The Swiss Miss ('64 C #126687)

[Jack Staggs]

So, while the amusement of the regular drama in the 356 world makes some of us chuckle, as noted above, we can deal with it if we don't take 356s, clubs, websites, magazines or ourselves too seriously. Otherwise, the best film director analogous to the current 356 world may well be Felini.

That's good, Bruce. I was thinking perhaps the Coen brothers.

[bbspdstr]

So, while the amusement of the regular drama in the 356 world makes some of us chuckle, as noted above, we can deal with it if we don't take 356s, clubs, websites, magazines or ourselves too seriously. Otherwise, the best film director analogous to the current 356 world may well be Felini.

That's good, Bruce. I was thinking perhaps the Coen brothers.

OK, so a wood chipper has come to mind on several occasions......but Felini and the Coen Bros just have/had different takes on what f'd-up is in this world. I had to laugh when I turned on the TV a week ago or so and 'Pulp Fiction' was already running and I came in on; "You're right...that IS a tasty burger!" 'Funny' is where you find it...or where it finds you, so we may as well add Tarantino to the list.

We are way off topic, sorry David!

[DG58INNM]

"We are way off topic, sorry David! "

No problem Bruce (and Jack). All good conversation. I really wish I could convey the image of this gorgeous young woman following this old grey haired guy around, mocking/heckling/criticizing every step he took. Her shrill voice in stark contrast to her beauty. The sad resigned look in his eyes. He had created his own living hell, born out of his own selfish weakness. And he knew it! Tragicomedy!

Though I'm only 51, my wife thinks I'm a curmudgeon. She's probably right. I think what has her most concerned is my casual wardrobe. The last few years its been leaning increasingly towards coveralls. Blue short sleeved Dickies in summer. Tan arctic grade Carhartt in winter. Stylish comfort!

[Phil Planck]

Oh the side stories. Not 356, but when I bought my 53 XK120 DHC in 1970 it was missing the gas tank - nothing else. I asked seller where it was and he said it blew up trying to repair it. Found an add in the Detroit News for Jag parts and called the guy about a tank. Yep, he had one. They were unique to the coupe and DHC. Roadster tank had different filler location. So I go to this guys farm with lots of old Jags in the field and find the tank. Brought it into his poll barn where the nicer stuff was to pay him(I think it was $10) and in walks an old geezer(like I am now) with a baseball or softball uniform on and accuses the Jag guy of having and affair with his wife. I have yet to pay when a knock down drag down fight ensues. The Jag guys son comes out to see what the commotion is and the Jag guy tells the son to go in the house and get his shotgun. Meanwhile he is slamming the old geezers head on the concrete floor. I tossed a $10 bill on the floor and hightailed it to my wife's 64 Sport Fury, which was now blocked by the old geezers car. Found a way around and headed home. Never saw anything in the news, so assume the old geezer cried uncle or something. That tank was in the car when I finally sold it 2 years ago.
Phil

[JTR70]

Bruce, If you are comparing hanging out here to a summer camp then you made my day! Having fun is the main mission here, thanks for the confirmation!

Thanks a lot David, you guys have set the bar pretty high so I constantly have to up my game to try and keep up!
Thanks again you guys its my pleasure to have you here!
Justin

[DG58INNM]

Well, it's been way too long since I posted an update. Unfortunately there has not been much progress the past few months. Lots of reasons. First I got sidetracked on the '72 911 project for my friend Carlos. Then we ran into some health issues with my wife. Then 6 weeks ago my trusty 20 year old air compressor died. Then the weather turned cold, and its not very inviting to go out to the shop in the evenings when I get home from work. I know, excuses, excuses!

But I did get a few things done over the holidays. Got the new compressor in and running (and its a big bast***!). Ran overhead lines and put several retractable hose reels in the rafters, so no more tripping over hoses! It was too cold to spray paint and undercoat (next step for the '72), so I spent some time with the Swiss Miss.

The front hood was a real mess. A T6B hood on a C car. Rusted, brazed, rusted some more, and 1"+ bondo over the majority of it. Damn thing weighed so much I could barely lift it! Anyway, last summer I stripped the bondo out and de-skinned it. Bought repair pieces for the front frame (C style) and outer skin. Had just started in on it when I got involved in the 911 project. Now back to it at last.

