1957 Sandblasted Coupe

[ukinusa]

Perfect ! Am going that route
Saves a lot of time and trouble and now I can measure & drill my holes for the reinforcement plate and set up the board mounts.
Ever on wards ...

[ukinusa]

Got the support plate holes for the pedal cluster drilled & their position established. Hit the same issue Justin had way back when on his project - the 'dimple' is slightly out of place.





As the floor panel is not fixed in, it was easily to flatten the area of the dimple that was intruding and then my using the floor support as a guide I reformed the dimple profile. It's slightly "ovoid" but I think that will be largely invisible. So much easier to tackle this before the floor is welded in. Again thanks Justin for sharing you pain before (pg 100) so I could avoid it here.





Once painted and under-sealed the paint damage and metal marks should be less apparent.

[JTR70]

Looks great Steve!

[Jack Staggs]

An alternative would be to re-locate the bolts on the boomerang to accommodate the round depression. I suppose that just moving the two wide spaced ones, and swiveling on the short one would get you there.

[ukinusa]

Thanks Jack....that would have worked nicely now you mention it - but I guess now that's for future readers to take note as I don't think I will go back.

EDIT:
During the 3am thinking session I realized if you rotated the bracket the bolts would no longer align with the pedal cluster mounting holes, unless you rotated that too the same amount ...BUT it's bolted to the front wall
So one might be able re-position the welded bolts on the plate somewhat and or, move or enlarge the mounting holes in the pedal cluster.

Given that amount of fiddling the above would entail, I think my approach works ....in this case; but always good to be given "food for thought" and questioned...!

[ukinusa]

Having got the floor mocked up I moved on to the tunnel.. took some trimming to match my rear wall and align with the metal marks left over from the old tunnel on the front supports... but got there
HOWEVER now I need some advice please:

1. Is the metal flange on the tunnel that goes under the pedal cluster meant to be cut away to allow the pedal cluster to sit 'square' on the floor ???


2. Everything needs to be massaged to fit of course, but lateral rib doesn't align with the tunnel stamping - not surprised. Do I just make it work ?


3. Is there sufficient adjustment with gear linkage to tolerate the tunnel being fore / or aft a bit too much / too little ?


4.Tabs to welded on ... I haven't placed my tabs yet for the heater control mount and gear shift plate - reason being I don't have their off set measurements relative to each other and within the tunnel oval itself...help needed please if you have easy access(Sorry for my picture - it's more confusing than I meant. Bottom line I need to able to place the tabs in the right place!!)



If question 3 is critical ??? I guess I can move the gear shift mount tabs slightly for or back to compensate ???

[356hunter]

Would be nice to get measurements for later 58/59 cars with shifter and heater switched so there would be reference to both versions.

Michael Foster

[Jack Staggs]

[quote="ukinusa" post=39727] I realized if you rotated the bracket the bolts would no longer align with the pedal cluster mounting holes, unless you rotated that too the same amount ...BUT it's bolted to the front wall
So one might be able re-position the welded bolts on the plate somewhat... [/quote



Yes re-position (or re-locate: my words) the bolts to a new POSITION/LOCATION ON THE BOOMERANG to accommodate the pedal assy. Then the stamping remains circular.
I recall a few decades ago, Tony Smetona and I were doing some cosmetic work on my "cousin Ricky's (a nod to Cheech and Chong) 1968 911S -later sold to Ruf- and we bought a left side qtr panel from the dealer, the ONLY source back then for new. When we went to Bill Yates VW PORSCHE, the young parts guy told me that we would have to purchase a later style door latch to fit to the slightly different location of the striker plate on the new door jamb. I stared at him incredulously and asked "If we have the ability to cut off the side of this car and fit a new panel, do you think that we will have any trouble relocating/repositioning (your term) the striker to fit the original latch mechanism???" BTW, that panel cost around $1500 circa 1980. A heady $um for a $7k car.

[JTR70]

Hope you were able to make sense of these photos Steve.

[ukinusa]

Yepp thanks.I also managed to pull some measurements off my friends speedster. However, being Pre-A, I first thought it wouldn't match, but it seems identical in layout (apart from clutch cable route of course).




I couldn't get the reverse switch plate dimensions and how far 'down' the large hole is...anyone ? Pic from Justins car blog...(hate to keep pestering him!)





My concern is the forward or backwards position of the tunnel when welded in; that directly impacts where the gear shift position would go if I worked off measurements JUST pulled from another tunnel. I needed something independent of the tunnel. So by measuring from the monkey motion vertical shaft to the back of the gear shift mounting plate - 92cm should give me fixed reference point to go off.

DISCLAIMER - like all things Porsche everything varies - these dimensions are for guidance only!

[ukinusa]

Bending and sizing etc ...very repetitive but slowly getting there.




Now if I can only make this tunnel fit over the pipes

[JTR70]

Hi Steve,

Your doing a beautiful job on the conduits. As for how far down the reverse light switch plate should be? Mock up your shifter with the tunnel rod then take your plate with switch mounted and just position it so the rod pushes square on the button as it reaches over for reverse. It just has to work correctly for you in the end. I never feel pestered; always happy to help.
Justin

BTW: nice work on that dimension and details shot too. I'm sure someone else down the road will find extremely useful.

[ukinusa]

So before I committed my self (yes that too) I decided I had to mock up the whole transmission in & on the tunnel, especially to give me peace of mind regarding the reverse light switch. I was also very concerned about the shift tube and its mating with the monkey motion at the rear.



The monkey motion and tube mates ok and I can move the gear shift around
I was also concerned about the shift rod catching/rubbing on the guts on the tunnel, however because the rod 'rises' as it goes forward, it seems to clear those too.



Now "in reverse" and rod pressing pretty much on the center of the switch; I had to trim the plate slightly on the top, to get it a little higher, but I feel it's there.





Opps deliberate mistake -heater control in backwards least it's not permanent !!!

Next is to dismantle everything and weld the floor in. A major step forward. Then add the tubing and verify everything again (and again x4 I suspect) . Slowly inching this job forward.

[ukinusa]

Can someone please confirm that the two places one welds a new floor to the side wall are as marked with yellow tape ? ie: where the panels over lap and at the bend/corner.



(Justin sent me a picture but hard to see... thanks Justin... but this post might help others later too...as well as me )

[John Pierce]

My build has pictures of this area done correctly as does Justin's. I don't remember the pages, but a quick search should find them