SC Coupe Restoration

[John Pierce]

Tom,

Fantastic fitting of that piece. It looks perfect. Your pictures and write up will be quite helpful to the next person to fix this area.

John

[Phil Planck]

Tom
Once again, great work! Bending that last flange is something I also learned the hard way. Looking forward to your hidden gusset.
PhilN

[Don C]

Thanks for posting all these shots Tom! I've been stressing how to fix the hood on my "C" and you have given me incentive to tackle it.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Don

[bbspdstr]

I'm trying to catch up on all the sections and threads here on Justin's great site, to learn and share what I've already learned myself....perhaps to find there are better ways to resurrect old Porsches.

Tom posted: "Disregard the pliers in the picture, They didn't do most of the work. Instead, very careful prying was done to prevent distortion on the top side of the skin."

Most guys who do this kind of work as a serious hobby or a vocation find or make things (devices and tools) as needed. Usually, it's Continuing Education courses in the School of Hard Knox. Here are the modified and found de-crimpers I use. The blue handled are the same, from Eastwood, just narrow and wide jaws for straight or radius unfolding. They have a gradual angle that cannot make the 90* needed for a lid delamination with mono-direction SQUEEZING, so I made the other tool to push the return up WITHOUT prying, for as Tom says, I learned the hard way that prying of any sort raises the other side of the crimp and makes the refold very vulnerable if any grinding or filing is needed. The added work-hardening can also cause splits, especially when hammering back into a fold, so it's wise to anneal that fold before and during any work like this. Don't get it too hot, not even too blue, just too warm to touch, both unfolding and refolding.

Bruce Baker

[tperazzo]

Thanks Bruce for sharing those tool pics. Honestly I never knew what a skin removal tool looked like until now. Makes total sense and one will be arriving at my door step soon I hope. My method was similar in function, but not in plier form. It's hard for me to explain, but I drove a wedge shaped thing into the fold when backed up with a large 90 degree welding block. (like 20 lbs bookends). It appears the forces on the fold were similar but your method looks faster. Your advice on annealing is another good one that didn't occur to me. Will do before hammering back flat. Thanks again for sharing. Its going to be hard to find something you haven't seen or done to a 356 already, but I'll keep trying, ha ha. Experts on this site are a real blessing which reminds me of Jack's comment.

Two seals it is! Good advice and I should start using them soon. Probably need to find the latches in my storage too huh? I was thinking of the International Merchantile rubbers??? Are they the softest ones? Someone discussed the softness of these gaskets, but I don't remember the outcome.

Don, Phil, Jon, Justin, thanks for the encouragement. I'll be away from the car for 4 or 5 days unfortunately. But will be anxious to get back out there soon.

Here's the way the splice section was formed using a homemade press brake.


The dies in the picture are for sharp corners. (like to the outer most bends)



This "custom" die was for the larger bend radius.


One more funky one thrown together quickly with scrap steel.




This brake is great for doing lots of bends close to each other. The large radius (1 3/8" or so) was formed by hand over a wooden dowel. Viola! I have a few extras while I was at it....maybe I can find a sucker on ebay....
Good night,
Tom

[merbesfield]

Tom with your skills there was no need to buy new. Like you said who's counting the time. It is fun and in the end you will be proud of your hard work and the knowledge you rebuilt it. Very nice.

[bbspdstr]

Love to see others delaminating the kinked hoods, especially if the replacement sections are made correctly! There now seems to more acceptance to 'do it right' since the appeal and value of the 356s grow, pro or hobbyist getting the original fixed. Repairing over replacing seems somehow more correct for a restoration, but sometimes parts like those lids are just too far gone or already a replacement years ago and not original to the car they come in with.
I'm new here, so maybe it's been covered, but if the inner frame is badly buckled, the out skin will be stretched as well. Shrinking and shaping that while accessible is to be remembered prior to rejoining.

The hinges should be checked along with the 'pods' in which they mount. Tearing will mess with the symmetry, symmetry controls the lock/unlock function of that (imperfect) design, so I made a tool out of scrap that checks and can readjust the angle needed.