Figuring I needed it securely mounted, the first step was to rebuild the very worn, wobbly, and unpredictable hood hinges. Bought repair kits (more on this at the end).


Here's the first problem. The part in the center is what came with the kit for the ratchet and star wheel hubs. The part on the left is the original hub for the ratchet. Since the hole in the hinge body has the diameter of the intermediate shoulder, the hub must be as original. The part on the right is a new hub I had turned by a local machinist.


Here are the parts laid out for installation. I was able to use the hub from the kit for the star wheel. Used the two original spring washers on both sides of the ratchet, and two of the kit washers on either side of the star wheel. While not original, this produced a good combination of assembled thickness and was the best arrangement considering the star wheel hub difference.


A tie rod fork was useful to wedge the body open to install the parts. I had earlier bead blasted and straightened the hinge body. Its quite springy, and closes back up when the fork is pulled out.


Parts assembled. You can see the extra shoulder on the ratchet hub in the hinge body, showing why the kit parts could not work here.


To hold the outer washers in place, with the right amount of compression on the hinge body (tight, but not so tight the ratchet and starwheel wouldn't move) I set a crescent wrench to the correct opening to serve as a clamp. Male air tool fittings had a nice sloped shoulder to flare the ends of the hubs and lock everything in place.


The finished hinges. Ready for paint and installation. They are so much nicer now. No more wobble and the action is precise every time.

But a few words about those repair kits. I picked these because they appeared to have the C style ratchet shape, and came with new hood mounting hardware. Right off I encountered the problem with the incorrect hub for the ratchet (the hole in the ratchet also had to be bored to match the new hubs I had turned. So in addition to the cost of the kits ($80 each), I was out $100 for the machinist. Then when I went to bolt the hood on, I realized the new nuts bolts were incorrect. 13mm atf, instead of the correct 14mm, and the bolts are shorter than original. The flat washers are too small od. All the hardware is very soft and poor quality (Chinese, I'm sure). Quite disappointed. I don't know if other suppliers have better stuff, but I can tell you don't waste your money on these kits from Sierra Madre.

Thanks,
DG

[DG58INNM]

Now on to the hood itself.


Here's the remains of the outer skin. I had cut away all the complte swiss cheese from the front, and blasted it. A tremendous amount of rust inside the seam, which I suspect is true for all our cars. Having done this now, I'd be tempted to de-skin every hood I meet. Its not a terribly difficult task, and there would be no other way to address all that rust.



One of the corners cleaned. Did more blasting and metal treatment to get it all really spotless, and the same for the frame itself.


This is up at the front, where it started to get really bad, but this got cut away before it was re-installed. Having the skin off allowed me to get in and work the dents out along the edge of the skin, where normally the frame prevents you from getting a dolly to it.


Starting to re-attach the skin to the frame, after spraying weld-thru coating on the areas which would be inaccessible in the future. I started at the rear edge, and worked outwards to the rear corners in equal increments.


I worked about 8" at a time. Found that the skin wanted to flatten out, so kept it supported along the edges as I worked (a nearly hood sized cardboard box) and made sure that the flange nested up tight against the edge of the inner frame, then I would hold with a small clamp and hammer over a few more inches. I also put several spot welds (about 4 along each edge as I went, compared to 1 on each side from the factory) to make sure everything stayed put.


Coming along. But now you can see it is missing the front part of the skin. And you can also see the front frame repair. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the frame repair portion. I did it twice! The part was not the right contour (shades of Justin's cowl!) so after welding it I found the hood frame was too wide at the nose. What followed was a lengthy heat/beat process to tighten up the curvature at the corners, and get it to at least a passably good fit. Nothing is ever easy. As Bruce noted, one needs to be rather specialized for these cars. Knowing what I know now, I could do the repair in half the time, and be twice as good. But being an amateur hobbyist, this is probably (hopefully?) the only time I will ever make such a repair.


One more shot. Looking OK, by my standards.

Thanks,
DG

[DG58INNM]

Now to repair that missing front part of the outer skin.


I fitted the hood, and got it nicely aligned at the rear and along the drivers side fender edge. The passenger side fender is not attached, so that can be aligned later. Tack welded a couple little tabs to hold the hood in approximately its resting position, and then trimmed and adjusted the new inner frame piece around the nose.



Test fit the new skin.


Then decided for trimming it made more sense to insert it under the existing skin, which required nothing the edges in about an inch.


