'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[bbspdstr]

Roy, the amount of hand work involved in '51 was immense. I have been educated to believe that by the end of 356 production jigs and fixtures were much more advanced and thus more cars were more alike.
That trend became more evident in my visits to the factory in the later '60s and mid-'70s and now......wow! I almost do not wish to know, as the cars are less obviously made by humans and have NO 'romance' to draw me to them.

I note in your picture that your brother's 356 possessed not 'flaws' but 'differences' left to right. The headlights appear to not just be at different heights but also tilts. The directional signal lights are too easy!

Perhaps a 'Heinz and Fritz' thing or that no one had room to stand back BEFORE placement of electrical units? Perhaps that area was made before lunch on Monday or after lunch on Friday?

Still, wouldn't be great to have a RHD '51 now, warts an' all?
-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Got a few hours to work on the right front longitudinal today.


A bit of a welding mishmash. Nothing that a little cutting and welding can't fix. The upper parts of the patches that you see are welded on top of the old rusted metal. Unfortunately, the original first crease up from the floor flange on the middle longitudinal is no longer present and the crease that you see is 1/4" too high. Thanks everyone for your measurements confirming this. I'm just sticking to fixing the front longitudinal first and will try not to think about that until later.


The offending patch has been cut out of the front longitudinal and a template made. This side was not as rusty as the left side so the patch panel was easier to fit and bend to all the compound curves.


New metal in place. Now onto bending, cutting and installing the front floor flange.

Thanks for looking.

[JTR70]

Looking great John! So nice to see that fish-plating slowly disappearing from your chassis. Keep at it, you're getting there!

Thanks a lot Roy! But I am a little sad to hear that this may of tainted your car show enjoyment. When I was Dana point a few weeks back I was really studying the "show cars" just to see how my own car was going to measure or not measure up. I was so busy trying to find only flaws that I almost forgot to take notice of what was right and beautiful about the car. I had to remind myself and stay conscious of that towards the end of the event. Its too easy slip into the critical mode (at least for me) so I have to watch it and remind myself to "see" what's beautiful.

[John Pierce]

Finished up the right front longitudinal floor flange. The lack of good landmarks made it an interesting install. I tried to match the bends and angle to each side and have the rear fall correctly to mate up with the middle longitudinal floor flange and floor pan.



The floor perimeter kit from Stoddard was very useful. A little stretching and it fit up nicely.


A few iterations of fitting and cutting and it was ready to weld up. It's level across the entirety.


Planishing restored the nice curves.

Now onto the pedal bulkhead. The side flanges will need to be reworked to fit the pan and longitudinal floor flanges.

Thanks for looking.

[JOP]

John, it looks good what you are doing to the poor litle rusted 356

So many people is using these "Perimeter kits" on their restorations and some I have seen are just welding them onto the old......they dont even cut away and make it flush and orginal looking
Even some so called "experts" have done installation this way.....but heay it is covered with carpet
But it is a good choice for guys with a rusted out bottom and dont have a cutter and folder at home to manufacture these replacements.

[John Pierce]

Thanks for the kind words, Per.

Some days it seems as if nothing gets accomplished! I spent the day trying to get the repro pedal bulkhead to fit...finding that it was still too wide by more than 1/4". Lots of bending the right flange to get it centered. I then went onto the bulkhead bump-out to figure out where the brake line hole and emergency brake hole had to be placed and realized the emergency brake conduit was not repairable. This was manufactured from 12 mm tubing, which is not the easiest to find in the USA, but I was able to locate some locally at an hydraulics company. Will pick up in the AM. Meanwhile I made the flange for the conduit.


This is the bump-out mash up. Not too original.


Pretty tight space to get to.


After removing the offending pieces. The tubing appears original, but rusted.


Good template to work with, but very thin metal throughout after cleaning it up in the media blaster.


Here are the measurements of the conduit that I got off my car. Maybe someone can use them in the future.


Here are the measurements of the flange.


I initially thought that this would be pretty quick to mock up and build.....I was wrong.


Bending the right angles was easy, as was using the shrinker to get the nice curve. The longest part was putting the top valley for the tubing to sit in. This is a very small piece and bending the top would pull all the other angles out of true. Lots of back and forth, but it's finally done!!

I'll get the new 12 mm tubing in the AM and have them flare the end while I'm there.

Thanks for looking.

[Jack Staggs]

I feel your pain. FWIW, 1/2" is only .7mm (.0275") larger than 12mm. Hardly a factor on this part.

[John Pierce]

Thanks Jack. I did buy some 1/2" OD originally, but I also needed some 20 mm tubing for the drainage pipe in the right door well. The hydraulics company had both so I lucked out. No one, but me would have known the difference in sizes. A bit anal on my part!!

[JTR70]

Nice work John! You posted a perfect example of how these deep hidden little brackets and other rotted out details can quickly eat up the time and a good mood. Keep up the great work! Justin

[John Pierce]

I got to install some BIG metal finally! Makes one feel accomplished. The front end is coming along nicely now that all the piddly small stuff has been taken care of.



Here's what I was given to start with. Someone appropriately described the welds as pigeon droppings. This was all removed and I salvaged the pedal bulkhead up to the first bend after the vertical section.


The repro pedal bulkhead needed a lot of massaging to get it to fit correctly. It was too wide, the flanges needed reworking and the bend for the floor pan was off. Lots of trial fitting got it to fit correctly and tacked in.


What a joy to see! It sits where it's supposed to with the vertical section 90 degrees to the floor flanges, level with the floor, about 1/2" lower than the floor flanges and the master cylinder hole measures to the correct location.


The floor pan edge reprofiled to fit the RD pan.


The bump out is my next project.


This is what things looked like originally.


The left repair extended very high.



I first had to repair the side of the bump out which is higher than the repro panel. The rust on this car is amazing.


Template and patch panel. The flange was rusted underneath and thinned pretty badly.


The pedal bulkhead really stiffens up the front end. Once I get the bump out installed it should be even stiffer.

Thanks for looking.

[JTR70]

That forward section is buttoning up nice John, Bubba would be so proud of you! Nice job!

[Phil Planck]

Nice work John. Yes, very gratifying to see some visual progress. It is amazing how structurally rigid these cars are when all there. Even more amazing how rigid they still are when most of the bottom structure is gone or 10% of what it was originally.

Phil

[JOP]

This is the pedal piece I showed earlier.....who would do such a poor job and then sell it?
I was given this many years back.....so it is just a dust collector and "show off" piece
/ Per

[John Pierce]

On to the pedal bulkhead bumpout.


The repro piece fits pretty well. The outer curve is a bit off, which will be remedied with some metal removal and shrinking.


I drilled an oblong hole for the handbrake cable conduit and a 3/8" hole for the rear brake line, which will be expanded to 14 mm with a flanged edge, like the original.


The handbrake bell crank is needed to get the correct angle for the cable conduit and it took a bit of work to get it apart.


The bell crank cleaned up nicely with media blasting.


The O-ring (#19) is still sold, but there appears to be a small "cap" that fits inside the outer portion, that is labeled #17 that is NLA. Does anyone know where this may be found? Mine is missing.


Everything in place to get the correct angle for the handbrake cable conduit. The 12 mm tube will be cut shorter later.


The inner flange was Cleco'd in place.


Welded up.


Cutting the 12 mm conduit to size to refit the outer funnel.


Completed!


Very gratifying result.


Heating up the 3/8" hole to make a 14 mm flanged hole for the rear brake line.


Complete and ready for some more mocking up to fit properly.

Thanks for looking.

[ALEX.RDI]

Looks good John, well done!