New Project '60 356b S90 t5

[roy mawbey]

Well to find that and bring it home in your luggage is amazing no other word for it. Its very odd when find out something about your car that you thought impossible. The underneath looks so much like many 356 cars I looked at here in the UK in the 60's. You have the right approach to attempting the work,the spit will prove so useful. In the early 70's I dug a pit in my garage and had extension hoses for my gas welding kit. It made it easier but did it tire me out sometimes, trying to reach things. I attach a photo



Only half the length pit is shown so many had pits in the garage the first rotissories were I guess not made up till the 80's ?

Roy

[Carrera GT]

Hello Drew .. or others that may know about this.

I'm inquiring about the wrong demension in one of the drawings as noted below.

Can you please identify what that demension should be?

Also, can it be confirmed if the doors are able to be opened when attached to this unit.

My email address is also shown below.

Thank you.

Michael Doyle

md4mdoyle@yahoo.com




[quote="Drew.s" post=34076]Hi Mark
Welcome to the world of 356 rustoration, great to see another UK guy here, I am in Surrey, pop in if your ever down this way.

Just a word of warning, I have built an 'Emory' rottisserie and there is a wrong dimension on one of the drawings,

>> so if you are about to build one ask and I will confirm which one it is <<

[John Pierce]

Hi,

The doors can only be opened several inches with the rotisseries sides installed. I take the sides off to allow the door full range of motion. The rotisserie remains very stable with one side off. Here's my rotisserie build:

http://www.abcgt.com/forum/14-356-Restoration-Projects/14008-63-356B-T-6-Rebuild.html?limit=6&start=54





I'll send you a .pdf of the plans with a materials list.

Good luck on your rotisserie. They're wonderful.

Cheers,

John

[Drew.s]

Hi Michael

The one dimension i found wrong was on the front hoop.
On the original drawings they state 14" for the uprights that attach to the sway way bar mountings, the measurement should be 16".
Hope your build goes well.
Regards
Drew

[ukinusa]

Without turning this into a "Brit Fest" ... I built a similar rotisserie and my welding skills then were a little 'rough'. I made the mistake of tidying up some of the joints with a grinder as I wanted to make the welds look a little tidier ! One day wile standing on a piece it gave way and it failed - not commenting on your skills of course - just a cautionary tale.
Steve

[Carrera GT]

Thanks to John, Drew, and Steve for their comments. Appreciated.

Michael Doyle

[ukinusa]

One final comment ... if you're working in a confined space, the hexagonal rotisserie is PITA to turn; I can do it but I have to slide it over the concrete floor to re-position before each rotation.(made a mess of that concrete for sure).
Also when the car is 180' upside down, is is nigh impossible for one person to right it (turtle style) due to the center of gravity being so low.
If you have space go for it ! Otherwise I would seriously consider the "Spit" style or maybe the round hoop. I wish I had.



Tight fit.

[jim]

Would it be possible to get a copy of your rotisserie plans. I built an engine stand type about 20 years ago, it has square tubing running the full length with attachments at the torsion areas. Heavy, and you have to raise the car very high, scary. Would certainly be willing to pay for a copy. thanks

[JTR70]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for joining us here and welcome. Take a look here and see what John built for his project: http://www.abcgt.com/forum/14-356-Restoration-Projects/14008-63-356B-T-6-Rebuild.html?limit=6&start=54
You can contact him direct as his email is posted. He's a great guy and I'm sure will share any dimensions you might need for your build. Best of luck with it!

Justin

[northernbigbird]

Hello All. So im getting back to this finally! been a fair amout of time away and in the meantime I have bought a running 64 SC! but thats another story to be started again! Someone did warn me that they are like a disease, once you have one they can multiply!

Im planning on moving my shell from storage to my workshop as given the current situation have some time on my hands and want to get stuck into the car!

Can anyone tell me the rough weight of an empty shell..... no running gear, glass etc? Im rigging up a dolly to wheel it into my van and move it! Out of interest really.

Also is there a logical order to how first attack things on the shell? I would really like to keep as much original metal as possible and wonder if possible I can keep my floor pan and patch the edges neatly? what are peoples thoughts? Attached a few pics here to show.

thx

[Drew.s]

Hi Mark
Good to hear you're back on it and like all of us we now have more time on our hands than we wanted.
A bare body minus the bondo and sound deadening material is pretty light and easy to push around with two people.
As for a logical order for restoration it all depends on what you want to end up with.
In my experience a 'partial restoration', 'keeping as much original metal as possible' usually ends up with a full bare metal restoration.
Take it from me (a guy who has done this many times over the years) bite the bullet, find an expert blaster (John at MJK blasting in Charlwood, Surrey) strip everything out and blast it.
And when I say strip it I mean everything, front torsion bar needle bearings, rear torsion bars and plug every hole.
You will have a clean and holey starting point, you can then make a plan.
First up check the chassis for straitness, fabricate a jig or measure very carefully, if it all lines up then start bracing cutting and welding in new metal.
I'm here in Surrey if you want to see what I'm talking about but you may have to wait a couple of months till this virus has calmed down before heading out.
Good luck with your resto and keep safe.
Regards
Drew
Surrey, United Kingdom

[Scott B]

I used a set of basic swivel dollies from the local hardware store and welded to a u channel that can then slide off and on the rotisserie- just held in place with vice grips for when it is in the air. I think these small ones can hold 500lbs more than enough strength when spread around.

[roy mawbey]

Mark pleased you are getting back to it. My floors are about 95 % original. I did have to weld in some small patches in the mid 70's. If the area's you have to weld to are okay then it should work out for you. I remember very well scrapping every square inch of the factory under seal off it took ages. Then the welding then the 2 coats of zinc paint then hammerite black then the underseal. Still looks fine today.

Roy

[northernbigbird]

Hello All
Thanks for the replies. Good progress over the past few weeks which has been great! I managed single handedly to get the car from storage onto the back of my Luton box van and into my workshop to commence works! It was a fun few days, a worthy challenge that was satisfying when it was in the workshop!

Ive managed to strip off all the factory sound deadening /tar stuff which im sure you will know is a horrible job, Also the pulling of the wiring loom from the centre tunnel was a fun job solo! I purchased as small pressurised shot blaster and have blasted the majority of the front inner wing areas and the trunk compartment in the front so i can see whats going on in there. Its likely that I will get the car done by someone eventually but for the moment this is fine. The blaster is good, its just my compressor that has given up the ghost....awating a new thermal cut out switch as its finally dead after a long drawn out problematic period!

The car has rust....confirmed! but ive had the welder out and managed to chop out small section below the fuel tank and start my repairs, this area wasnt in too bad'er shape so i decided instead of a new panel it was worth spending time to save the one that is in. Im happy with the results and just a few bits need cleaning up with some new die grinder bits when they arrive. I pulled the remnants of the old battery box out and the panel in front of that was all mangled up from a crunch at some point, so have chopped a section out to replace that but the new panel is miles off, so its a case of cutting and re welding to make everything fit correctly as per the original. Im torn on the nose as whether it need a complete replacement or I can get away with localised repairs. Both headlight surrounds are shot, the areas between the horn grille and lower opening are also shot and the nost has a fair amout of filler in it so im kinda thinking a new front end unfortunately.

Im slowly working my way backwards after that looking at the rear wing areas and closing panels. Also the bonnet/hood kink as well as I got a repair section for that which looks like it will work.

Slowly slowly!

[northernbigbird]

More pics