Cut and tacked. I ground the tack welds, so I could hammer and dolly the joint a little before making the long weld. Made me nervous to make such a long seam in such a prominently visible location!


Welding done. Some warping, but it will be OK after clean up I think.


Ground, and some initial hammer/dolly work. Needs some more finishing yet, but the car has a reasonably well fitting hood now, for the first time since who knows when. Didn't come out perfect. But its OK. I can live with it. I did wound up with a bit of a "sneer" at the front lip. I think I can work this down a bit, and at the moment there is no lead whatsoever on the nose, so if I need to close up the gap a little with lead, there is room to work.

I feel better now, having made a little progress.

Thanks,
DG

[Phil Planck]

Nice work DG. Glad you were able to get back at it and give us an update. Your hinge repair photos will be a good reference.

Phil

[John Pierce]

David,

Really nice work on the hood. I like your comment about it having a sneer: kinda like Billy Idol Makes it unique. That long weld turned out quite nice.

I bought a hinge repair kit from Stoddard, but haven't had a chance to install it on my B T-6. I hope I don't run into the issues you had with the SM kit.


JP

[Jack Staggs]

Nice job! It reminds me of a similar experience. A few decades ago, I had a pretty decent C coupe that was made from the front of one car, and the rear from another, but the hood nose was badly rusted. I tried to fit another hood, but it was not even close. One weekend I was out at the Pomona swap meet and bought a hood for $35 that had a perfect nose, but the rear part was wasted. I carefully trimmed the noses off of both hoods and butt welded the new nose to the rear of the existing hood together. The upside of this is that I was able to position the two parts together to make a really good fit, requiring no work to the body.
Again, well done!

[bbspdstr]

Current story about hoods/bonnets/lids; Rick Mullin, a local coachbuilder par excellence called me about getting a skin for an early Speedster he has been commissioned to do.

I looked at the hood he was going to reskin and asked to have that, as it was better than I usually see on 356s that come to me....but on;

I referred him to Restoration Design, he bought one of their pressings and loves it. That's something - coming from a man who could easily make his own.

Of course, he feels he must still do some tweaking...but not much. When we discussed this yesterday, we agreed that when there is so much to do and a backlog in our shops, the 'best for the least' is in the interest of both the restorer and the client.

Here's a link to Rick's shop and the Speedster project:
http://richardmullincoachbuilding.com/projects/

-Bruce

[DG58INNM]

Thanks Phil. I appreciate the encouragement. How's Foam Car doing through the cold northern winter?

Thanks John. I like the Billy Idol reference. Yes, that's exactly the sneer. Nice day for a white wedding for the Swiss Miss? No, I think just a BFH!

Thanks Jack. Good story. I would have liked to see that hood made from two. Bet it looked like new. And $35 bucks for a hood? Now people want four figures for a rusty cratered POS. The good old days. Way, way back, when I was a young pup sweeping the floors at the local Porsche shop, I watched the owner make one 914 from two. Front of a yellow car, mated to the back of an orange car. Right through the middle of the passenger compartment. I thought it was impossible. But man that guy was a talented welder! Always wished I had his skills.

Thanks Bruce. I always enjoy you stories and sage advice. The link is awesome. Enjoyed looking at that fellow's photos.

Off to Zia 356 breakfast this morning. Then I think I will get another afternoon working on the Swiss Miss.

Take care,
DG

[Phil Planck]

Bruce
Thanks for the ref. to Rick's site. Nice fixtures. I like that tall stump. Twice as tall as mine. Need to find another support stump to raise mine up.

John
Foam Car has sorta been sitting waiting. I did get the starter back together yesterday with new, custom, oilite bushings. Took 2 months for local machine shop to turn them(not much gets done up here during hunting season). I have it installed on the transaxle ready to test before painting it.

Phil

[bbspdstr]

An addendum: please read and view all of Rick's site if you have an interest in quality work. He likes to teach and the site makes that obvious. He explains the tools he uses and what capabilities they have.

I would like to retire and apprentice to Rick...but I'd likely hold him back! Meanwhile, I gave Rick this site's address yesterday, especially for Justin's C2S thread and the latest cowl challenges. He is going through this himself with another vendor's repro dash and various other parts others have made and he has hoped would be to the fit and quality he expects. (The rest of us wind up using a smidge of Bondo here and there, unfortunately.)

-Bruce