'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement.....or just feeding the Porsche OCD that's found on this forum


Details.....details....before fitting the floor pans.



Working underneath here is so much easier with the floor pans still off. I used 3M conditioning disks on the larger sections then hand sanded all the nooks and crannies. No more residual rust or paint. I don't think Porsche primed up inside here or if they did it was a very light coating. After getting rid of all the dust I washed it with a metal converter then primed it.



Looking pretty decent.



The Stoddard front floor pan arrived and had a quick makeover into a Karmann pan.

Now to start fitting the pans.

Thanks for following.

[Phil Planck]

Pan fitting tool:

[John Pierce]

Thanks Phil.

Damn.....that's a lot of rosette weld holes you had there on those edges!! Makes me cringe thinking about the grinding party.

[Phil Planck]

Yep, a little grinding required on most plug welds. Some came out pretty flat but most needed some work. Besides the plug welds, every other hole had a tech screw in it so had to fill those screw holes in also.

[John Pierce]

Jim Kellogg's books mention plug welding about an inch apart. In this case, more is better? Or are we getting into the OCD realm again?

[Phil Planck]

John
I spaced them like Reutter did, about 5/8".
Also, I give credit to my install technique to my mentor, Bruce Baker. He got me on to the Tec screws and I think the holes for the screws were a different size than the non screwed holes - Bruce?



I used a Roper Whitney hand operated hole punch. Nice tool, but one of those pneumatics would make it easier.
Phil

[DG58INNM]

Phil's floors look really nice. But that sure was a bunch-o-grindin! Looks like just about factory spacing too.

I'm planning to use the spot welders for the Swiss Miss floors I can make a tong to reach a good part of the outer edges, and I'm confident with the Lenco for the rest. New clean floors, pressed against new clean ledges, will make very strong welds. I will do a plug weld every 6" or so, just for the halibut.

[JOP]

[JTR70]

[quote="John Pierce" post=33136]Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement.....or just feeding the Porsche OCD that's found on this forum


Details.....details....before fitting the floor pans.



Working underneath here is so much easier with the floor pans still off. I used 3M conditioning disks on the larger sections then hand sanded all the nooks and crannies. No more residual rust or paint. I don't think Porsche primed up inside here or if they did it was a very light coating. After getting rid of all the dust I washed it with a metal converter then primed it.



Looking pretty decent.



The Stoddard front floor pan arrived and had a quick makeover into a Karmann pan.

Now to start fitting the pans.

Thanks for following.[/quote



It really looks fantastic John! It's hard to believe that is the same car you started with. What's more impressive is that this was your first attempt at 356 chassis repair. My first attempt didn't turnout anywhere near this nice. In fact I had to cut it out and "fix" it once I realized how wrong I had gone. You're way ahead of the game. Nice work!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement!

Some days it's one step forward....other days not so good.... I'm fitting the front pan to place all the embossments in correct locations, especially the front circular impression for the pedal cluster "C" bracket.



I installed the pedal cluster, pedal board mount and accelerator mechanism to ensure everything worked without rubbing.....only to find that the front bulkhead master cylinder holes were a bit off.



I had been warned that the MC holes were not in the correct locations, but didn't realize how far off they truly were. Ugh! The only fix for this is to weld in a new piece of metal.



After LOTS of measurements and making sure the bottom of the pedal cluster sat flat against a piece of 18 gauge metal mimicking the location of the floor pan I was able to get the correct location. Quick work with a saw and drill, I've got a patch panel.




Everything bolted together to act as a jig. I installed the pedal cluster and master cylinder back into the correct location with the floor pan mimic and placed a few spot welds.



So much nicer. Now I can start locating the "C" bracket.

Thanks for following.

[Phil Planck]

Bummer John. What a pain to correct. Who made that?
Phil

[John Pierce]

Hi Phil,

The front bulkhead looks likes it's made by one manufacturer and sold by all of the standard merchants. The master cylinder hole placements are known to be too low. Even with this problem I'm glad someone is making this piece as it has a lot of complex curves. I had to replace the panel up to the first curve and had to replace most of the bump-out as my car was pretty bad in these areas.




JP

[John Pierce]

Finally got to fit the front pan!



Centerlines marked top and bottom and cut-outs placed for the front closing panels.



Pedal cluster and pan in final position. The "C" bracket holes are gonna hug that round embossment nice and tightly



Lots of jimmying to hold the pan up.




Edges trimmed and "C" bracket holes drilled. Woot! What a process to get to this point.

Now to test fit and make adjustments.

Thanks for following.

[JOP]

It aint easy to build a 356.... But you are doing a great job.
How many times havent you seen the C bracket been layed over the embossment

I post one more WWW untoched floor picture from same 356 as earlier.

John have a look at battery box ! Aint that a " home depo " thing on it as well

[tperazzo]

Hey that looks like another karmann floor plug in the battery box. Anyone else ever see that plug in a karmann?

Thanks for the great photo. Great work as usual John.
Tom