58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! I am so glad to hear that you find any of this useful. Justin

Getting really close to finishing this hood area.1/28/13

With all the gap shaping finally done I removed the hood "Again" and got this area ready for primer.

extra care taken here to thoroughly wash and wet sand this area of all tinning acids and contaminents.

Ready for its first coat of epoxy.

Initial sealer coat. Tons divots and short comings in the leadwork but it will only need a thin swatch.

Obvious flaws filled and shaped here.

Primered again

light tracer coat just to see whats doing; its close. Time to reinstall the seal and hood and wrap this up!
Sorry if this is too detailed on this one area but if by some miracle you see this car done at a 356 event (fingers crossed) you'll know all the hours and effort it took to get it into finished form. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[merbesfield]

Us P car geeks appreciate the details so we learn from reading your experiences.

[roy mawbey]

Mark is correct, its all appreciated and should be studied by anyone thinking of getting involved on this type of work. It could save them weeks of work getting it wrong.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks you guys, nice to hear that! Justin

Round 2 1/30/13

Seal and hood reinstalled. This is so close to finished...

You're right Roy, the base seal can make or break you depending on its thickness and fitment. Without the seal installed I had a good 2mm+ drop in elevation on this corner from the hood to the cowl. With the seal in everything is nice and level.

Like the doors before; Blocksanding them together for a smooth transition.

High in a few places and a touch low in others. the cowl is just going to need another thin swatch to make it perfect. The red spot on the middle edge of the hood is where I tapped it out earlier. Lines up reall nice now with no filler needed. Continuing on tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

I think you are doing this just to make me ' gap jealous ' I don't think you could ever get that any better.

Super!

Roy

[JR]

Justin and Roy,
You guys make me envious with your talents in these areas.
Thank goodness I found a shop that did a nice Street Concours IMHO on the Roadster for me.
I was down there this afternoon and heard and saw a new rebuilt 911 engine get fired up for the first time in a 1970 car. It had a set of PMO carbs on it plus a MSD ignition system. Then they fired up the other 911 engine in a 1980 car that they rebuilt and got put back in the car on Monday. It has a Billy Boat exhaust system.
My first comment was , "Daddy, make my 911 sound like that'!
I'll probably slip back down there tomorrow PM and try and get some pics.
Nice job Justin.
Dick

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy and Thank you too Dick! I'm finally just about done fitting this trunk lid. I wrapped up the heavy shaping to the left and final run yesterday. Its really getting close. Justin
2/5/13


I could not leave well enough alone; though this side has never had any damage there were some slight waves and irregularites along the fenders edge.

I gave the entire run a thin swatch in an attempt to make it closer to perfect. This wooden dowl pin worked beautifully down in this trough.

The cowl and right side run are 90% there. I just have scatches and chips mainly to attend to but there is some block sanding still ahead.

Left side run now fully blocked and shaped and ready fro primer. What is left of the swatch is very thin and almost transparent. It did not take much but it did take some. Had to remove the seal here to clean and prep the trough. This is a perfect example of all the repeated tasks that must be done along the way which can sure eat up the time.

tracer coat now applied.

So close! Onto block sanding tomorrow.

Sprayed some extra on some primer spots on this now finished fender. See the reflection of the black door in the paint and how it stays constistent through the door gap; Many an hour spent there to achieve that one. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

Changing gears for a moment: GT seat shell repair 2/12/13

During my 10 year parts hunt I was able to get my hands on 3 original GT seat shells. For the last couple of years I was trying to decide which ones I would use together. I was just recently contacted by a guy looking for a single alloy seat for his vintage racing car so needles to say I had to make my mind up quick. The shell on the left is by far the best. The shiney one in the center most closely matches the left but its the roughest one of the bunch. The right one was better but it seemed just a touch narrower than the far left so I decided to let that far right one go.
Round 1

Unfortunately not owning a TIG welder has made me reliant on my buddy Warren to help me stitch this thing back together. There is ALOT of welding and I did not want to burn him out so I have set up this repair in stages. The first order was to get the shell bascially square and set; then starting tacking the corners back together.

This is the underside of the corner. The edge of these shells is a steel wire rolled edge, though a steel reinforcement plate will be added here I thought it would be best to further strengthen this repair by welding up the rolled edge seam. In a sense closing up th circle completely in this area.

