'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[JTR70]

WOW John, you have your work cut out for you now! The battery box will make a nice confidence booster but not having the best replacement panels can really wreak havoc. I agree with Phil, SEM makes a nice rust converter which is what I have used for years now. Keep us posted on your progress! Justin

[tperazzo]

Good start John. I love that you aren't afraid to cut. Bummer about the replacement panels not fitting. I haven't had good luck either, but I haven't tried Simonsen yet or the other imported parts whose name I can't remember. Best of luck and I'm looking forward to watching your progress.

Thanks,
Tom

[John Pierce]

Got some time to work on the car this weekend. I love the challenge of trying to figure out where to make a cut to keep the most original material, but also give a place for easy access and a good base to weld to while preserving all the complex stampings. Keeps the mind busy.

This is my first TIG attempt on the 356...on important metal. No longer messing up scrap practice metal. This area is quite interesting with multiple layers of sheet metal overlapping to make the front end box section very strong. I had to take it apart as I'm replacing the battery box. In several locations the metal was rusted through all the layers.



Rusted out lateral trunk wall, longitudinal member and trunk floor flange.


Some of the rusted sections removed.


New longitudinal member triangular piece and trunk floor flange.


First "real" TIG weld!

Now on to forming the lateral trunk wall.
Thanks for looking.

John

[tperazzo]

Yes! Great work and your first TIG weld looks awesome. Congratulations.....your restoration is going to be fun to watch.
Thanks for sharing .
Tom

[JTR70]

Alright John! That's a nice looking weld repair;Your first foot step on your 1,000 mile welding journey. Remember to ignore the car as a whole and just concentrate on one section or component at a time so you don't become overwhelmed and discouraged along the way. Looking forward to seeing your progress! Justin

[John Pierce]

Working on the lateral trunk walls. The double, triple and quadruple seams are a major water trap and my car majorly rusted in these areas. In some places through all the welded areas. Documenting each layer and joinery was a necessity.



The passenger side trunk wall all buttoned up since my last post.



The driver's side trunk wall is much worse.


The wheel well side has rust going up and around the torsion plate.


Cut out both layers. For some reason there are 4 holes in the middle portion of the side wall that were previously repaired by poring thick MIG material into them. Maybe the hood wouldn't open and someone tried to get in?


The rust continues rearward to the cockpit wall.


Installed with a combination of MIG and TIG.


The front of the panel was rusted out at its junction with the front upper closing panel so that was replaced also.




Now to work rearward.

[JTR70]

Nice job on replicating those layered areas John. I can appreciate all that went into both removing and cleaning all the old rust!
Its going to look factory under a fresh coat of rocker shootz; great job!
Justin

[John Pierce]

I tackled the rearward section of the trunk wall next, which was much worse than the front section.


The bent over flange held in dirt and water causing rust through every layer.


3 and in some places 4 layers of metal rusted through.


The trunk side showing the overlapping layers of metal that need to be replicated.


I saved as much good metal as possible.


I was able to save the floor flange to weld onto.


The first layer is the flange from the front longitudinal.


The factory made this in two overlapping parts in the frontward portion. My driver's side had the front overlapping on the outside of the rear portion and was reversed on the passenger's side.


The factory angles were replicated.


Outermost layer (trunk wall) butt welded and plug welded. Used the Lenco spot welder to simulate the factory welds.


Inner side all buttoned up. I sprayed weld thru primer on each layer to hopefully slow down any future rust.

Thanks for looking.

[Phil Planck]

Nice job John. That inner fender at front and rear is the thinnest metal I have found on Foamcar, close to 22 ga. A little trickier to weld for me.
Phil

[tperazzo]

Superb job John! It's amazing to me how rust decides to attack certain areas differently from car to car. For instance my windshield post was bad, but the area you just repaired is solid on my car. Maybe the hood seal failed on your car at some point???
Anyhow, Nice touch with the spot welds too.

[John Pierce]

Final section of lateral trunk wall repair! The back right corner, where the closing panels all come together, must be a place where water likes to sit as this was rusted through. I had previously cut out some of the front closing panels as they had rusted through so it made the repair a bit easier.



I tried to save as much original good metal as possible.


Rusted through where all the panels come together.


Front longitudinal flange repaired.


Complete!

Now onto the torsion bar plates, which are rusted through at their bottoms. I am not looking forward to this repair. On the upside...the metal is thicker (16 gauge) so welding should be easier.

Thanks for looking.

[JTR70]

Nice work John! This little stuff is very tedious isn't it? Keep the momentum going, its happening.

[John Pierce]

Before I install a new battery box I have to repair the bottom of the torsion bar plates. Both sides are rusted through and the anti-sway bar bolts are rusted tight and were previously snapped off.



Passenger side torsion bar plate.


The metal is so thin you can bend it with your hand.


Inner side with rusted in sway bar bolts.


The bottom cut off showing the open bottomed inner box. This will be media blasted and painted.


The driver's side wasn't as bad so I didn't need to remove as much metal. The inner box has been media blasted and looks much better.


My sway bar and hangers must have lived outdoors for a long time. Media blasting should salvage the hangers.


The extent of the rust and Bubba's previous repairs with lots of MIG whiskers.


Measuring up for a template.


I radiused a piece of mahogany on the upright drill press then cut a piece of 16 gauge CRS to size.


Pressed by hand with a piece of 1.25" galvanized pipe to get the exact contour.


Fits pretty well.


Bent with a 1/4" radius.


Cut to size with side flanges.



End cap welded on and radiused.

Thanks for looking.

[JTR70]

Really nice repair cap and great hammer form to create the arch John. Just an FYI because I'm sure Bubba left no trace of it; to the inside run of this cap was a nice stepped flange that the diagonal brace recessed fit up against before being seam welded to this cap. I might suggest making an extended width "secondary" floor with your hammer form to create this mount flange which would be sandwiched between your new cap and the eventual internal nut-plate. This wouldn't misalign anything and would only help to reinforce the cap. Anyway keep up the great work!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Hey Justin.

Thanks for the heads up. You are correct that most of the stepped flange was not present as Bubba had replaced the diagonal. I didn't know whether the remaining bit of flange came from left over original diagonal or the cap itself. My cap didn't have any extra metal sandwiched between the nut-plate and cap. Is the diagonal welded to this arch or is it just fitted to it? I don't know how much extra strength this may give.

Thanks.

John