'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys! I think it's done correctly now.



Welds ground down. The front end is looking so much better.



Flanges cut and bent over.



All welded up. Less chance of dirt and water getting in. I've seen some cars with a drainage hole in the bottom of the longitudinal side reinforcement piece. Is this a Karmann thing? OEM?

Now onto the rear closing panel. My car is a B T-6 so the rear portion of the longitudinal has a flange like the front. Did Porsche finish this rear area off in any particular way?

Thanks.

John

[Phil Planck]

John
All I have of original:




Phil

[John Pierce]

Onto the longitudinal rear closing panel.



This area was quite a mess. Lots of patches over patches.



And let us not forget Bubba's favorite....Bondo. Used to fill any hole up to 3-4"!!



This was what was left after cutting out the badness. The whole inner structure had either rusted away or had been previously removed/modified.



The longitudinal rear closing panel is well made, especially with all the compound bends and curves. Getting to fit any particular car takes a lot of small bending in many areas to get it to sit nice and flat. Not only around the longitudinal flange, but also against the upper cavity floor flange behind the lock post.



The closing panel and outer frame were primered and top coated lest the rust starts right away.



Nice snug fit with spot welds around the longitudinal flange, rosette welds up high and a continuous weld around the edge to mimic the factory weld. I've left the lower portion of the longitudinal flange unfinished for now as it needs an additional piece welded on.

Thanks for following.

John

[John Pierce]

Got some car time this weekend.


Initial fitment of the jack spur. The center point is 335 mm from the lower rear torsion plate bolt. The rocker panel and door need to be set in place so the jack spur doesn't sit too low.



As bought the jack spur is about 20 mm too low. The top flange hits the rocker panel and needs to be cut and beveled. The side flanges also need to be bent to fit the curve of the rocker.



The top jack spur is in it's rough state and the lower is after cutting the top shorter and beveling all the flanges. Thanks Justin for your great tutorial!



The insides were primered and top coated as these areas won't be reached after welding in place.



The rocker area was masked off and also primered and top coated.



Plug welded and ground.



It's nice to step back and see where things started. This was what was left of the original metal after removing all the patch panels.



Damn, it's nice to see clean solid metal!

Thanks for following.


JP

[Jack Staggs]

Yeah, I've had to deal with ill fitting jack spurs nearly every time a replacement is needed. I generally fit them after the rocker is installed to assure proper placement, and flex (as though anyone would use them!?). It's easy to get a mig welder under there to attach them, but you seem to have a handle on it. I gotta hand it to you guys, with what you are willing to go through to have a 356. Well done.

[bbspdstr]

Yeah, I've had to deal with ill fitting jack spurs nearly every time a replacement is needed. I generally fit them after the rocker is installed to assure proper placement, and flex (as though anyone would use them!?). It's easy to get a mig welder under there to attach them, but you seem to have a handle on it. I gotta hand it to you guys, with what you are willing to go through to have a 356. Well done.

Just for s&g, I looked into the parts books again and see a number for A&B jack spurs of 644-501-150-00 with no change of number noted in the T-6 supplement book or the C supplement book, yet (in my experience with a few original examples) there seems to be a change in construction sometime in the T-6 B change before disc brakes.

Ron Roland put the flatter overlapped version in the C time frame ONLY and the Stoddard catalog shows the Factory A and B parts book number of 644-501-150-00 just for the C cars and 644/(NLA)-501-045-00 as 356, 356A and B, which can't be. Confusing? Nah, just more wiggle-room for what's "original."

So yes, I'll echo Jack's remark about how how refreshing it is to see hobbyists forge ahead on such small but daunting challenges such as jack spurs...which almost never fit as bought repros...without some 'massaging.' John, you must have read Ron's book. In less detail, Jim Kellogg expresses the same admonitions.

I'm just glad there are only two on each 356.

Good work!

-Bruce

[John Pierce]

You guys are too funny. I also researched these little details about jack spurs. Somewhere in the middle of the B T-6 run, Porsche switched from the flange type to the non-flange type jack spurs. Unlike what Ron has in his book. I looked at a few examples around when my car was built (1962, so early) and they had flanges, so I went with that style. What's even better: I had bought a set of jack spurs with no flanges and actually sent them back to get the ones with flanges..... embarrassing or anal... you choose

One question for the experts: how does the inside edge of the jack spur lie against the outer longitudinal? Is is left open as I've done or is it bent down and welded?




Cheers,

John

[bbspdstr]

One question for the experts: how does the inside edge of the jack spur lie against the outer longitudinal? Is is left open as I've done or is it bent down and welded?

You, good sir, have it right as you show. As our kids say to their kids.."GOOD Jo-b-b-b-b!" Drainage, you know. You put those beautiful Karmann drains in, so to make it look totally "original" you must fill the holes with flakes of rust and crush, twist and otherwise mangle the jack receiver.

Seriously, many of the original 'spurs' had a hole drilled up from the bottom on one side of the slanted-ended square tube, usually about 6mm-1/4". Let's see if Jack or anyone else concurs.

Bruce
PS, I looked in Brett's original "Authenticity" book later and he even has serial numbers for the change in the T-6 spurs....sorta.

[John Pierce]

You had me worried so I had to check Brett's book. My VIN is 211023, which is well before the 213720/215050 change from flanged to overlap welds!

All is right in the world! Or we're just a little crazy worrying about this minutia

[ukinusa]

Hi John ...Don't want to hi jack - could you check out my picture on my resto blog..i am confused (again) page 9 - getting to the same point as you just were.. my door pocket shelf structure has me flummoxed !

[JTR70]

Nice work John, it has come such a long way!

[bbspdstr]

Just for the sake of continuity, I tripped over a NOS outer longitudinal and thought I'd take a couple of pictures of the jack receiver. This could, I'd guess, belong on the 'green parts' thread too.

Good work guys, keep it up!

-Bruce

[John Pierce]

I've been dreading this next part....jumping over to the left side, which has much worse rust and of course, more patch panels than the right. I thought I'd start with the "easier" right side then with the experience built up, go to the left. Time to dig in....



This is the mess that I'm dealing with. My previous repairs were from the rear up to the shock mount. Everything forward to this is quite a mess with lots of patches.



Both the inner and outer frames are eaten through, pretty much from top to bottom. The left side of the transmission panel is also thinned and holey. The suspension stop is a goner and I can't wait to see what's underneath it.



To be expected. The suspension stop was a total mess and with water collecting behind over time ate through the metal in a large area. The patches along the inner fender are pretty amazing.



Starting to dig in. Removing the patched up areas of the inner fender and frame. I plan to restore it in sections so not to lose any remaining landmarks.



First repairs are to the rotted out portions of the outer frame. Bending 16 gauge metal is lots of fun.

Next will be the bottom of the inner and outer frames. Pretty complex curves here.

Thanks for following.

John

[Jonesy_356]

John, nice work mate, you've a bit to keep you busy there. The patches on your inner guard look like what is on mine, the sad thing being that they are what I have done when I started a year or so go. Not up to standard, so will need to be redone. My current plan is to make and replace the entire inner guard. Have just bought an English Wheel to help eith that task.

Luckily (for me) my frame rails seem to be in better nick than yours. Where did your car come from again? Hell?

Keep up the great work , John, thanks for sharing,

Jonesy

[Jack Staggs]

John, you're looking for a sunroof drive access cap? Email me.