SC Coupe Restoration

[Jack Staggs]

Tom, I saw that you welded a nice patch on the wiring tube for the headlight. I have had significant difficulties in this area from other peoples work. The tube is just barely large enough to fit all of the wires thru there, and any kinks, flashing or burrs can can tear the insulation resulting in intermittent shorts or make it impossible to pull the loom thru. If you can, try to feed your wiring thru, just to verify that all is OK.

[Jack Staggs]

Someone has already welded on this area before,
Tom

Really? Where?

[bbspdstr]

Tom

Where is Bruce when we need him. I know he is on a short road trip, so maybe not checking this forum till he gets home. Anyway, I did some googleing on annealing and inconclusive results. One says metal must be blue, another says use a Sharpie on the bend and heat until the mark disappears. But, my experience is limited to short sections, not 4 or 5 feet of heating with more potential for distortion. Fixing any cracks might be the safe way to go. After all, how hard is it after just one bend close and open. Also, not sure if it would be possible to open up just the rear hood flange to flat(180) and just open the remainder of the flange enough to be loose and slide the hood forward off of the frame. Contour may prevent this.

You guys are doing just fine. In fact, I need your progress pictures to keep raising my own (theoretical) bar. Real-world commercial restoration rarely allows for such finesse, but good work is good work regardless of time spent. It's what can be charged for 'reasonable' hours assuming a restorer is already competent. Only medical people and a few other areas of expertise get to call their workplace a 'practice.'

For edge annealing, I just hit the angle inside the bend with a 00 tip on the small torch. If it happens to shrink a little, hammering the edge back over stretches the metal a little and it's even. If there is a small crack when finished, yes it can be welded...but it should not crack from careful opening unless it's original manufacture was over-done.

Yes, Tom, annealing is VERY technical if you want it to be, but the intent is to 'relax' the stress of changing the metal's molecules yet again, and steel is easier when it's thin enough for ambient air cooling. I have a big container of ash for thicker annealing and a bucket for water, too. It's about oxygenation leading to crystallization within the process, but for what's going on with the repair of a 356, little of that technical info is needed.

The most common annealing for a 356 is with aluminum, like "GT" bumper extrusions or early engine lid grilles. Those are 'smoked' or coated with the black soot of a pure acetylene flame, then O2 is added to make a mild flame (more white than having a small hot blue cone right out of the torch tip) and heating the aluminum with constant movement until the soot burns off...then the metal is 'dead soft' even in open (ambient) air...no blowing on it with compressed air or using water....maybe thrusting the piece in the ash for a few minutes may help.

Welding supply houses have heat crayons if you want to be more precise and know what heat is best for the thickness you are working with, but I adhere to the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot method with far less than 5 minutes with a torch all the way around just getting it 'medium well.'

Here's my personal experience with the unfolding. The return must be 90* all around and a thin spatula needs to be able to get to the edge of the outer metal to be sure no spot weld is either missed or incompletely eliminated. No force should be needed to remove the inner frame from the outer skin, they should just lift apart.

Tom, very nice TIG work. Mine should look that good (some does, but not all). I like the rotisseries I have, in fact much more as I get older. Enough of the hanging upside down like a monkey building a roll cage for a race car using my knees for the pedal action. I used to thank heaven for 4130 and how well it welds!

-Bruce

[tperazzo]

Same here. Our cars are remarkably similar for living so far apart

[foamcar]

Nice repair Tom. I need to do that same repair on drivers side of Foamcar. Passenger side will get new part that already has a good hole.

Phil

[tperazzo]

Here's another small repair, but this time on the outer body where the bumper bracket goes through the nose.

Someone has already welded on this area before,


Cuts were made well clear of the cracks and previous weld areas. I must have not taken a picture of just the hole.


New hole sketched in. Outlaw crossed my mind several times!




That's it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!
Tom

[tperazzo]

[foamcar]

Tom

Where is Bruce when we need him. I know he is on a short road trip, so maybe not checking this forum till he gets home. Anyway, I did some googleing on annealing and inconclusive results. One says metal must be blue, another says use a Sharpie on the bend and heat until the mark disappears. But, my experience is limited to short sections, not 4 or 5 feet of heating with more potential for distortion. Fixing any cracks might be the safe way to go. After all, how hard is it after just one bend close and open. Also, not sure if it would be possible to open up just the rear hood flange to flat(180) and just open the remainder of the flange enough to be loose and slide the hood forward off of the frame. Contour may prevent this.

On the conduit, had the same rust hole on Foamcar. Repaired it years ago, but was worried about the inside weld surface from my sloppy mig when trying to route harness through. As I eventually removed the headlight bucket, and had a spare conduit that came with I believe the fender brace, I am going to use that one when the bucket goes back in.

[JTR70]

Great job Tom! The repair above like the hinge mount welding from the previous page are those Nagging PIA chores that have to addressed so you can move onto the more obvious or glamorous stuff like fenders and hoods. It was such a relief to get those little repairs in the done column wasn't it? Looking forward to seeing the reskinning of the hood!

[tperazzo]

Tom,
Nice TIG welds. Pedal between the knees while ducking into that small space? Very difficult area to weld in.

JP

Thanks, I don't know what I would have done without a rotisserie. With the car on it side, I could stand right next to the hinge and still use the foot pedal. My biggest issue was tuning my helmet so it would auto darken in such a tiny space. Sometimes when the helmet sensors are shaded by something, the lens doesn't want darken. Once I turned the sensitivity up, it worked ok. I ran my tig torch over the existing gas weld from under the dashboard too. This is why I haven't installed my floors yet. Once the hood is finished I'm anxious to get those floors in.

Thanks Phil for your comments on the hem. Its hard to argue with success! If I have time, I'll bend some samples and try heat to see the improvement. Sometimes my engineering theory gets in the way.

Here's a little more progress. This is a hole in the fender bracket/wire conduit.


.


Thanks,
Tom

[foamcar]

John
I have a propane and mapp gas torch. I usually grab the mapp torch.

Phil

[John Pierce]

Phil,

What type of gas are you using to heat things up?

JP

[foamcar]

Tom
Regarding "annealing" your hem flange, hopefully Bruce will chime in, but I believe he is a proponent of gently heating the bend to soften it up. I have been doing that, and have not had distortion issues. I never go beyond blue, never red. Maybe it's time for a test of some type.

Phil

[John Pierce]

Tom,
Nice TIG welds. Pedal between the knees while ducking into that small space? Very difficult area to weld in.

JP

[foamcar]

Tom
Good detective/observation work finding those cracks. I have yet to remove or strip the hood on FoamCar. Ugh.

Phil