'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[roy mawbey]

John,

That torsion bar area so dreaded by so many over here with our wet weather is an amazing job you are doing. Like Jack said those are really nice sections to put in. On my 'A' I was lucky that when the closing panel to the longitudinal was removed because of some small holes nearly 40 years ago I could see inside and the area was fine. I did 'cap ' the flat area because it looked thin and it was easy to do and because it did not have the flange in the middle like yours.

Must have helped because all the MOT testers always put their ramp lifting pads on those. Stood the test of time since for the past few years my car made before 1960 is not requiring any government yearly test

John really like following your thread. Nice work.

Roy

[John Pierce]

Thanks Per and Roy. I saw on one of the forums (maybe TheSamba) that someone had modified the VW tube to fit the 356. Can't find that post at the moment, but it was an inexpensive fix. They stuffed some extra sound deadener inside the plastic tube.

I'm a bit confused with the rear heating set up. I've got an S-90 engine, which may or may not make a difference. I found what's called "S-90 Flapper Boxes" on the AASE website. How is this different than the "Heater Valves?"



S-90 Flapper Box



S-90 Flapper Box



Heater valves.

Thanks.

JP

[213532]

The flapper boxes are either single or double. The single flap on the A models, double on later B's and C's. The heater cans are for B's and C's. The A cans are longer. You need both the flappers and heater cans. The flappers go on the engine, the cans on the tubes exiting either side of the chassis.

I hope this info helps.

Mike

[JTR70]

WOW! Those tubes are Spendy from Porsche! Their just a paper composite with a tin foil lining right?

[Don C]

John,
The Flapper boxes go under the cylinders, then the can around the forward part of the "J" tube exhaust pipe plugs into the forward part of the flapper box and is secured by that tab at the bottom of the large forward opening with a bolt. From there a flexible corrugated paper tube connects the "J" tube can to the heater valve. Sorry I don't have better pictures.

[John Pierce]

Damn! You guys are fantastic. Thank you for the Porsche 356 heater tutorial. The manual is one thing, but having it explained like this makes it so much more understandable. I now can figure out how to tackle the next set of repairs.

Much appreciated.

JP

[Phil Planck]

John
I think that strap gets welded to the inner longitudinal. Can't find a pic of the remains of my original strap, but it goes in the middle of the muffler. I forgot to include it before I closed up the outer longitudinal.




Phil

[JOP]

John, I did find a photo with a VW muffler installed
Also from PET how things hold up inside the longitudinals.
/Per

[JTR70]

John, here's a detailed photo of a later model system that your car would have.

[Jonesy_356]

John, my BT5 has a little tab for that strap.
















This last one shows the positioning with the base of the rule in the inner rear corner of the cavity.

Hope this helps - overkill for such a simple, hidden part. I'm happy to be contributing at last. All adds to the library on this website.

J

[John Pierce]

Torsion area......still..... Onto the inner frame.



Torsion area after inner frame rust removal and repair of the outer frame.



The heater and defrost tubes were rusted through. There weren't many original landmarks to work with.



Repair patch with flange around the torsion tube.



Repair panel mocked up.



Slowly moving forward towards the middle longitudinal.




The concavity is preserved.


Inner frame all buttoned up. Now to mock up the heater tubes and cut the oval hole.

Thanks for following.

[Phil Planck]

Wow! Nice work that repair piece John.

Phil

[Jack Staggs]

Torsion area......


Repair patch with flange around the torsion tube.



Repair panel mocked up.



Inner frame all buttoned up. Now to mock up the heater tubes and cut the oval hole.

Thanks for following.

I'm waiting for you to show us how you made those beautiful replacement parts. I would have to make them in multiple pieces, and weld them together.

[John Pierce]

Thanks Phil and Jack, but I can't take credit for all the patch pieces. Some of the patches I made. And as you said, I did them in multiple sections, as the torsion area is crazy complex.

The outer frame repairs are 16 gauge. The inner repair panel is 18 gauge. The rearmost part I was able to mock up, but the part around the torsion tube is really busy. I bought a repair panel from Stoddard (RD sells the same piece). The only issue with the store bought panel is it isn't the correct gauge. It's more like 20 gauge. I figured for the bottom portion I would go with it due to the complex curve and the bends will help stiffen it up. My car is so rusty that all the metal is no longer the original gauge anyhow

The repair panels don't come with the torsion tube cut out or heater tube hole. So it's eats up a lot of time going back and forth to fit and to flange them correctly. Using the spot welder gives some originality

I still have to mock up the forward part of the outer frame where it's spot welded to the inner frame and middle longitudinal. If I don't do these in sections I'd be overwhelmed!!

Cheers,

JP

[bbspdstr]

Amazingly good work. Approach and results are as good or better than many/most professionals who have done that process a hundred times or more. (Yeah, including me....)

The picture of the rear suspension with the roof underside and the other car in the garage being visible because part of the inner panel is missing ..but everything is clean and under control....that says it all..... I see things like that and I find myself smiling.

Everyone who posts here as doing their own metalwork (and all else, really) shows that they "get it,"......a very uncommon trait nowadays. Makes my day, thank you John.... and everyone else here on abcgt!

-Bruce Baker