58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[JTR70]

Thanks Gordon! Here are some detailed pictures of the cap.(the original one) Inner ID is approx. 28mm the outer diameter is approx. 40mm. The cup is about 10mm at its lowest point. Justin

[gkw]

Thanks Justin. Gordon

[JTR70]

Anytime Gordon.

Engine compartment repair


Now that the battery box was in the done column the last bit of chassis and substructure repair to do on the car was in the engine compartment. Again these would all be second time redo's from our shoty repair attempts back in the late 80's.




This is the upper left closing wall which we found rusted out back then. Did not get around to cutting this one out. The huge bugar welds still hold it in. I masked of that now rusted triangle shape because its more rust that our repair patch missed.




Here is a close up of that huge ugly and incorrect seam weld. I dressed it as best as I could back then but could not reach the very corner.




Same patch but looking at from the wheel house. God, look at that mess! There is hours of teadious grinding to do clean all this up! Two inexperienced yahoo's with a wirewelder! Live an learn.


This is a shot of that Australian delivered '56 that Jason Bobruk is restoring on this forum. This is a very typical area to rust out. In the 80's we thought it was caused from the sound deadener pealing away creating a pocket that held water. After completing this repair I realized it was due to water leaking in through the back window at the coners. The factory stuffed padding into the cavity on the other side of this wall once soaked with water it would just hold it there rotting this area out.

[JTR70]

The Last major repair to the chassis and engine compartment was to the frames rear cross-member and closing bulk-head wall. All prior damage done by the previous owner in an attempt to fit a Corvair drivetrain in it. The cross-member was gone and the wall had a huge U-shaped area hacked out of it just under the decklid catch.


This an old shot of our repair attempt back in '88 shortly after the welding was done. Its a piece of galvanized 18 guage that we had a local heating and cooling outfit fold up for us.

We had no idea of what the bulkhead looked like;We could only guestimate. We had a pushrod engine shroud/base plate help get the shape close but it was still very crude when all was complete. There's the legs of my most patient restoration partner and relentless ball/stick fetcher; My little dog Sammy. He's been gone for probably close to 22 years now and I still miss him!


Once I set back out to repair this car correctly this along with that VW fender patch repair to the rear seat pan (page2) were the first of many to be cut back out. This shot was taken at Gregs many years ago. I installed that piece of angle iron to tie the frame ends back together while on the rotisserie so I could repair the longitudinals. (page1)

To do this repair correctly I had to get my hands on an original donor rear bulkhead and cross-member section. In particular it had to be from a 1956 or early 1957 T1 coupe. All the cars then came Carrera ready from the factory with all the correct related bracketry for the 4-cam motor. They stopped this practice sometime in mid to late'57 but I'm sure glad they did for a while! I would search passively for about 10 years.

[JTR70]

Its really amazing somtimes how things workout right when they are supposed to. Just as I was in real need of the section to go any further this complete T1 coupe rear section came up for sale out of Los Angeles.


Exactly what I had been looking for all those years a complete clip from a dead rusted out AT1 coupe. My journey finally ended July 10 2010.


Once determined the rear chassis was intact and had all I needed
I was able to make the deal and took a day to go up and get it.


There she is! Complete, undamaged with only mild surface rust.


This is what I was after; mounting plate for the in line oil filter. Brackets to each side of the filter for the twin coils. Lower perimeter shelf with rubber seal mount for mating up against the 4-cam lower engine tray.

[JTR70]

Began the engine compartment repair with the small patch first.


Cut the heart of it out first just ahead of the welds to ensure I did not cut too far. Getting tired of fixing mistakes.




Carefully grinding and cutting out the remains of the patch and the seam weld. Very slow and very confined and dirty. I'm getting showered in grinding dust and metal shavings.(all in the hair and down the back of the neck) This was done in the middle of summer and made for plenty of sessions where I wanted to crawl out of my own skin!


Slowly unearthing the flange. To get a cleaner and proper job I removed the decklid cable tube. Fortunately it was easy; just to spots of weld to cut and it slid right out.

[JTR70]

Bottom flange now cleaned and finished smooth. Extremeley teadious and dirty job.


