58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[roy mawbey]

Yes Mark, you would think without seeing all the work involved oh.. just a few pipes and some clamps!!!!

Well done Justin, I bet you were pleased indeed.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you George!!!

Hey Mark,

I hope you did not misunderstand me; I was not trying to discouraging you from building a oil cooler system I just wanted to warn you about what was in store if you did. What I did discourage was the purchase of that overpriced generically bent tubing that guy was offering you as copies of originals. It would have been a complete waste of money and you would have been better off starting with fresh tubing like I did. Unless its been fully mounted on a car and tested you really don't have anything other than crooked lengths of tubing. If you still want to build it I'll help any way I can. Thanks again!! Justin

Hello Roy,
Thank you!! "a few pipes and some clamps" Great point! That is exactly the story I am trying not to relay. I get concerned at times with detail of this post and weather its too in depth to stay interesting to the reader but I want to give an accurate story of what it actually took to build this car and the eventual finished product it will become. So if I stayed too vague and general it would be exactly that to most who read it; " two pipes and some clamps" Thanks for the confirmation!!! Justin

[JTR70]

Rear wheel house tube runners. "trail and error"


Here were my last two missing pieces to my fitting puzzle. After taking delivery of these 90 degree elbows I had all the hardware to now complete this system. Well up to engine compartment anyway.

Elbows go right onto these nickle plated straight bulk-head through fittings. Softlines will manifold right off these up to the thermostat and oil filter.


Now that both ends of this runner were set and fixed into position I could now fine tune this template to fit.

Template set here. I was now ready to build it with one of my last two remaining pieces of tubing. Could not make a mistake.

This soon proved extremely difficult to replicate from a single piece. Much harder than the fronts or anything before. The graceful curve is banking at an angle and compound curving at the end to meet the fitting. Its doing three things at once while also indexing correctly with the back two bends. Much more complex than it had or should be but I had to try. Pictured above are three trials just to get the template right.

I went as far as to make a buck to help me with the large swooping curve.

Slowly taking the shape...

So close!

I missed the mark!! Shit! Somehow through it all it ended up being short and rotated slightly out from the fitting. It could have been bent more here but I could already tell it wasn't going to make it. I had to order more tubing to finish this job!

After some long hard thought I decided to abandond this design and go higher and simplier. It was just too much trying to follow that tough shape of the lower chassis. Making one would be tough enough but then to make a second one and have it even and symetrical with its mate?? How many sections of tube would I have to burn to achieve that? A very tall order!!!!I had to let it go. I was a bit depressed for a while and I felt like I might of let it beat me but on further examination going to an easier design just made more sense and I realized it was just my pride hurting. Here was my first initial mock up and planning stage for the new line route. Also ordered more tubing. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[merbesfield]

The high route makes more sense plus it looks like what Porsche would have done as well. Don't worry you didn't talk me out of it doing what your doing, all I have to do is look at these pictures for that. There is no way I would ever attempt this, it would never get finished. I was only interested in those pipes if they were a bolt on deal, which you made me realize, was not the case. You saved me from wasting what little money I have. Thanks.

[gkw]

Justin,
We never get tired of your posts.
Great reading, keep up the good work.
I will try to shoot some pics of my T-1 soon, close to primer
on the bottom side. Thanks Gordon

[roy mawbey]

I agree with Gordon. Just think without a digital camera, the chance to load the pics on to a forum site it would be impossible to get your point across on these difficult jobs. Photo's and text make it look so easy which of course it isn't.

A super read so far.

Roy

[JTR70]

Hey Mark, Glad I could save you some money. You're right the lines now will more closely resemble how the factory routed them. It was the right choice looking back now.
Thanks Gordon, I am so glad to hear that!! Please, update us on your car! Looking forward to any progress shots you have.

Hi Roy, You're correct, it is the wonders of modern technology that our builds can be so highly photographed and displayed for anyone to see. The digital camera has made it all possible. I mean can you imagine the expense in both film and developing services to do all these pictures? This is exactly why my earlier stuff is so limited and vague with progress shots. I had to be selective. Thanks again for all the support Roy!
Justin


My main concern running the lines up high was of course tire clearance at the end of its suspension travel. I had to make double sure they were out of harms way of bottomed out wheel.

Here was my impossible worst case bottomed out wheel/tire resting right on the fender. As you can see by the wheel opening there is no possible way for the tire to ever get this high. The axle tube would be well into the chassis. I even rested it on the outer edge giving the wheel like about 20 degrees of camber. Completely off the chart and Physically impossible. however I planned the routing as if it could reach this high just so there would be no room for doubt.

I cut the mounting bases free and began planning the route with these short lengths. The little black line on that middle rib represents the top of the tire in that first photo above. With the tubes here the tire could just barley touch the lower tube run. They are in the clear here.

Here was my starting point; just a basic plan that I knew would at least stay clear of the wheel.

A few sessions spent figuring out where the bends would be etc. Like the all the rest it had to work but it also had to look good too.

Figuring out the angle and approach of the hard lines to fittings here.

After several sessions and lots of trial I finally had my first template.

Here we go! Building the final run out of a single piece. My last one until my second order arrived.

Upper runner bent, flared and fully mounted here.

With this one down I began building the lower template runner.

Lower template now complete. though there is a little twist in the center of the tubes as they follow the closing panel the rest lines up pretty well and even.

