'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[Jack Staggs]

Roy and I may have gotten too far out into the weed

I fixed it for you

[Phil Planck]

Anyone who thinks(unweeded) that auto companies were engineering crumple zones back in the 50s may change their mind after watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U

Anyone want to volunteer up a 356 to try this?

Phil

[Don C]

Scary!

[John Pierce]

Wow! The 356 would be a big crumple zone

[bbspdstr]

Anyone who thinks(unweeded) that auto companies were engineering crumple zones back in the 50s may change their mind after watching this:
Anyone want to volunteer up a 356 to try this?

Phil

Great video, Phil!

Here in this temporarily pirated thread, "Reefer Madness" and the dummies who were smoking weed in the '50s likely were going as slow as the slo-mo parts in that video and would likely have suffered less damage...it's all a plot against pot!

Big old domestic cars from the Age of Chrome: Seriously, my late 45 year best friend met his now-also late widow (cigarettes/lung cancer) while on a gurney in a hospital elevator where she was a nurse and he was on his way up to surgery from the ER after smashing his (fast) '55 Chevy into a (big) tree while intoxicated. The understeering Chevy was VERY totaled. He survived that and 2 tours in 'Nam in helicopters, one gunship, one med-evac but met his maker crashing an OV-10 in CA fighting a forest fire at age 50.

This dummy and 356s:
Over the years, I have bought a few wrecked (and totaled) 356s...for parts. In specifically bad front end hits, I knew of only 2 fatalities. One was from a lap-belted female driver being skewered on the steering shaft. When I got the car, the steering wheel was inverted, not a gentle procedure in a T-6. The other was a B or C Cabriolet where the male driver was NOT belted and upon impact was launched through the windshield...somehow. That had to require a lot of body parts bending in ways they were not intended to do. The top of that steering wheel was also slightly bent forward.

At least I know the victims I got were organ donors. Spare wheel/tires were ruined and trapped, but no gas tanks were more than slightly dented. Fenders and inner panels deformed but both cockpits were intact. Good restraints would most likely have let both of those human victims survive. I would say that a unibody car like a 356 is by default a car built with crumple zones, at least fore and aft.

I had a T-5 B sunroof S-90 with Rudge wheels that was frontally crashed 3 weeks after I sold it. The guy said someone pulled out in front of him on a 2 lane road giving him three choices....a pole to the right, an oncoming car to the left or the car that pulled out in front, at least moving his direction. The hit into the rear of the big ol' 'Merican car flattened the 356's nose and pushed the wheels back squeezed tightly into the front closing panels and the hood was folded up between the latch and the hinges.....and yet both drivers walked away. That was in the late '60s.
From lessons learned, I have a collapsible section from a later VW for my A Coupe and 4-point belts and head restraints.

[JTR70]

You misquoted me Jack, I said weeds not weed..

Thanks for posting that crash test Phil, I remember seeing it a while back. Definitely drives home the point about the false sense of security in driving an old American "tank". I'm used to seeing brand new cars get crash tested this way; did you notice the plume of rust and 55+ years road sediment become airborne upon impact? Aside from the airbags the other great advancement displayed here are the door latches. Unlike the old chevy which came open the New door stays in place to help support and keep the opening from collapsing during the impact.

Very interesting old stories Bruce. Only surprised to hear that you only bought two fatal wrecks during your career. The collapsible lattice sectioned VW steering shaft is a great safety item to add!
Justin

[John Pierce]

The front end is getting more complete and feels more solid every week. The pedal bulkhead supports were my next project.



This is how Bubba previously repaired the rust issues up front.


After removing the welded on extra metal not much of the original cuts outs and embossments were left so I decided to replace the whole piece.


The aftermarket reproductions for these pieces are very close to the originals. Just a little modification to get correct.


The original welds had the supports slightly offset from the tunnel top, which I wanted to reproduce.


I was able to spot weld the right support to the bumpout as originally done, but had to use rosette welds on the left as I couldn't fit the spot weld prongs into the tight space. The spot welds along the floor flanges really tighten things up.


