'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

Before going onto the rear seats, I thought I'd fit the heater tube muffler.



My original heater mufflers were missing from the car so I bit the bullet and bought some Porsche parts. Very $$$ but well built. Also shown are the end gaskets.



The Porsche heater muffler appears to be made for a 911/912 so it has to be cut down to size.



It's a stacked assembly.



The inner tube is perforated so the heated air circulates through the middle woven fibers to reduce the noise.



Mocked up. Pretty nice fit.



Final fit. The longitudinal is looking better every day. The hat clamps that I bought from Stoddard are too short so I'll have to install some strap bands. (1971 flat windshield VW super beetle convertible cousin sitting in the background)

Thanks for following.

[JTR70]

Big money but its the correct part and was the right choice. It looks great John!

[John Pierce]

Got a bit of time to work on the rear seats.



The media blasting revealed very thin metal.



Lots of light shining through.



Taking the seats out allowed access to areas of the rear torsion tube that could not be initially media blasted. Nothing that a little elbow grease wouldn't take care of.



Cleaned up and painted.



Replacement panel trimmed and fitted.



Lots of fiddly bits for the bottom of the seat pan. The originals were used as templates. I ended up making and installing new electrical conduit straps all the way around. The originals showed a lot of metal fatigue from being bent back and forth too many times.



Parts spot welded on and painted.



Good fitment. Plug welds along the side where I couldn't reach with the spot welded.



The bottom is looking so much nicer with all the new metal.



One half done.

Thanks for following.

[DG58INNM]

Very nice John.

[John Pierce]

Howdy,

I'm working on the outer longitudinal today and was hoping someone could help me with some pictures of how the rear lines up with the bottom of the rear frame members where the flange is on a B T-6. The middle longitudinal floor flange is nice and straight from front to back until the point where the inner and outer rear frame members are spot welded together at the flange, where it dips down. The question I have is: is the rear of the outer longitudinal welded to the side vs. the bottom of this area.



Pointing to the flange where the inner and outer frames are spot welded together.



Should I weld the outer longitudinal as shown here or cut it shorter and weld it to the side of the outer frame, which would make welding the rear closing panel easier?


Thanks.

John

[DG58INNM]

John,
The longitudianl just gets pressed up flat against the bottom of the rear frame member (as yours is now). Factory had dozens of spot welds here, virtually overlapping.
DG

[Phil Planck]

John
I agree with DG.




Phil

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys for the quick response. Phil, I see that you cut the longitudinal where the inner heater tube reinforcement piece is and where the jack spur goes. Was your longitudinal too long/short? My longitudinal sits a little bit away from the inner heater tube reinforcements. Should I push it up tight against them?

[Phil Planck]

I used the Roland technique for the outer longitudinal. Makes it easier to handle and according to Ron, adds a little more structure strength. I also had to rework the longitudinal to fit the angles properly. I would lay the rocker in place if possible to see how the top inner flange lines up with the longitudinal. I had some problems there which I think I documented on my thread. I had to rework the top of the rocker flange to be flush with the longitudinal due to those heater tube reinforcements not being quite in line with the longitudinal. I think originally the longitudinal was spot welded to those reinforcements, but will defer to others who have a sample size larger than 1.

[bbspdstr]

..... I think originally the longitudinal was spot welded to those reinforcements, but will defer to others who have a sample size larger than 1.

Phil, you are correct. I have seen many original cars upside-down while trimming those off for replacement and while most were straight, there were occasions where an additional angle was cut for avoidance of the vertical pinch weld....again, "made by hand." Back to my favorite expression: "If it looks good it IS good." That's one of those areas.

Here's a for instance:
I found a picture on my phone yesterday that I never posted. I lined up 4 different versions of carb inlet banjo bolts. They look very similar but are measurably different and repros are more so. The 4 are all "original." Who is to argue which one is in which carb in which year 356 as long as they are 17mm ATF and don't leak fuel?

Sorry to be so late in jumping in here....John, you may be in paint by now....
-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys for the advice. I've been busy taking apart the passenger door cavity this week. What a mess. I'll post some pictures soon. Meanwhile.....should I replace the red primer on these panels with an epoxy primer and top coat? I'm thinking more for the inside of the longitudinal cavity before buttoning things up.





JP

[Phil Planck]

John
Lot's of opinions on coatings. Is the metal galvanized? If so, I would just put a top coat on the primer. I like Krylon Rust Tough, but anything will be far better than what the factory did and the car will be treated far better than when it was new. Even if not galvanized, I would just top coat it. I think a bigger issue for future rust is how to recoat inside after welding burns off the coatings and leaves bare metal in there.

Phil

[JTR70]

That looks like a simonsen panel so its probably not galvanized. Like Phil suggested just scuff that red primer a bit and some basic rustolum will do you fine as it will live a very sheltered life in there away from elements.

[John Pierce]

Time for an update! I've been digging into the right door cavity...and....what a mess.



This is what the door cavity looked like when bought. Lots of bondo hiding bad welds.



After media blasting. Lots of overlapping patch panels hiding the rust.



The lower hinge support was just a mess and not salvageable.



The front closing panels were just as bad. Instead of repairing the rusted metal, new metal was welded on top. So frustrating.



All the bad metal was removed to get to the inner structures. The flange around the front heater tube was rusted through, needing replacement.



Template made.



New heater tube support and flange in place. The rest of the inner structure had to be cut back to the speaker bump-out due to the previous repairs and thin metal.

Thanks for following.

John

[Phil Planck]

John
You, even more than I, will become intimately familiar with almost every separate panel used to build these cars. Not something we plan on, but nevertheless somewhat interesting to see how Porsche developed such a strong, lightweight structure.
Phil