Rear view. Again the black line represents the top of that severely bottomed out tire. Everything should clear fine.

Bending this lower run up next. So close to being done! Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

My friend Bill (machinist) came through on my final custom clamp for this system. All Mounted up.

While on the "redo" of the rocker runner (page 35) I thought that it might be better to tie the two lines together over this very long unsupported run from the splash pan to diagonal brace. I had Bill make me one more clamp. The only difference was the alloy base of threaded for the bolt since it was an unmounted stand alone. Installed here.


There was some flex in the tubes so by tying them together it stiffened things up a bit better. Should also dampen a little of the harmonics out from road vibration prolonging potential fatigue cracks. At the very least this run feels more stable now. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Good idea Justin, when you think about it vibration is not something you need on those lines. A question,I see on your longitudinals there are 4 dimples with holes. Are these drain holes of some kind? Are they as original? As far as I am aware my longitudinals are original along with the jacking posts. But... in the 70's I strengthened the jacking points and cut out long sections of the longitudinals, inspected inside the sill with a torch and spray rustproofed. The insides side struts and the heater tubes were in good condition. After that I fabricated the repair patches and welded them in.

However, I never noted these holes on the scrap area's that you have. I did make continueous weld runs on the sills because I was worried about strength. I have seen so many comments about never using the jack into the jack posts on a 356 but mine has been up and down god knows how many times and seems fine. Lucky to you think....

Will you be happy like me to use yours? Often wondered about those statements.

Roy

[admin]

More excellent fabrication work, and it looks like Bill your machinist friend comes from the same school of thoughts as you . Everything works so well together. I haven't given any thought as to a front mounted oil cooler (as that's so far away) but if I do ,you have provided a great Tutorial on it. Thanks for posting such nice work.
Bruce

[JTR70]

Hi Roy,

The holes I added when I replaced the longitudinals. I got the idea from a 65 karman coupe which had perfect original longs. This car did not need a perimeter kit but the inner walls are pitted. Even though its not correct I thought it better to give any water that may find its way in there someplace to go. The first we opened them there was a water line about 3 inches high on both walls I figure they are not going to tolerate standing water in there again. As for the spurs I would absolutely lift the car with them with out a second thought. Thanks again!

Thank you Bruce! Yes, Bill is great! I just draw him exactly what I want and he brings it to life for me. What car are you working on Bruce? Thanks once again for the nice response posts you guys! I really appreciate it! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Good idea with those holes in thwe longs! I might well do something similar although it doesn't go out in the rain if I can help it.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! I'm with you; this car will see little if no rain at all but you never know and water always finds a way in. Justin


*** Oil Hardline Fabrication completed ***


After many months of trial and error, redo's, tube reordering, custom machined parts etc, etc, I can finally say that the fabrication phase of this oil line system is complete!! It was almost unbelievable tightening up the last fitting.

Once I had all the bends set and indexed with the model I put this new and final piece in for its first test fit. The extra time and care I took with it paid off because I could have not gotten it much closer. I'm down to trimming the excess tube length here.

rear section lined up just as well. Again more excess length to trim here.

A huge relief relief once I knew it was going to fit and that I could use it.


Using my test pieces again to determine the correct final length it needs to be before flaring the end. Only one shot to get that right!


With the correct preflared length established I chucked it up into my tube flaring die.


No way around it, With practical experience comes better and more consistent end results. I get a far better formed flare than I did several months ago. Wish I could go back knowing what I do now but there is no substitute for experience from your mistakes. I had few things working against me here; this is a standard 3/4 inch die on 18mm tubing. I had to develop a paper collar to take up the space so I could get it clamped in there securely. Then figure out how much of the tube end to choke up in the die. (with proper paper collar placement) That alone was alot of trial and error. Also later figured out to mount the die in the vice as a secondary clamping force. Finally got the result I wanted but had to make the journey first.
Getting late will finish this post tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Understand your comments exactly regarding flaring those pipes. The same applies to 'leading' just look at what you learn't by experience. I won't forget the 'drip guards' to stop it going on the floor. I kick myself now for not thinking about that solution so easy when you see it applied!!!

Nice final assembly.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! I am really glad to hear that some of this stuff may come in handy at some point. I agree no substitute for hands-on experience. Below is a picture of all the sacrificial pieces of tubing that it took to get here.



Here are all my mistakes,test fit model mock-ups, trimmings etc. that were required to get me to a finished oil system. Tons of educational value in there!


Everything lines up nice with a firm spring loaded fit.

All fittings fully connected and both tubes test mounted again. I could not be happier!

rear shot also fully mounted and hooked up. Both lines run as even as I could hope for.

In my quest to get the lines high enough to stay clear of the wheel the top runner gets a little close to the fender skin as it makes its turn downward. Heat transfer to the body might be a concern but I think it will be alright. we'll see Look at how many times I had to reposition that weld-on mount bracket The third time was the charm once again.

Another close call but the line does stay clear of the frame.

second view; plenty of room.

It was a very tricky game of averages on final shape of that last inside line. wanted the tubes to stay as even as possible, had to make slight turn to keep clear of the frame while all at the same time keeping the fittings parrallel for both appearance and tightening/loosening ability. This required alot of extra time and planning for this junction alone.

This one year detour is now finally about done. I have one more softline at the cooler to finish but the hardlines are out of the way! Now that this phase is complete this body is now finally ready to come down off the rotisserie! Finally!!! Thanks for stopping by! Justin