SC Coupe Restoration

[Jack Staggs]

[quote="tperazzo" post=33475]Thanks Justin, I'm just glad it was caught in time otherwise I would have to live with it.

Here are pictures from every angle of my mocked up front end. All you eagle eyed guys, please let me know if something is amiss or could be improved upon.

Fire away!





"Quote"


"You may fire when ready, Gridley!"
Well that's me, throwing a monkey wrench in the works. The contour of the front bumper looks better than probably any OG car that I have seen. But... recently Trevor and I were measuring 6 or 7 cars we had around, including cars with OG nose and bumper there, and found significant differences as to how far the bumper wraps around towards the wheel arch. We were amazed and startled about the variation there. Not one was equal, with variations between 3/4 to 2 3/4 inches, usually short on the right hand side!
Have fun with this.

[JTR70]

Thank you Jack, that is great information to know and relieves a lot of unnecessary worry in this process. With that much variance in mind you have to ask yourself where do the discrepancies lie? Is it in the bumper, the wheel arch...or both??
Thanks again for sharing what you guys found.
Justin

[tperazzo]

Thank you everyone for commenting on my progress before paint. I truly appreciate it! The good and the bad. More pics to come soon.

I too have seen lots of variation on bumper fit and I've also snooped around on other sites like Willhoit Restoration and some factory photos too.

I'm the first to admit that the fit of my bumper is probably "over restored". It needed some reshaping to begin with due to collision damage, but I purposely tightened up the fit to the body more than the factory did I think. I do like the way it turned out though

As for the variation to the wheel arch, I get 2 3/4" on each side which is on the high end of your results. As you know the brackets are slotted. I have my bumper pushed all the way in as far as it will go. I ended up de-welding the battery box bumper bracket to push it back further and re-center the bracket to the fender slot hole. I didn't move it 2" though....wow! The repro wall was off a little bit in regards to the bumper bracket position.

My drivers side nose and front fender were in nice shape, so I tried to make everything match that side.

Thank you Jack and Trevor for reporting your findings here. Its so helpful to have extra eyes on these things. I put more time than expected on that bumper! I think the rear bumper will be easier to fit, hopefully.
Tom

[Jack Staggs]

For clarification, the measurements we took showed DIFFERENCES FROM ONE SIDE TO THE OTHER, measuring from the end of the bumper to the wheel arch. None were equal on any given car, with distances of up to 2 3/4" variation. These measurements were taken on cars where the general fit of the front of the bumper appeared well centered to the nose panel. Further adjustment to allow the wrap around to be more symmetrical would cause the fit of the bumper to be significantly off at the nose.
BTW, this was done only on B/C cars.
Thanks
J

[Don C]

Jack,
On my '65C the bumper end to wheel arch is 4" each side, must have been done midweek!

[tperazzo]

Thanks Jack and Don. I get what you mean now and that's good data to have. Once my car is painted I probably won't have my bumper pushed in so far. Even though I like the look, a 1/4" gap at the ends is probably too close for comfort.

Now I'm working on the rear bumper. It has several small dents but it isn't mangled like the front was. That's the good news. The bad news is there's a nice rust volcano hiding under the bumper bracket. Just when I thought I was done with rust repair I get shoved right back into it.




Looks like Porsche didn't paint or primer behind these parts.



The rust bubble is where the overlapping sheet metal is spot welded together.

Here's the outside that was filled with bondo.



Not hard to fix presumably.

Here's s question for the authenticity lovers.

Do the inside of the bumpers get undercoating?
Here's a picture of mine before I stripped it all the way.



I didn't see anything that resembled undercoating on the front bumper. Both of my bumpers have Irish green on top of factory primer so I'm assuming they are both original to my car.

Maybe the rear bumper just collects more road grime?

Thanks for all your help,
Tom

[John Pierce]

Tom,

There was a recent discussion on the R regarding the correct paint on the backside of the bumper. Don't know if this would be helpful to you:

http://forum.porsche356registry.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=41337&hilit=bumper+paint

John

[tperazzo]

Thanks John, Body color without undercoating it is.

Finally got a good chunk of time to finish some chores on my rear bumpers.

I cut out a large section of rust where the bumper thirds overlap, but rather than take the entire section apart to look at all the overlapped sections I decided to weld all the seams shut. Theoretically this will prevent further rust by starving it of oxygen.





I even fused the edges together where the oval cutouts are. Here's the outside.






I did loose the vertical edge that is normally visable on the outside. This edge is covered by the bumper guards though. I think this butt welded seam will fair better than overlapping sheet metal in the long run. Although, if Porsche would have put a little primer behind the bumper mounts I'm sure it would still be in good shape today.

Thanks for looking,
Tom

[JTR70]

Nice work Tom! So nice getting all those tedious small patch repairs in the done column isn't it? Glad to see you making progress again!
Justin

[bbspdstr]

FWIW, in another lifetime, I did "show cars" and did time as a Concours Judge at PCA events in the '70s and '80s. One of the areas to which I was occasionally assigned was the exterior (of 356s) and one of the most telling as to restoration accuracy would be the bumpers, inside/behind.
Points were taken off for camouflage of black paint or texture (or occasionally both) and a blind eye was turned to painted hardware, especially body color....as that was considered a "nice touch." The most noticed difference between original and restored bumpers was/is where the paint reached. Original was into the rear edges/returns with complete coverage. The restored bumpers too often had light passes with hardly any coverage in the nooks and crannies.
For those now looking for a good restoration, the bumpers get 2 separate paintings, one to concentrate on the backsides and another with that back part masked and the outer done with the main shell and lids/doors. I paint the dash as a separate area and really get that right...the person writing the checks sees that most often!
Just observations through the years.......
-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Thanks Bruce. I'm a bit confused about what you wrote about 2 separate paintings for the bumpers. Are the backsides and outers different colors? I thought they were the same color and could be painted at the same sitting.

Thanks.

John

[JTR70]

Another pearl Bruce, Thanks for sharing what the judges are looking for!

Same color John. As Bruce described you paint the backsides first to ensure you get coverage in and around all the crannies and blind edges. There are of course many

The backside is carefully back taped and masked then the outside is shot for your second painting session. It was a pain but this was the way Rick and I did my bumpers last year. You can see the backsides masked up here. Thanks again for the confirmation and the tip Bruce!

[tperazzo]

Good info on the bumpers.

Someone else has messed with the side bumper mount plate and there is no captive nut???



For me it was easiest to cut that out and rebuild.

Here's the new plate and a modified weld nut to be the same as original.



I made the cage and welded it in the same way I did on the front bumpers. No overlapped metal.



Primered,



Finished,



Could this be the last weld on my 356???? I don't want to jinx it but I can't think of anything else!
Cheers,
Tom

[John Pierce]

Sweet welds, Tom!!

Thanks Bruce and Justin for the great info.

JP

[bbspdstr]

"Could this be the last weld on my 356????"

Could be, but please come and weld on some of mine! But to second John's exclamation....."SWEET WELDS."

See, "practice makes perfect."

Thanks Justin, for clarifying my "paint it two times" comment about the bumpers. Tough to get thoughts out correctly when being distracted by....working on old Porsches.

I have been known to take a fine brush, bent to access that area and paint the backside of the 'return' to be sure it's covered prior to spraying. That's a tough area to get and I've always been impressed at how the Factory wrapped in there without runs, sags, drips or too little spray here or there. Probably that old enamel and the baking soon after.

B/C bumpers are more difficult than earlier but they are all a PITA to get right.

-Bruce