58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[JTR70]

11/3/13
More blocking and swatching required but its almost there. I began addressing the left vertical run of deck lid gap as well today.

Began to concentrate on smoothing the transition form decklid to quarter panel.

A layer of filler was left behind on the edge of the decklid so some tweaking to that edge was required.

Took my hand-brakes and began gradually prying the edge upward.

After several tries the edge was lifted and the filler went away with the follow up block sands.

I'm happy with the transition and the gap is just about there as well. Another primer and tracer coat coming up next. Thanks for reading this!
Justin
BTW: I just completed the early history of this car from '68-'99 with additional photos and details. If your interested it begins on page 1. Thanks!

[DaveCarrera4]

Great story and quite a few details on how to get it right!

[George]

Thanks for sharing your story, amazing how much we owe are friends and especially are parents, if not for all of them I wonder how many of are cars would now have got to the crusher. I know if it wasn't for my parents my little 55 Speedster would be long gone. I just didn't have a place to keep it or money to repair it for 30 yrs while raising the family. Like the old saying Keep The Faith it will be on the road shortly. Keep the postings coming. George

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Those gaps!! Your transitions are nigh on perfect, The body will look seamless when painted except for perfect even gap lines but without hardly any gap to be seen.

Ten out of Ten Justin, you get a gold star!

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Dave!

Thanks George, I could not agree more. I feel that I owe both my parents and my late mentor a huge debt of gratitude. Without their guidance and generousity none of this would have happened.

Roy, thank you once again! I really appreciate your comments! It makes all the extra time that I have spent on those joints that much more worth while! I am realizing now that I have probably tacked on several months of delay to final paint because I could not leave well enough alone. I figured its been 25 years already so what's the rush now?
Thanks again you guys your posts are always appreciated! Justin

Another tracer coat...

Its pretty much down to cleaning up the lines and fine detail now.
Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

11/10/13

Down to fine details at the tail end. Deck lid gaps are 99% there so with that I removed the lid (again) to address the entire jamb.

Like the trunk area before, fine detail sanding and perfecting of these jambs is just as critical to me as the outside skin. It has to slick here when the lid goes up; Nothing worse than a shiny car with scaly or rough jambs.

Epoxy primed and ready for the next test coat.

Tracer coat applied. The tail skin is all but complete. There are few little imperfection I need to chase but they are small.

Lid reinstalled. Not only is the tail skin about there but most of this left fender is all but finished as well. Once again I apologize if this is too in depth but I want to show those of you who may not do bodywork exactly what it takes to get a rough old turd like this car was into show quality condition. These small detail areas just don't take care of themselves and a concentrated effort must be made if you want it clean throughout. Also too; when your body shop hits you at 20K for a paint job you'll have more perspective on what it takes to bring it to a certain level. Just about ready to move onto the left door and quarter panel transition coming up next.
Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Never too in depth for me Justin. You are right the work you are doing to make it show quality will make some realise the work involved. You made me cringe a bit regarding the closure for the rear lid. Mine could have been a lot better when I last sprayed it. And those rubber buffers should not be attached till the paint is really hard. I sprayed in cellulose without any oven suppose modern paint hardens quickly? The impressions of the rubber buffers can be seen on the backside of my back engine lid. Would be seen by any judge. I guess that's why in my case its never up for view.

Great job as usual.

Roy

[MMW]

Justin please keep posting. It is very interesting to see it all.

Roy - I'm sure your car is just fine. You are the one who did it so of course you would know where any little imperfections are. Each one of them has a little story behind it (like the rubber buffers) which in my opinion adds to the history of the car.

[MMW]

Justin, forgot to mention that you are doing an outstanding job on this car. I'll be watching.

[JTR70]

Okay Roy, Thank you! I know what you mean, I almost put the rubber buffers back in last night with paint still too "green". I've seen several detailed shots of your car with lids lifted and its very clean! Its the same with us all; the person doing the work sees all the flaws and short-comings most will never pick up on unless pointed out. I see all of mine; the right side of the car is done but I still walk by it picking off all sorts of things I could have gotten just a little bit better "BUT" I have to draw the line somewhere and keep this moving or I'll never finish it. Reminds me, my mentor Greg told me years ago that the person (artist in his example) performing or creating the work sees all the flaws and is never truly satisfied with the end result. I'm not an artist but I fully agree with that statement; no matter what I've done I always feel it could have be just a little bit better...

Mic, thank you very much Sir! I am always happy to read that some of these detailed entries are not getting tedious to you guys. Thanks once again for following this very long and seemingly endless road. Its always appreciated! Justin

[JTR70]

11/25/13
left side door to quarter panel contour and transition.