The last order of business that day was to begin stitching this lower bottom edge back together.
Session 2

Just a continuation of the first by finishing up the seam weld repairs in the corners. A cold repair was done by the previous owner using three patch plates and what seems like a 100 pop-rivets. I want this "repair damage" fixed as well so we are slowly back filling all the extra holes.

The factory punched these two holes too close leaving the shoulder thin and eventually broken. repair attempt here. Also filling all those little drilled holes for the panel that was riveted on.

Seam welding complete. My next session will be hole filling only and should just about do it for this phase.
Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

Custom HD combo Spindle project. 3/19/13

Keeping with my sickness and or craziness for old racing and/or custom parts I decided several months ago that my rebuilt 356B front spindles were no longer going to satisfy me. Here is a quick recap of the items for the front end:

Stepped up big for set of original GT brakes. RSK front drums were a little trickier still so I stepped up again.

rebuilt a pair of B spindles (which have the superior shanks)and bought this original 550 spyder roller-bearing link-pin assembly from Bill Brown. I was set!

Original plan was to gusset this extra set of arms for a race look. I soon decided to have a full set of custom 4130 chromoly control arms made instead. a little trickier..

Once I had them installed the stock B units were just not gonna cut it for me. A few of my friends race desert so I see all the trick stuff that is developed and used for the old original VW link pin suspension.
This is what gets me going! Trouble is VW and Porsche a just different enough that custom parts have to made to work with Porsche needle bearings and Porsche drum brakes.

So my journey for a pair of custom HD Spindles that would work with my GT brakes began several months ago with a 45 pound chunk of 4130 chromoly bar stock and a visit to my old friend Bill's machine shop. I needed Bill to make me a pair custom shanks to go in place of the normally offered VW snouted version.

At this point Bill has turned and cut the bar stock into a base pair. Man, most of it went on the floor price of fame. B spindles pictured were his pattern.

My first thought was to have Bill turn the shanks and then cut the backing plate flanges out of some flat stock then press fit and weld together. Bill suggested making it all one piece for superior strength. Going this route required a much larger diameter piece of bar stock but the end result was worth it.

Final machining was next.

[JTR70]

Bill comes through again! (from page 49)

They came out soooo pretty! These finished snouts were a huge time investment but no way around that.

We got so lucky! The original bar stock diameter was just large enough for the flange bolt pattern. The front one was cutting it so close!

The stock left spindle is drilled hallow for the speedometer cable so I had Bill Gun-drill both shanks to save a little more weight. BTW with the combo spindle I lose the ability to run a stock speedo cable but its alright I'll go by the tach or put a GPS unit in it that will tell me how fast I'm going.

These were now ready to be sent off for completion which would also include case harding. up next, Thanks for reading this! Justin

[JTR70]

My new HD spindle assemblies are complete! Took delivery yesterday.
3/20/13

Took about 8 months to get here but the car wasn't going anywhere. My new Porsche snouts I had Bill Make are now finally part of a pair of viable spindle units. I could not have been happeir with the way these things turned out.

Checkout those amazing tig welds! I sure wished I could lay down beads like that.

They are set up with 2 degrees of negative camber. I also asked that the stub axles be positioned on the upward side of the body for maybe a few mm's of addional drop; which they did...

Stock link pin and brass bushing are pictured here with the new specialized units designed to work with those new control arms and these spindles. The original 550 roller bearings work and fit perfectly.

Giant king pin is also roller bearing which was another reason I wanted them over the stock units. Once the front is assembled all pivot points will be on needle bearings. Just gotta stay on top of lubing them.

[JTR70]

Quick side by side comparison with a stock unit.

Test fitment of new spindels. A very fun and rewarding afternoon! Makes feel that all the debt I've gotten myself into is actually for something.

This where test fitting comes in. The gusset is crowding the bridge-tube and will need to be filed back. Another job for Bill will be a set of alloy end plugs with zerks for the king pins to run those roller links.

Other than the gusset they fit beautifully!

Had to try it on! Its these tiny glimpes of what the car will eventually be that keeps me working on it and spending more money. Was fun while it lasted, back to block sanding. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[admin]

Looking Great ,I'm in the habit of prematurely trying cool new parts on, to keep the excitement level up for my self . That's half the fun of it imagining the finished project.Keep up the great work and those parts look amazing.
Bruce

[gkw]

Justin, Really nice, thanks for sharing.
Gordon

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Lovely bit of engineering. Your car deserves the best mechanicals.

Great job well done and pass that onto your machinist Bill as well

Roy