'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[John Pierce]

Merry Christmas!

Damn, you've got some good eyes Justin. Yup. PVC pipe wrapped with aluminum foil. Isn't that an OEM fix up to today's standards?!!

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

John

[bbspdstr]

http://www.bbakerent.com/img/cars/exhaust.jpg

Things found when beginning a restoration. A tuna fish can, produce department twist-tie and muffler wrap in a '60 Cab belonging to my very first customer. This functioning malady was unknown when I began servicing this car in '71, but the full resto wasn't done until '84.

A whole lot of holes drilled in Schedule 40, wrapped in carpet underlayment and then aluminum foil WOULD work for the 'muffling' design if the too-expensive-to-remain-unseen part from Porsche is rejected.

I've known guys who have adapted "Cherry Bomb" mufflers to that end...

-Bruce

[John Pierce]

Finally back at it. A slow process of cutting out the old bad, making new pieces, welding and grinding. But it's getting there.




Area that needs a bit of TLC.



The wheel well sheet metal was cut back to more viable tissue Both the inner and outer frames in this region were a mess especially with the previous repairs and needed to be cut back.



New 18 gauge inner and 16 gauge outer frame members/flanges were made and welded in place.



Wheel well metal closing up the gaps.

Now to continue into the more forward cavity. I'll end up replacing the 20 gauge metal that I put in previously with more appropriate 16 gauge. Not a lot of room to work in so it should be an interesting project.


John

[John Pierce]

Another productive weekend.



The torsion tube and the hard to get to undersides were primered and top coated as I'd never reach these areas after the seat was installed.



Likewise the bottom of the seat was painted. I added the flanges now to make my life easier.



The underside is looking so much better.



The rear of the car is pretty much restored at this point (ignoring the sheet metal ).

Thanks for following.

John

[Phil Planck]

Great milestone you have reached John. Congrats. Wish I was making as speedy progress as you. As always, looks great..

Phil

[JTR70]

Yes, a big congratulations to you John! You've been though so much with the back end of this car but it really looks fantastic! Keep it coming, you're winning!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Onto the left middle longitudinal. As was expected....lots of previous repairs to dig through before finding any original landmarks.



Cutting away found foam piping insulation wrapped in tin foil. No idea what they were thinking here



Solid heater tube underneath the insulation. No heater muffler to be found.



Most of the bad removed and measurements taken. The front heater tube assembly was rusted through as was the floor in the A pillar.



Took out the remaining outer frame forward of the rear closing panel and replaced it with 16 gauge. I welded it to the heater tube for additional strength.

Now to build a new middle longitudinal.

Thanks for following.

[JTR70]

Alright John, we're ready for the sequel. Keep it up!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Got some quality car time Lots of hours building the driver's longitudinal.



Longitudinal fitted to size. The A-pillar floor was rusted out so I continued the longitudinal into this area. Now ready for the heater tube bulkheads and hat clamp bracket.



Parts to make the front heater tube assembly. The original on the top was pretty thinned and rusted out. You can see where Bubba welded in the new center section then slathered some rubber goop all around to stop any leaks.



With the innards spot welded in place the longitudinal got some strength to it.



Floor duct concavity formed. The opening for the heater tube into the A-pillar next.



Front heater tube assembly coming along nicely.



Front all welded up.



It's pretty cool to see how this all fits together. The Porsche engineers did a pretty cool job.



Ready for a bit more fitment then onto installation!

Thanks for following.

[Phil Planck]

Looks great John. You make it look like smooth sailing, but we know it's not.
Phil

[gkw]

Nice job John, keep up the good work
Gordon

[John Pierce]

Time to complete this puppy.



Everything measured twice, thrice..... and level. First few tack welds placed.



Welded all up. The rear flange will need some work as the angles were off below the torsion area. Nothing that a little cutting won't fix.



Template for the "V" covering plate.



Spot welded in place.



This is what Bubba gave me to start with.



Looking so much better!

Thanks for following.

[Jonesy_356]

John,

great work as always. That's a big chunk of work just there. It looks very 'factory'. I find your standard of work a bench-mark that inspires me to do (or at least try to do!) better. Thanks very much for sharing this!

Jonesy

[roy mawbey]

John,

Looked through the longitudinal repair sequence and the heater tubes. You have done some super work there.Really appreciate the effort to do that, as said you make it look easy just like Justin does also.

Well done indeed.

Roy

[John Pierce]

Thanks Guys for the compliments!

The joining of the rear portion of the middle longitudinal to the inner and outer rear frames needed some TLC to get correct.



The upper half of the 16 gauge outer frame was cut back to remove all the previous rusted metal.



A template and repair patch were made.



Then welded in place to mimic the original joinery.



The rear heater duct was replaced with new correctly sized tubing and welded in place.



The bottom flanged area of the outer frame was cut out and a replacement piece installed to give the correct angle from the torsion area to meet the middle longitudinal.

As you can see in the earlier pictures, the convex portion of the inner frame where it joins the middle longitudinal needs to be cut out and a new piece made and installed. I may do it in sections as the concavity is pretty deep with some pretty good 90 degree bends near it.

Thanks for following.

John