[roy mawbey]

What a great thread this is. Many thanks to Bruce for the tool pictures its clear without the right tools its so much harder. Thanks also to Tom for his descriptive methods and photo's I have always wondered what is involved and as this is progressing its becoming much clearer. I thank my lucky stars I have a good original front and hood knowing now what I would have to do to correct a rusty or deformed one.

Great info.

Roy

[Jack Staggs]

Tom, that's really nice work. Trevor was by yesterday and I told him that I can't believe that you made that multi-radius tapered part on your funky press

[tperazzo]

Thanks all, good idea Bruce to check the hinges first. I'm having some trouble getting my hood to line up in the left/right direction although it's getting better. I hate to rely on the seals for that.

Thank you Jack! That repair piece is a brain teaser for sure, but more fun than Sudoku. I have extras that I'll probably use as spoon rests or something.

Thanks Roy, I have nothing to lose on this hood, so it can't hurt me to learn something new. So rare to have an unlinked hood, you must be lucky.

Will do more this week and share what happens.

[JTR70]

Looking forward to more progress Tom! Really nice job fabricating that die! Very impressed with your new section. Keep up the great work! Justin

[Don C]

Tom,
Looking forward to how you'll reinforce the kinked area.
Great craftsmanship!

[Trevor]

Looking good Tom, real good!

On reinforcing the area of the hood that gets kinked... I don't think you should go to the trouble. Here's why: no one else is going to be touching the car other than yourself or maybe someone who is very familiar with the 356 hood operation. However, playing devil's advocate, "IF" someone smashed down on the hood AND it was reinforced, the force would be transferred through the hood frame -> to the hinges -> down to the hinge pocket where the hinge pocket would most likely rip out. I think it would be better to have to repair a kinked hood (again ) rather than re-do the hinge pocket and possibly the front cowl. Just a thought.

[bbspdstr]

Ah-h-h-h......youth....and how times have changed. When I was much younger, we'd find a suitable junk-yard hood prop, remove the 'spurs' in the hinges, rivet a perch and a clip.....or use a broomstick if we were lazy.
Then, some time passed and we got cute....saw the 924, 944 and 911 gas struts and adapted those to a 356 hood, guessing at the mounts and lid weights...you know, all that post-kink Bondo makes 'em heavy.
Now, youth tells us NO ONE will ever operate a laboriously repaired 356 hood that forgets to raise before closing. But wait....isn't that how all this began?

Truthfully, I include a small rod similar to that incorporated in the (very good) repro T-6 hoods Stoddard used to sell years ago. My theory is that the spot is weak even when repaired correctly, and a little help and NO ONE touching the hood other than the owner is the best end result.

My favorite story about kinking hoods is from very early in my career. I painted a nice S-90 T-5 B Coupe for a guy in black lacquer. The guy was forerunner of most guys today, and inspected my paintjob AT NIGHT with a flashlight! Found a few pieces of fly sh#* in the pepper, which I fixed. (Lacquer is forgiving) He took his wife 'down south' on a short vacation, to explore great country roads.
On the trip back, he pulled into a typical old country store/gas station and opened the hood to fill 'er up. He also had to make use of the restroom, so a short young boy who worked there said he would take care of the gas.
Coming around the corner of the building, fully relieved, he witnessed the young boy literally hanging from the lid, almost, as he told me, "Arched in half."
He told me he shouted and then chased the kid for a while, then came back to use his belt and a wire hanger to fasten the lid down for driving home.
Back then, 'originality' wasn't thought much of yet, so I found a good used replacement, made it fit and painted it black. Yes, the 'pods' were damaged and the hinges were 'spread.' A mess, no matter how you cut it....and why the design was abandoned.

[Trevor]

I hear you Bruce!

Tom - I was going to beg you to make me a replacement piece like yours and offer to bring you a 12 pack of whatever you're drinking these days, but I just went out into the garage and to my surprise found my hood isn't kinked. I thought it was for some reason...

Keep up the good work, I'm thrilled to see you make such great progress!