58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[roy mawbey]

Very nice Justin, super job.

Roy

[Rad-Ride]

Nice!! It's a shame that some will not see all the cool fabrication that is hidden away under the fenders.

[JTR70]

Hey Bill, Thank you for that really nice post! I upped your Karma for that one alone. Hopefully this car will be running by the time you move back. Glad to hear you are still making some progress on the car even if it is rounding up the rest of the missing pieces. The hand crank antenna is a rare bird especially if it still operates! The twin plug set up sounds good and I know you're conversion will be correct by retaining the foward main bearing. Look forward to seeing some progress shots! Thanks again Bill!

Thank you Very much Roy!

Thanks frank! I had a guy say a similar thing a while back and I responded that the best trade off of not being able to see all this stuff clearly will be a car on the ground and running. It will be a welcomed trade-off. Thanks again you guys! Its always greatly appreciated! Justin

[JTR70]

4/18/13
Front end of the car just about ready for final paint.
Since starting the Speedster conversion I have neglected to get anything done here for the last couple of weeks. It was really beginning to upset me that all these days were rolling by and not a thing was moving forward with this car. I made a decision about a week ago to commit an hour (and only one hour)each day. I bring my stopwatch and when my hour is up I move right on the other project. Much to my suprise and relief it is amazing what can be accomplished. I just had to set the time aside and be consistent; just like going to the Gym.

Most of what I had to remove were deep scratches and "saw marks" up by the windshield sweep from my earlier aggressive block sanding and lead filing stage.

Much time spent carefully sanding/shaping this A pillar transition.

tricky areas here,lots of slow careful shaping around the gutter and the spill-way at the fender to cowl transition. Easy to wear a groove on an opposing face if your not watching it.

Hood gaps are finally all set. Just had to fine shape the shoulders for consistency throughout.

During the unproductive phase I really dreaded looking at the front nose area and all that still had to be done. An hour a day eventually got it finished.

Left side is also about finished. Had a few nicks and scratches to swipe but all the heavy lifting is done!

Down to an hour a day! Left side of the car up next. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Looks better than new. Wow, wait till the paint goes on it will look like a glass mirror.

The main strut on one side of my heavy double garage up and over door that hold 2 powerful springs to assist lift cracked and broke in half at the pivot point on Thursday. It made such a loud bang and it missed the 356 sitting inside by about 6 inches. If it had hit I would have been forced to do what you are doing on your car.

Takes 2 srong men to lift the door and although parts are on order its not being fixed till this Friday hopefully! I can lift the door enough to crawl underneath with it blocked but the 356 has a rest now till I can get it out. Usually its driven 2 or 3 times a week I am getting withdrawal symptoms

Those gaps are the best

Roy

[JR]

WOW Roy,
Talk about being on the same page.
When I returned from getting the sailbaot rigged at the sail club I had to repair the right hand door (911 side) of my garage. The bottom the the metal door had rusted out pretty bad over the years so I had some metal strapping with holes about 1 inch apart that I put on the bottom of the door. Previously I had used a 90 degree bent piece to hold it togther.
'I GUESS' one day I'll have to break down and buy a new door.
I have had those springs break before at the top where they hook on.
It is a BIG BANG when they go!
I hope your withdrawal isn't too bad till Friday!!
Good Luck!
Cheers,
Dick

[merbesfield]

Justin, gaps are too nice don't beat yourself up, everyone needs a break every now and then.

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! I cannot wait until this thing is in final paint. That will be quite the mile stone! We had that helper spring snap in our garage last winter. Its amazing how heavy that door is without it. Its one of those extremely important items you never think about until it fails. Dick sounds familiar with it too..

Thank you Mark! I appreciate it! Speaking of breaks, whats going on with your coupe? Thanks again you guys! Justin

[merbesfield]

Been working on suspension pan for the 66 911. Getting close. I will get back on the 356 coupe soon. Just picked up all my freshly powder coated tin and it is very nice. Can't wait to see it go on the engine.

[JTR70]

Nothing better than freshly powder coated parts! Look forward to some shots. Justin

[JTR70]

4/24/13
The one hour a day ritual is slowly but surely paying off! The hood,gap and nose are finally complete and now ready for final color.

Primered yesterday and today shot the final work coat on this gap area and am now offically done shaping.

I can still see areas or angle were I could maybe get it a little better still but I can live with it and have chased it as far as I want to go at this point.

The hood gap is at least even and consistent throughout which was a real time investment.

Both hood and door gaps are consistent with one another.

I am in process of moving onto the left fender and did some long boarding yesterday. As it went I sanded through and found myself back in 1987. Those magic marker circles were put there by my father to show me where the fender was still low and needed more work. I was 16 and just in the learning phase about bodywork. Whenever I finished leveling the filler I'd have to ask him if it was done. It was akin to taking a paper for my teacher to grade only to have them write all over it pointing out all the mistakes! I dreaded having him look at it because I knew he was going to find waves and low spots which meant more work for me. Looking back on it I'm sure I just sanded to far in one place creating repeat work for myself but thats how I cut my teeth in all of this. Really hard to beleive that this was done better than a quarter century ago. This was my walk down memory lane yesterday.

[JTR70]

Same rule applies to the hood as it did while I was working the right side door in; the make or break detail which cannot be hidden under paint and primer is the leading edge thickness of the panel once its opened or ajar.


I went the extra mile to make sure all the edges of this hood were a believable thickness.

This required several removals, love tapping then re-installation.



even small runs or sections of 1/8+ hood thickness I could never leave alone.

A very long road but its finially finished! Left side of the car up next. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[roy mawbey]

[Rad-Ride]

Great work Justin! The gaps are better than the day it left the factory. Time consuming tedious work but well worth it. Don't think I'll be showing any pictures of mine when I get to that point of the build...lol!

[JTR70]

Thanks alot for saying that Frank I appreciate it! Oh man, I have a ton of hours in this hood area alone. Looking forward to seeing your build and Don't hold out on details! Thanks again!

Thank you Roy,
I hope you've had some luck repairing your garage door by now. Yes, it would be suicide to try and get that hood leveled and worked in with out the seal being in there. My new concern will be how much if any will the final new seal make once its mounted. Will know soon. Glad you liked that bit of trivia on those old marker circles I ran across. Here are few photo's I digitized from that time:

These pics are dated 8/88 on the back but I recall spending a year learning and trying to get this body straight. Most importantly I was learned how to "read" the topography of the surface and what the succession of paint layers was telling me as I block it down. This is how I spent my summer vacation from school; waking up just after dawn to beat the mid-day heat wet sanding and slinging bondo.

This was the summer I believe the movie "dirty dancing" came out and they hammered the sound track on the radio all day long so when I hear those old songs now I'm transported back to that summer. You'll notice my obvious rookie mistake here of working NONE of the panels in with the body. So glad I finally figured that one out. Thanks for reading this! Justin