Now that the rear and back half of the fender is all but finished it was time to address this last section.

As with all the rest of the panels, the edges of this door had to be tapped up a bit.

A definite high crowned area here which was really throwing the lines of the body off. This was due to heat distortion from a small repair patch Dad and I did to the tip of the lower rear corner back in '87.

After several disc passes and quenching the bulge slowly started coming down which immediately improved the overall shape of this area.

Another trouble spot with this door was a crowned ridge just above the lower edge. This is 100% factory, the door has never been hit and this lower run did not need rust repair save for that small one on the very back corner. Being factory I never questioned its shape and mindlessly began filling the surrounding areas to correct and compensate for it.

You can see here how much area that initial hump occupied once I was done chasing it.

After several disc passes and block sands this area too began improving.

Panel is fitting better with its surrounding and the filler is getting thinner; what more could a guy ask for?

After almost 4 sessions I had the shape and general transition contour I wanted which now matched the right side much better. I put another coat of primer over it and prepped for another test coat to see where I was at with it.

As with the right side I laid down a bead of drip-check on that lower quarter window pinch seam.

Getting the area behind a uniform color helped even more. Even after all that I have been through with this body I was still a bit hesitant and intimidated to disturb things for fear of making it worse but I had no choice if I want this thing in final paint after the first of next year.


This next test coat was applied the following day.

I now had the body contour and panel fitment I wanted.

Subtle waves and irregularities remained and were of course expect as the refection moved down the body but all were extremely faint and can be perfected with one more thin swatch of filler. The heavy lifting is done. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Best shut lines I have ever seen on any 356 Justin. and thats before paint. You will have to be so careful on paint edge build up when you apply the final paint as those gaps are so close!

Looks great.

Roy

[JR]

Justin,
REALLY nice work.
Down at the Lufteknic shop here in RIC last week I have been 'assisting' Chris on a pair of doors for a T6 coupe that got hit by a pickup, sat in another shop for 5 years or so and it will be nice again.
I have sent Chris the link of your work since he will know what you are doing.
Last week he was grinding the weldment on the inside of the door, where the lower door skin was mated, to smooth it.
I said, "Chris that is what sets you apart from other restoation shops, the detail work!"
I don't have any pics of the doors in work, but here is the car.






The red T6 coupe behind the white one looked like this when it came to the shop after being 'crunched' between two SUVs.


and


It is coming along!
New rear sheet metal from Trevors.



Thanks for looking!
Dick

[JTR70]

Hey Roy, thank you again for being so complimentary on the gaps. I have a ton of time invested in all them and you're correct; the trade off is I must be very careful about the build-up of material. Especially with the final color coat.

Dick, Thank you for saying so and thank you for getting the word out by forwarding this link to your buddy, appreciated! I remember that crunched coupe; It looks like you're getting some great hands-on experience over there.
Thanks once again you guys!
Justin

Just a mock-up shot I took for fun a few weeks back. Trying to decide weather to have Victor Miles re-gold plate these emblems or just leave them raw? Still shy about running that cherry original Reutter badge; I think its worth more than car at this point.
Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

11/30/13
Getting the last of those pesky waves and "rolling" reflections out.
The irregularities That remain across this side are now so gently rolling and faint that they are nearly undetectable by feel. To get these to even out,a long section of hard metal bar stock is my sanding block of choice.

To get this long surface reflection uniform requires long even strokes across the entire run. Each pass here began about mid-door all the way to the apex of the rear wheel arch.(glad my work seat has castor wheels) As you can see all the slight highs and lows that are bending the reflection are showing with that hard unyielding metal bar.

For this stage here is my tool of choice as a sanding block. Its square and most importantly unyielding. Even my plastic block pictured next to it which I am so fond of would slightly flex and fall into those long rolling waves. The block has to be hard to ensure your only hitting the high spots.

This last swatch of filler will take it the rest of the way in.

Again long even strokes with my bar stock.

After another long session that swatch was block to thin transparent veneer, what was left of it anyway. Primer and another test coat was applied before I left the shop.

Repeat next day: long even strokes across the surface

Its so close... but I'm not done yet. I am officially past the use of plastic filler though. The irregularities that remain are so slight that applying even the thinnest of swatches would be counter productive. I'd end up creating new low spots on either side of the swatch as I sanded it and in a sense would be chasing my tail. To finish this now will require only blocking and chasing it with primer and paint coats. two maybe three more rounds should do it but we'll see; Repeat tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Justin