'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

Jack, good idea about cutting the center out of that VW part, but it is NLA.

After a lot of measuring I ended up making the piece from 24 gauge metal. The top is 20 mm wide to span the center cutout and transmission. The front and rear bends are 18 and 16 mm wide and hold the cable against the central pinion gear. Fun little project.

[Jack Staggs]

I like like it! I would try it!

[JTR70]

Great job building that Substructer John! I can appreciate all the time and detail work that went into making it. This all sounds very involved and quite the detour project especially considering your not starting from a complete S/R clip. I look forward to the development and final installation. If it doesn't turnout carve the hole in the roof bigger and make a Coupster out of it! Keep up the great work! Justin

[bbspdstr]

BTW, the thicker and thinner GRAY fuzzy seals are still available from any BMW dealer. I got that info from a kindly guru and parts mentor of many, many years, Brad Ripley, who also offered the BMW part numbers.....which are, at this time, on the bags containing the seals in the storage locker with the rest of the customer's parts....with spares x 2 for my own 356's sunroof...only as of yesterday! Sorry.

-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Thanks Bruce. I found the knurled nuts for the front panel through BMW also, as Porsche's are NLA. I've made or found all of the missing parts to my SR so now I've got a complete setup!! Lots of work, but it'll be well worth it.

It's going to be quite awhile before I get to the sunroof installation though as I was looking at the rear section of my car and it's worse than I originally thought. Lots of metal to be removed and replaced. Gotta love crappy Bubba work.

Next time you get to the storage locker could you grab those seal parts numbers?

JP

[bbspdstr]

BTW, I also added the sunroof for my Coupe from a clip. I used the clip for reference and the fastened inside parts and did the installation as Golde did by cutting the hole in the roof, not trying to cut off the old roof at the pillars and install the whole clip.

More difficult but a much better and stronger result.

The most difficult part of this whole exercise is going to be getting Porsche to retroactively add this option to my 356's Kardex.

-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Time for an update!

The front end on my car is mostly complete. (Big sigh of relief ) The middle section is a complete mess as are the rear torsion areas. So I thought I'd start on the rear and work forwards, which will have the benefit of restoring the rear frame members. This will help in that morass of welded metal pieces around the rear torsion bars.

A survey of the rear body skin showed the extent of previous rust.



Back up light area missing the right clip tines.



Left exhaust area. Lots of thinned and fractured metal. Same for the right side.



Left exhaust area inside view. The previous owner (Bubba) used just a bit of MIG welding to install the body support.



Right bumper bracket hole with thinned and missing metal. I thought it would be best to remove a larger area (back to good metal) and redrill the bracket hole.



Right rear fender with thinned and missing metal. I'll cut around the inner support wire to save the contour.



Drip rail eaten through. It was a tough job to clean out the previous Bondo and rust. I guess Bubba thought Bondo was as good as metal to make a repair. Looking pretty good here after a bit of work.



Drip rail repaired.



Template for the fender edge. I'll turn the edge over the inner wire with a hammer and dolly then cut off the excess after welding the flange.



Right side repaired. The bottom portion of the original weld seam had to be rewelded as it was also thinned out.



Back up light area repaired.



Left exhaust region repaired.



The rear is looking much better! Both exhaust regions and back up light.

Onto the rear frames and rear engine bay closing panel next. I was amazed what Bubba did in this region and will show it in the next update.....anticipation

Thanks for following.

[Jonesy_356]

Nice work John. Its these little bits that soak up time, but make the difference.

[roy mawbey]

Good photo's John !! Nice to see your progress. Its working well always nice to see the differences. Tell me does your T6 have the outrigger under the rear fender that is welded to the inner side? I have that on my T2 and established all the wet muck from he road seemed to collect in the open channel and behind the weld fixing.

A real rust trap which I had to rectify years ago.

Looking forward to your next instalment.

Roy

[Phil Planck]

John
Good progress. Been there - done that. I also had accident damage that took more time than anything else to repair. My engine compartment sheet metal was very rusty - lots of small patched needed here and there. Bruce advised removing the rear end panel to get access to the inner metal. Should have done it, but was not confident in my outer panel welding skills at that time. Good luck.

Phil

[Jack Staggs]

Nice work. It's sometimes more time consuming to do a small area than a larger job.
Phil, guys like Bruce have no fear. He'll be in Scotland before ye, and all of us, every time.

[JTR70]

Jack is right on, those little PIA patch repairs can definitely eat up the time quickly! Nice work as usual John! I'll bet you were relieved as hell to have those little nagging repairs in the done column.

[John Pierce]

Thanks Guys! The feedback is much appreciated.

I am still debating to remove the rear sheet metal as I've got to repair the inner closing panel. I'm going to see if I can repair it without going to that extreme as putting it back on would be a royal PIA! The rear outriggers aren't too bad, but will be fixed along with the rust rear frames.


JP

[Phil Planck]

John
I am not using a rotisserie(wish I had), but there is plenty of work room sitting on the floor or a stool inside the engine compartment. Might be easier than leaning over with the body upside down. I even cut out a fairly large good section of that inner panel so I could get a dolly in there to remove a major dent in the concave area at the side. Still have not welded it back in.

Phil

[John Pierce]

The rear of the car is slowly coming together. Less rust and fewer holes. A slow process to be sure.



Left rear thinned out.



Much better after some new metal and a hammer and dolly.



Now onto some of Bubba's more frightful repairs. This is the rear inner closing panel with not one, but two, 18 gauge patch panels welded on top of partially removed original metal.



This is the second panel after surgically finessing out the outer panel. I also ground down all the proud welds thinking that maybe I could save everything and save me some time and effort. Then I thought better of it and didn't want to cut corners at this point.



This is the backside of the welds. Some of the original metal was cut out and the remaining was never cut back far enough to remove the rust. The new metal was just welded on top. So frustrating. After seeing this there was no question of the need to remove it all.



The lock area was rusted through and 3 bolts were broken off inside the weld nuts. Easier to remove and replace.



The offending metal has been removed and the inaccessible areas have been media blasted. I know that Trevor's Hammer works makes a whole replacement section, but it costs $1,000 and I can save what's left.....in an area that is covered up by the engine bay sound deadener. An easy decision.



Replacement panels made in 4 sections. The larger panel has been TIG'ed together to make one replacement. I need to spot weld the electrical retaining clips on the backside and will probably spot weld the crossbeam before fitting, as I won't be able to spot weld it afterwards due to access issues.



The new lock post welded in position.

I've got to repair the rear portions of each frame member first, before installing the lower section of the rear closing panel, as they are rusted out also. One step at a time.....

Thanks for following.