Got off easy on that double-rope weld on the inside top. With some pliers I was able wiggle and fatigue the metal next to those giant welds. They cam right out with no grinding needed. Small miracles! Still had to clean and prep the sides though.


cleaning that corner was really wearing thin so I changed gears and began harvesting my new rear bulkhead wall. Drilled all the spot welds in the flange and am spliting the two pieces apart here.


Once the flange was free I cut the sides free at the factory weld joint. My prized replacement part now exposed.


Knocked off the heavy grime in preperation for removal and final cleaning. This was about as far as I could go on this at the moment. I had to take some time and really plan and figure out what I was going to replace and what I was going to save between what was still left in the car and this new donor section. I had two limitiations: I did not want to remove the tailskin from the car. (though that would have been the easiest) Lastly did not want to take if off the rotisserie. (I would later have to anyway)

[JTR70]

Went back to work on the corner repair. All flanges are finally clean of our old repair. Need to expose more of the internal stepped flange on the top so I have marked it off here and will cut this inner wall up higher.


The donor clip had a usable section. some rust up top but well worth saving considering its specialized upper flange that would have taken hours to replicate. Much easier just to patch the rust.


With the rear fenders now cut free there was good access. Really carved up this old bird.

New donor section out and ready to cleaned of excess metal and rust.


Grinding and peeling off all the old overlap joints


All excess metal now gone. Here is that double stepped flange I was after. You can see the rusted out area in the center. Straight forward patch and much easier than trying to make this whole piece.


Rough trial test fits begin. part has been acid dipped and the rusted out section has been patched.


Here you can the importance of that flange as it closes the wheel house out and continues that upper line. I'll have to do 90% of my welding on this upper piece on the inside. Its too tight down there to get a grinder in to dress the welds. going to be a little tricky.


Fine trimming just about finished almost ready to glue this piece in. All the edges have been stepped so once it its in it will be a smooth flowing patch that is even with the rest of this panel.

[JTR70]

All lined up and applied some initial tack welds

seam welded up the lower perimeter run

will begin stitching together that left verticle seam next. This should be a lap joint but I lost a few mm's with our old shoty repair. Once its welded I'll add a strip of metal here to recreate that lap joint for a correct appearance.


Adding that strip of metal here to recreate that lap joint.


All welded up and dressed smooth out here. Still have few things to do on the inside however.

That little repair strip fully welded and dressed. I now have the correct lap joints on all three sides of this repair now. Just have to make the upper closing panel repair now.


Before I can do that I have finish welding together this upper flange. I totally mis-judged the distance and was a bit short now with a wide gap to fill. I backed this area with copper plate and added some thin filler strips and sewed it all up.

[JTR70]

Closing flange all stitched up and the welds dressed.


With the welding finally completed on the initial patch I could now start making my template for the final upper closing panel.

[JTR70]

New closing panel shaped from paper template and just about completely welded in here. Had to put machine screws on both sides of the plug-weld to draw it tight.

Welding now complete. Just have to dress the welds and go over the flanges with my spot-welder for a final finishing detail.

Repair finally completed! Not a huge fan of rust-pitted metal but in using this original piece the rust-pitting along next to the upper flange joint really help to pull off the illusion that this has never been repaired. silly detail I know...


Jumping ahead a few months here is the patch in final paint. Just a whisper of the patch panel.


I'm happy it no longer looks like this...

[JTR70]

Here is the repaired corner in an initial coat of primer and paint.

Again this area rotted out due to water getting in at the lower corners of the rear window. Even with a new seal and caution used with water around this area it would be foolish to think that some will not find its way back down in between the trough and window seal at some point in the future.


The moisture got past the rear window trough and ran along this ledge where the magic marker is resting. This cavity was originally stuffed with wool-type sound deadner which soaked up and held any water.


This was the result. Pictured is a coupe Jason Bobruk is restoring on the another thread in this forum. (Australian delivered '56)


My thought was to provide an escape directly back outside. Taking a few drops of water I let it find the lowest point in the corner of this trough. I then drilled my first hole which will be the mouth of a tube that will run down and empty out into the wheel house. The "X" on the ledge below is the exit and the same suface that the magic marker was resting on in the above photo. This carried the leaking water back into that corner creating the decay.


Holes drilled, tubing heated and curved to shape and in for a test fit. The tubing is some spare original trunk/decklid cable runner I had on hand.

The best part about this alteration is once the headliner and rear window are back in this drain will be completely undectable from stock. Also it gives any water that may get in there somewhare to go other than inside where it has chance to rust or mildew my new upholstry.

