 nose easy peasy.

I bet the "recyclers" love you. Several guys troll my alley because they know I sometimes leave metal out for them.

Someone should Perazzo those hoods

[bbspdstr]

Perazzo Method? Funny....try it yourself, it's tons of fun!
a) Find the crappiest hood you can find. External rebar a plus,
b) Cut up the frame into at least 5 pieces
c) Make your own metal panels for extra punishment
d) Throw it on the floor
e) Fix it again
f) Steal a skin from a nicer project car
g) Spend tons of time bending, twisting, and swearing until it fits.

Way more fun than buying a new hood!

Tom

Following are pictures of old 356 parts that have 'project potential' written all over them. The headlight bucket is a keeper. Or at least the rubber drain. The two hood inner frames, while one is reinforced, would be difficult to ship.

Seriously, these parts with others of more bulk (brake rotors, old batteries and bad crankshafts) are going to 'the scrapper'....a better cause than most by being a former neighbor with a seriously handicapped son who rides around in a van with him, towing a trailer, collecting whatever people give him to take to the yard...to help ends meet while his wife works at a modest corporate job. "There, but for the grace of God, go I...."

[John Pierce]

The bucket not fitting is a real bummer! You've already put a lot of time into it. Let us know how it goes. I don't want to hijack your thread so when I get to that point I'll post for people's opinions.

[tperazzo]

You guessed it...Sierra Madre. I chose them because they are easy driving distance for pick up, low cost and that's about it. My feeling is that they all need tweaking anyway.

Today, I checked the fit of what I think is an original headlight bucket that I removed from my old nose and it doesn't fit in the SM nose. Shocker...hopefully some hammer and dolly work will let it slip in, but I'm mentally prepared to cut/weld.

Best thing to do is spend time searching for a nice donor part. I wish I would have done that instead of about 6 hours garage time that I have so far in the replacement nose.

Either way it takes time and that's why I call it a hobby.

[John Pierce]

Derusting....the name of the game!

Where did you end up buying your nose panel? SM? Did you look at any other vendors?


JP

[tperazzo]

Perazzo Method? Funny....try it yourself, it's tons of fun!
a) Find the crappiest hood you can find. External rebar a plus,
b) Cut up the frame into at least 5 pieces
c) Make your own metal panels for extra punishment
d) Throw it on the floor
e) Fix it again
f) Steal a skin from a nicer project car
g) Spend tons of time bending, twisting, and swearing until it fits.

Way more fun than buying a new hood!

In all seriousness, I'm happy to hear that RD is offering this service. The box does come with magic gnomes that fit the refurbed hood to the car right? Ha ha.

Lots of time was spent first fitting the bare frame to the car and then I had to re-fit again once the skin was only partially re-hemmed.
I wonder if RD has a car or fixture they fit to? Even so, its still a guessing game since everyone's car is a little different.

Someday, I'll fix the other two hoods when I'm bored.

I've got my hands full now:


The better part of a day was spent repairing the nose attachment flange, fixing various blown out factory spot welds, hammer dolly work, and serious rust removal.

Sure is easier when at least half of the nose is gone.

Take care,
Tom

[JTR70]

Yes, the Perazzo Method, I like it! I can't see why anyone would spend 1,500 for a repop hood. That kind of money can easily get you into a cherry original example.

[Trevor]

Ahhh, I like that much better, it has a nice ring to it - The Perazzo Method. Next time I'm standing around talking cars with the guys, I think I'll work that into the conversation, something along the lines of... I know this restorer of 356's on the east coast named Bruce, he is very well versed in the intricacies of The Perazzo Method when servicing the hood for structural integrity.

That ought to get a couple of WTF are you talking about looks.

And now to actually add a little bit of value to Tom's thread, Restoration Design currently charges $1500 for a complete A hood and $400 for the skin, but for the life of me I can't find what they charge for the "The Perazzo Method".

[bbspdstr]

I was thinking maybe they should call this the Perazzo service if they extend it to C hoods.

That sounds good! Even retroactively it has a good ring to it. I can be proud to have been using the "Perazzo Method" for decades on many 356 alphabet hoods. Sounds medical, like the "Heimlich maneuver" (but better than the Heimlich 'service') for old 356s.

(Hey, the left coast has "CPR".....that sounds medical.)

Still, a service for doing just a hood re-skinning is great, but if the hobbyist or shop is fitting it to a car that maybe has 'new' fenders or nose...judging from the examples on this thread, maybe at least the perimeter tack welds shouldn't be done?

I hope the 'service' Mike is offering is cheaper than a new hood, unless the phobic "numbers matching" reason is cited as keeping a kinked and rusty inner frame and allowing someone to say, "It's original, just restored" (with a whole new skin, making it maybe 20% 'original').

The ethics debate could be, maybe is, a whole other thread.

[Trevor]

I recently got an email from Restoration Design, here's the text:


I was thinking maybe they should call this the Perazzo service if they extend it to C hoods.

[bbspdstr]

Can you post Tim's contact info?

541 862 2030

I have used the Speedster seals and they are superior to those of other vendors.

As for trunk/bonnet seals, an expanded list of vendors would be great (and would be for all seals).

I was unaware of Tim Goodrich's hood seals but gotten Veloce Space's and liked them, Terry's (I.M.) and used those, Stoddard's from all decades and found cars that were best with them.....but that's the thing to remember, that in most cases today, 'one size fits all' is not true.

[merbesfield]

Thanks for all the good hood seal info guys.


Two hood seal profiles shown.

The upper one is Velospace (sp?) and the lower one is International Merchantile. Both are very different, but they feel similar in squishy-ness.

The IM seems to fill the width of landing best, so I mounted that one first.

Tom, you should contact Tim Goodrich. Tim recently made perfect reproductions of both the early and later style hood seals.

Can you post Tim's contact info?