The bottom flanges had to be slightly modified to fit the contour of the pedal bulkhead floor perfectly. Hey, what an hour or two at this point You can see in this picture that I've started repairing the tunnel sides. I had to remove 3 layers of Bubba metal welded onto the rusted tunnel. What a mess. I've read that the tunnel floor flanges sit lower than the longitudinal floor flanges by ~5/8" throughout the entirety of the tunnel's length. Can anyone verify this before I start on this area?

Thanks for looking.

[Phil Planck]

Nice work, as usual, John. I will try to get a read on the 5/8" dimension. My tunnel flanges were in good shape, so are in there original position.
Phil

[JTR70]

Looks fantastic John! A lot of hours invested in there, nice work!

[Don C]

From the looks of those original repairs I think Bubba did my car too!
Keep at it John!

[John Pierce]

It's been almost a year since I got my project and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel......many miles ahead, but it's out there. The front undercarriage is now complete with the installation of the diagonal.


This is how the diagonal was installed by Bubba, with no chance of water or dirt ever getting out of the top, as the whole piece was welded in solid.


The reproduction diagonal is actually a very good piece of kit and it's galvanneal. The rear had to be recontoured a bit to accurately fit the step-down in the pedal bulkhead.


The front arms are oversized and I've got it mocked up here with where to cut. The right fits tight up against the battery box. This is good for the later 356's, but doesn't fit nicely with the earlier battery boxes and a piece of metal would need to be added to wrap around the front of the torsion post.


With a little bending the left arm curves around the torsion post and fits very well.


The installation was straight forward and is one of the easier jobs to do. I ground down the welds, which is not original. I got to use my new QuickSpot spot welder on the rear. All I can say is that I wish I had bought it earlier in the project as it makes perfect welds. Best of all, there's no grinding of rosette welds afterwards. Thanks DG for the advice. The rear has a funnel shape in the middle, which I enlarged a bit, to allow water, leaves, dirt, etc. a place for egress from the top.

I'm quite happy to be done with the front undercarriage. I'm debating to start working on the middle of the car or jump to the rear, which is as bad as the front was, then go back to the middle. It's a toss-up.

Thanks for looking.

[DG58INNM]

John,
It is coming together nicely. Good job! You know, the sad thing is it looks like Bubba really wasn't all that bad a welder. He just didn't put any thought or patience into figuring out how it was supposed to be. Glad you like the Quickspot. The only problem I have with mine is all my 356 friends keep borrowing it and its never in the shop when I need it!

Take care,
DG

[JTR70]

Great job on that install John! Yes, the outer tabs came up short on my part as well. I hear you, grinding down plug weld heads really gets old. You guys are really tempting me to add a good spot-welder to my shop too!

[bbspdstr]

Great job on that install John! Yes, the outer tabs came up short on my part as well. I hear you, grinding down plug weld heads really gets old. You guys are really tempting me to add a good spot-welder to my shop too!

All good shops have a spot welder! Whether they are used or not is something else.

Justin, I have mentioned that I have not used my 'antique' Lenco for many years. I'll take pictures of it to better describe how it works. I will say that for long perimeter overlaps it was fast and easy but it works mainly from one side and for good pressure to hold the overlap together it needs to be bucked from the other side. I didn't fully trust the integrity of each spot, so every few inches I still used a plug weld with a MIG. Less of those to grind was the benefit more than anything.

It's not used now primarily due to finding the happy setting where the MIG (or TIG) puddle in a plug weld hole is flat or slightly dished, so grinding is at a minimum and the Lenco is just taking up space.

A little secret for 'authenticity' is that fake spot welds can be easily created between the plug welds with a drift and hammer.....if it really matters.

-Bruce

[JTR70]

Hey Bruce, I think we might have the same machine:

Its an old Lenco panel spotter I inherited from my mentor. It has the handheld side-by-side electrodes with trigger.

It works great and I do use it for "effect" after my plug-welds have been dressed but I don't trust it for thorough penetration on its own. I was looking at the pincer style as I have no worries about its capabilities and was maybe looking to skip a step and more work if and when applicable. I can get flush or devoted plug-welds at times but not more than about 80%. Also what usually happens is I'll miss filling it completely and have to zap it on a second pass which ends up high and needs to be ground down. It reminds me of the old multiple choice tests we took as kids with the #2 pencil and how they'd get after you if you didn't fill in the answer dot completely! I always hoped that taking those old tests would provide a practical application for me eventually.