Welding complete. opening has been champhered to encourage the water to enter.


The only detectable alteration is this little weep hole at the top of the rear fender wells.

Thank you for stopping by! Justin

[JTR70]

Now that the upper corner was repaired and the drains were in I could now turn my attention to the very last major piece of chassis repair work left on this car. The dreaded rear wall bulkhead and cross-member from page 9.

By this time I had formulated my plan on what would stay in here and what would be replaced with the new donor section. The "frame rails" or runners were still full uncut pieces. Pictured here as the lower "V" shaped panels. These would be kept as is and the ends would be cleaned of our big thick bugar welds from '87. Alot of grinding and alot of cursing! Leaving these pieces intact would also allow the car to stay on the rotisserie or so I thought until I really got into it. (later) The lower runner/shelf is three pieces. the rear section is obviously done but the right and left side pieces are intact and will also be saved.

Heres a close up of that runner. the sides will stay and the damaged caps will be reomved and replaced at this factory joint. the leftover damaged rubber mount strip will be removed and replaced with the fresh donor.

Starting on the left side I drilled the spot welds on the remains of the tack strip and has been freed here.

Now ready to remove the damaged end cap. will drill the spot-welds and split this lap joint next.

Our old welds have been dressed down on the ends. the cap has been removed with only a little of its upper mount flange left to remove.


Left frame runner now fully cleaned and dressed. Some old blow-torch damage from the '60s remain on that edge by the bolts but its purely cosmetic and will be hard to detect once its reassembled so, I decided to leave it.

With all the damaged pieces removed it really became a much clearer picture of what needed to be done. I had spent a few sessions going back and fourth getting my head around on what was to be saved and what was going. My biggest fear was cutting something only to change my mind with a better plan after the fact. I spent extra time ensuring this was the best way forward.


Right side now cleaned as well. With the frame done I moved onto the upper closing wall. My original thought was to graft the donor into the existing sections of this wall at the corners. Once I really began looking at it I realized it would be impossible to dress the seam welds cleanly in those tight corners. I decided it was best to move the joint back into a more open an accessable area. You can see my new cutting line in the photo above. I moved it back about 3.5 inches and uprighted the angle of the cut. Two great things happened; the seam is easy to dress smooth and the weld seam is about 2 inches shorter now. A win-win on that one!

Closing walls now cut and cleaned. The car is pretty much ready to accept the donor now. Before this can happen I have two more things to address first. The car is going back to beehives and I was going to repair the holes after the wall was in but I have a clear shot at the back side of the skin now so I realize I better fix them first. I also want to get the inside skin and outer wall in a good coat of paint. can't get a spray gun up in there afterward so this too needs to be complete first. tail light hole repair up next. Thanks for taking a look! Justin

[JTR70]

Tail light hole repair.


Here's a shot of this car way back in '68. Since the day my father bought it this car has always had teardrop tail lights. More than likely done by the first owner to update the car back in the day. My father was always convinced that this was factory and that the car was one of those transitional 1957's. However, once I was educated on the chassis # sequence it was obvious that this car was way too early to be one of them.


Fortunately the person who did the conversion was very conservative and did not remove anymore metal than they had to. The four original mounting holes for the beehive lights were intact providing me with a perfect roadmap for correct light placement. It is so critical to get these lights in the factory positions. I have seen several cars were the light placement was just not right. It looked terrible.


My new filler patches are made from 20 guage sheet that I ran through my buddies english wheel to give it the proper convex profile. This was done a few years back looking at the surface rust. Flat sheet will not work. I tried it already and cut them back out so this is the second attempt. Socket holes for the lights were installed with my Greenlee hole punching dies for a clean finished look.


Hole punching dies

These are standard dies and not metric so my closest one is just a fraction smaller than the original holes illustrated here with the front signal hole which would be exactly the same as the rear. Close enough to whare it will not matter or be noticed.


Left repair patch now trimmed to fit and clamped into final position. Ready to begin tacking it in.


Tacked into position and very happy with the fitment. Its contour follows the shape of the fender almost perfectly.

Went ahead and tacked the right side patch in as well.

Test fitting a pair of original tail lights. So pleased to see the car going back to beehives. Welding continues. Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[gkw]

Justin,
The beehives look good.
Gordon