BT5 resto

[Jonesy_356]

Final elements of battery box in final fit up before I start trimming the floor up. I have bought a RD floor, but as Justin noted in his thread, the replacement pieces do not have the correct stamping, so like him I ensured the originals remained. I have a badly mangled front closing piece, which I am going to try to patch. Again I want to save as much factory metal as possible. My current thought is to cut inside of the factory dart-fold, in order to leave that as it is. This will mean bashing the remaining metal into a flatfish shape and making a patch to suit.

Any thoughts/tips/experience on this piece? I am not sure how straight/horizontal it is meant to be.











cheers, Jonesy

[roy mawbey]

Jonesy,

I am not quite sure what you meant about the horizontal factor? If its all do to with the battery box floor maybe a few pics of my still factory battery box might help? Mine is a 59 T2 but probably tghe same as yopur 1960? T5.

I do seem to remember the pressing of the floor area with the formed rib in front of where the battery goes was not correct on Justins part? Maybe I am wrong there?

Anyway below the pics,

The first one shows the rib with the battery box cover that fits against that and the battery wall. There is not a great deal of clearance maybe on purpose by the factory to stop movement.




The second photo looks neater these days shows the front closing panel towards the nose.



The third pic shows the battery installed.



The last photo shows the underneath of the box area.




Roy

[Jonesy_356]

Ah, Roy! Many many thanks! I see it all now, I will replicate this as best I can. It was mostly the area where the front of the battery box floor and the circled closing panel join that I wasn't sure of. These photos make it very clear how the factory did it. Great. Will post the results.

Jonesy

[JTR70]

Good work Jonesy! Yes, save as much as the original metal with the embossment details as you can!

[JTR70]

Hey Jonesy,
I can across these shots of an original NOS Battery box for T5. the forward closing panel is a bit more crude and overlapped unlike Roy's earlier A-version but this is how it was done.







Hope these help.
Justin

[Jonesy_356]

Mate,

this is GOLD! You're right, the T5 is far more basic than the T1. I have been looking for some evidence of those nice gentle curves in the forward wings of the floor panel on mine, but concluded that it was either too mangled or had been repaired, perhaps incorrectly.

Neither of those two options made sense as it appears to be 'factory' But I can clearly see what is going on now, many thanks!

This will make the repair much simpler, as the front closing panel appears from the photos to be three straight planes, not much of a curve.

Thanks again,

regards, Jonesy

[Jack Staggs]

Jonesy, the T5 trunk area where the battery fits is a bit different than T1 or 2. In my experience, the T5 is just a bit wider, and more square. An Optima 6v battery fits standing up on T5, where on earlier cars the Optima has to be mounted sideways. They seem to taper down to the rear appox 1/4".

[roy mawbey]

Jonesy,

You can see nothing 356 wise can be taken for granted. Although I mentioned that probably the T2 and T5 were the same battery box wise, the front closing is different. I didn't mean to confuse but great of Jack and Justin to mention the facts and put those photo's on.

Again, this site is so helpful.

Roy

[Jonesy_356]

Jack, many thanks for your clarification. I am starting to see where I need to go, which is simpler than envisaged (thankfully).

Roy - it's great learning about the intricate details of the T5 as they seem to be a breed apart, although they produced in significant numbers.

Thanks all for your help on this one - more to follow I am sure!

Jonesy

[Jonesy_356]

Getting to the final stages of trim-up of the repairs for the battery box perimeter.





Also mucking around with the replacements for the rusted-out longitudinal reinforcement panels. Still trying to work out the best way to get the flange on the curved section.




Some nastiness found on the rocker panel (sigh) oh well...




Also on the guard rear flange. This is the side where I will have to replace the entire wheel well/house closing panel. Looks like there will be a bit of work on the rear of the guard to make it all work. Lucky I have some great folks who have shared their adventures in the area!

[JTR70]

The dreaded double skinned rocker. I sympathize with you on grinding out and removing all those booger welded patches to that inner fender flange It would have been so much nicer and a lot less work if they would have simply left the rust alone!
You're making good progress Jonesy, Keep at it!

Justin

[Phil Planck]

Ouch!

Phil

[bbspdstr]

Remember the fad in the Registry when being a 'curmudgeon' was cool? Well, I still am one and my long-suffering wife is trying to get me to look at things more positively.

So, with that in mind, I will say that the unknowns who did the work illustrated on Jonesy's 356 were 'trying to keep another 356 on the road' and now, 'someone else is doing it over again with much, even better, work'.

Seriously, that kind of work is NEW business to anyone? I've got to find some pictures to scan from the '70s.....like the Coupe that was torqued like a potato chip from the home-done brazing of a heavy 11 ga. plain-sheet floor where he began at one corner and just kept brazing around to the opposite corner and back around to where he started, jacked up unevenly...the Cab door made to fit a Roadster and the crashed quarter of the car fitted with protruding sheet metal screws to anchor no less than 2" of bondo, sculpted to made the door look sorta like it belonged...the fender patch made of an aluminum cookie sheet from the guy's Mama, "Everware"(?)or "Magic Chef"(?), "11x14" bent over a knee or a tree, 2.5 pop rivets and muck holding it on so a huge amount of 'mud' (aka, bondo) could be slathered over it all inside and out as a sandwich, etc, etc.
The saying "It ain't a parts car, it's a restoration candidate" began longer ago than we'd like to think.

[JTR70]

That's one thing that no longer exists in nature Bruce.. A 356 "parts car".

[Jonesy_356]

If we've gone from that to the kind of work I see and aspire to on this website, imagine how nice the future generation/s of restorers will treat our current projects? The bloody things will be gold plated and never driven.