'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

More door cavity repairs.



Wall and floor template made once the outer longitudinal and sill were mocked up. None of the original floor was present so the images from ABCGT were very useful.



Just a few bends and flanges!! The rusted and thinned metal was very extensive so I had to replace a pretty large section.



Ready for trial fitting.



It installed very nicely. The drainage tube needs to be repaired and lengthened as the previous owner cut it short. If anyone knows where to get this off size pipe please let me know.



Looking so much better.



The inner corner flange and door rail around the A-pillar were rusted out so needed replacement.



Fiddly bits that take up skads of time.



Inner wall and A-pillar looking good.



This is what the inner A-pillar area looked like as bought. Ugh!!



Primer and top coat before the next repairs. This should keep the rust at bay!



Ready for the reinforcement panel and inner closing panel.

Thanks for following.

JP

[Jonesy_356]

Look at all that nice fresh metal! Great job, that bit looks tricky. Don you have a bender or a brake?

Jonesy

[John Pierce]

Thanks Jonesy! I bent most of it on a brake that I found and restored. Nice piece of equipment to have. Some of the bends wouldn't fit in the brake so I had to bend in a vice and anvil/hammer.


JP

[bbspdstr]

... The drainage tube needs to be repaired and lengthened as the previous owner cut it short. If anyone knows where to get this off size pipe please let me know....JP

That tube is very close to 3/4" EMT (electrical conduit). The nominal measurement of the original varies according to paint build-up, general drek, rust and other caliper accuracy inhibitors, but I call it 20.5mm,20.65mm,20.75mm,20.83mm on the cars here that I could measure quickly or a "nominal 20mm". Call it "probably a smidge over 20mm."

What I have done in such instances is cut the damaged lower part behind the support for the closing panel when that damaged/rusted panel is off (you would need to cut a window up higher than your photos shows it cut now) and either weld or sleeve or just tack-weld and seam-seal the ends where they are eventually seriously out of sight...and use the 19mm-3/4" EMT from a big box store, electrical supply store or any local electrician and ask for a cut-off, then trim to fit your needs.

My perspective is that you (the ubiquitous 'you') have too much to do otherwise than bog down looking for a piece of 20-something millimeter thin wall tubing. My own excuse is how hard it is to get paid for the exactness vs time spent and that our country is still not metrically inclined.

The chassis tolerances of the car are likely larger than 19mm vs 20mm in most places. No one from the Authenticity Police has yet to report me for such transgressions. (But now...the cat is out of the bag!) It's what some of us nuts learn to live with.

A millimeter diameter difference in a drain tube that is covered by a black embossed piece of tarpaper anyway.... is hard to professionally justify other than in the few rare extreme cases of Justinophile mania...an incurable disease passed down perhaps genetically and only in cases of excess cams being originally present.

But don't take MY word for it.......

-Bruce
BTW.....REALLY nice work, John.

[Phil Planck]

Bruce
You have gone off the deep end on drain tubes . Did you recall all of this from memory? Holy cow! Nice work John. Yours was worse than Foam Car's, but the patch pieces I made were basically identical, just did not have to go up as high.
Phil

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys! Bruce, we think alike. I've tried the 3/4" EMT previously and it fits perfectly. And like you, I hid it behind the reinforcement panel. Glad I wasn't too far out there



Simonsen makes a very nice outer longitudinal, which I bought from Zim's.



I wasn't so sure about the red primer so I stripped it down to bare metal. I plan to use an epoxy primer and topcoat it. I like Roland's idea of spot welding the longitudinal to the heater bulkhead for more torsional rigidity, which will be hidden beneath the jack spur. You can also see that I cut several reliefs into the front and rear flanges to allow it to fit better as the tension is relieved.



My car was built by the Karmann Karosserie so the outer longitudinals had drainage holes. I used the Tom Perazzo technique to put them in. The longitudinal is taped up prior to priming.



These came from Tom and are very nicely made.



The holes look very original. Whether they are that functional can be questioned



Epoxy primered and top coated. This should last longer than the original did.

Thanks for following.

John

[JTR70]

John, this whole longitudinal repair is just turning out beautifully! That was nice of Tom to send you those dies, they do a nice job. The holes absolutely work, my car certainly didn't come with them but I put them in anyway as I wanted any water that might find its way down in there again to have an escape. I've seen 3 '65 Karmman coupes that had these factory installed and they still had solid original closing panels.
Great work as usual!
Justin

PS: I know Bruce thinks I'm crazy but I'd obsess, extra cams or not.

[John Pierce]

Some progress on the right side.



The heater muffler is in final position. The hat clamps that are sold by Stoddard are too short so I bought a clamp from HD, which fits perfectly. No one will ever know Gotta be careful of the authenticity police!!



The inside top of the wheel well of course had a hole in a place that was very hard to reach. You can see it way up inside. That's where all the road dirt and salt collects in that nice cavity from the wheel well.



The only way to get to that area without dripping hot molten metal all over me was to turn the car upside down. Made sure the bolts were on tight as it really doesn't need a dent in the roof as that's the best part of the whole car



No more hole. Grinding off the slag was a bit tough though.



Time to make the inner closing panel.



A little flange bending to fit the contour.



The hinge reinforcement panel and closing panel ready for primer and top coat. My previous post shows them all painted up.



Hinge reinforcement panel installed. The holes in the drainage tube have been welded closed.

Thanks for following.


JP

[John Pierce]

Productive day!



The outer longitudinal clamped in place with rosette welds at the heater bulkhead and frame. Those drainage holes look pretty cool



Double row of spot welds where the floor will go with a single row of welds everywhere else. The spot welder is taking a rest as it overheated!!



Solid longitudinal.



This is what I started with originally.



Complete. The car is looking so much better.

Thanks for following.

JP

[JTR70]

Congratulations on getting this side buttoned up John. It looks beautiful! Gotta get me one of those spot-welders for sure. Keep up the fantastic work!
Justin

[Jonesy_356]

Oh mate, that is so beautiful. What a great job. I need to get my butt into gear...I'm messing around with my door bottom ATM, going deeper and deeper. Need to post some photos. I will be very happy when I got my longs buttoned up, and can only hope I can do them this well. I think I have spot-welder envy!

Thanks for sharing,

Jonesy

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys! That spot welder is fantastic. So much better than the Miller products. It is electronically controlled and you can adjust the settings very nicely.

Now on to the closing panel.



I re-primered the inside pockets where I had previously rosette welded the other panels, then I installed the closing panel. Lots of clamps and screws to hold it tight. Rosette welds on the insider flanges and wheel wall where I couldn't reach with the spot welder. Now to the chore of grinding them down.



Could someone give me some insight on how to finish off the flanges at the bottom? Nothing original on my car to go by.



It would make sense to cut them even with the bottom of the car.



Should I then bottom up the bottom overlaps with some MIG welds to keep the water and road grime out?

Thanks.

JP

[Phil Planck]

John
Only picture I have of Foam Cars original closing panel:



Passenger side was more like yours:


Phil

[JTR70]

Forgot to get a clear photo for you John.

Cut the splash pan and longitudinal flange just at the bend where they meet flush. Make the second cut to the splash pan flange just below the corner so a portion of it overlaps the corner. Hammer the excess of the longitudinal flange flat against the floor runner. Attach with weld. Also give the newly exposed joined flange a little seam weld at the edge there. If you can just torch them and fuse together. Hope this made sense. Its looking great! Justin

[Jonesy_356]

Sorry mate, mine were junk!