58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[roy mawbey]

Justin, this thread gets better and better. I have no wish to interupt your story but Bruces comments just up from yours made me smile. As you all know I have my 25 year old body rash ( on the car ) Its been getting me down especially when looking at all the great results on here. I have thought about it for ages now and have finally come up the answer. Its a BODGE but after 2 days of work its a bodge that has worked but for how long

I worked out the paint thickness I applied and came to conclusion the 'pips' of the rash could stand some 'wet or dry ' and special compound.

On the front lid for example the rash was both sides of the hood handle. Its developed over the 25 years since I did it and on this area has remained stable. So I carefully flattened it with fine grit paper then with a mix of an aluminium polisher and car wax polish worked on the result. Took ages but didn't go through the top coat and it now a mirror finish without the rash.

I don't know if it will return in a week but I am happy to look at the result here and on other parts of the car, I have attended to. It really got me down that rash so pleased its now gone. Hope it not like Ernie

Before and after photo of the left side of the front lid. The lid is not closed by the way. ( you can see the rash if you look hard on the first photo.







Roy

[JR]

Roy,
REALLY NICE JOB!
It looks like patience paid off by not hurrying the polishing.
Dick

[gkw]

What a difference.
Looks good.
Gordon

[JTR70]

That turned out really nice Roy! Thankfully you have enough material on there to get past the blisters. Be careful, if you buff through you'll never forgive yourself. Justin

Door prep continued:

re-heavy drip checking the joints that open upward including around the hinges and the entire lower pinch seam.

Puttying up the divots and cleaning up the faces that will be seen once finished.

[JTR70]

10/14/14
Deck lid gaps, jambs and edges done.

The final bodywork phase for this car again are the edges, jambs and gaps on all the closing panels and openings.

As of this afternoon the rear lid is officially ready for final paint with no more blocking or shaping needed. I've Chased it as far as I'm gonna..

As the final shaping of the opening progressed I was having a bit of trouble recreating the agreed upon gap from side to side as tracer coats and test fits proceeded. It was driving me nuts! Unfortunately the latch and hinge design allows for a lot of flex from side to side.

It quickly became apparent that the rubber buffers at each corner play a very important part with the lids latched position on the car. I have here new and original buffers (original on the right) The new ones are much softer and forgiving so I installed one on the high side corner with wider gap. The originals are a touch thicker and stiffer so those were used on the low side with a tight gap.

After dialing those in the lid now seated on the car exactly how I had intended. I can't tell you what a relief that was, I though I was going to have to go back to shaping the jamb again. Anyway at this point the secret is in the rubber buffers to either load or unload where necessary. Will shoot some silver over the dark spots but its now done otherwise. Back to the drivers door. Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

10/29/14

Finishing up the left inner door structure and jamb.


Substructure and jambs now in final paint.

Did my shaping and smoothing to the surfaces that would show most like the rear face but I left the rest in one coat of primer and then just 2 good coats of silver to finish it off. It shows every imperfection but that's what I was shooting for. I am trying to avoid the look and feel of a car that's just buried under mounds of paint. Except where I need it.

Again took a lot more care here to smooth and shape all of the facets since it shows every time the door is opened.

Now that the door is out of the way I am focusing on smoothing out the surfaces that will be most obvious.

The spot on the lock post where I found that patch of original putty needed a replacement swatch after all.

Also running another run of drip-check along the mount flange. I know there is old rust in this pinch seam so I have to do everything I can to keep it dry. Lock post and A-pillar are now primered and will shoot a test coat on tomorrow. Thanks for looking! Justin

[merbesfield]

Hi Justin looking great as usual. I am still working on the floor pan. Can you give a little insight as to how you get the old pan out in the area under the rear shift linkage and the new panel in? I see how it was built but wondered if you or anyone has any pointers/tips. It looks like It will be tricky since part of the pan is on top of the outer flange and part is under. Thanks for your help.

[JTR70]

I think the best way would be to cut the rear pan just ahead of the rear flange to get it out of the way so you can work at both sides. Then of course drill the welds and begin splitting it apart. You may have to "can open" the flange downward a bit in the tunnel area but it can be bent back into shape. If Bruce see's this he might have a better suggestion. Bruce?

[bbspdstr]

Nope, that's a tough area to dissect, but I usually just make a new part for the lower horizontal of the bulkhead instead of drilling all of those damned spot welds.

That makes the replacement of the rear pan easier if the edges sit on the side flanges as they should, as the slight "V" of the slightly lower tunnel adds to the degree of difficulty.

You can crudely, violently and in a really medieval way get rid of the old pan that is to be replaced IF you are going to replace the perimeter flanges, the finesse part needed being under the tunnel....unless the flanges of that are also to be replaced anyway.

All of that is predicated on the car itself, and they are ALL different at this point. Just really inspect the areas involved and make decisions and plans based on what is needed in what order and how much time you have to do what's needed to get it 'right' in the end.

It's like the replacement of the logitudinals and all those often overlapping spot welds on the threshold. I now just measure back 19mm-3/4" and cut, then buttweld in a strip of 18ga. with punched holes for plug welds and start over.....much less time, better result.

-Bruce

[merbesfield]

Nope, that's a tough area to dissect, but I usually just make a new part for the lower horizontal of the bulkhead instead of drilling all of those damned spot welds.

That makes the replacement of the rear pan easier if the edges sit on the side flanges as they should, as the slight "V" of the slightly lower tunnel adds to the degree of difficulty.

You can crudely, violently and in a really medieval way get rid of the old pan that is to be replaced IF you are going to replace the perimeter flanges, the finesse part needed being under the tunnel....unless the flanges of that are also to be replaced anyway.

All of that is predicated on the car itself, and they are ALL different at this point. Just really inspect the areas involved and make decisions and plans based on what is needed in what order and how much time you have to do what's needed to get it 'right' in the end.

It's like the replacement of the logitudinals and all those often overlapping spot welds on the threshold. I now just measure back 19mm-3/4" and cut, then buttweld in a strip of 18ga. with punched holes for plug welds and start over.....much less time, better result.

-Bruce

Makes sense. Funny that the metal inside my tunnel is virtually new. All the grease I guess preserved it. The extra challenge for me on this one is that I don't have the car on a rotisserie so everything is a PIA. But I really did not want to go the rotisserie route for fear that it might never make it off. LOL I don't want to tie up Justin's thread so I will post to my old build thread from hear out. Should have done that to start, sorry Justin.

[Phil Planck]

It has been too long since I installed my floor pans to remember exactly how I did it(could check my log) but here are pics of that area on a T6 Mark:



How I did this is a mystery, probably a little from above and a little from under the car.



Clamped down for plug welding using Bruce Baker advice way back.



Plug welded using mig welder.

Justin - how did you get the masking paper attached inside the door? This could be a whole new thread.

Phil Planck

[DG58INNM]

I remember removing the floor from my '58 in this area. Of course I had cut the bulk of the floor out previously, just leaving the strip at the edge attached to the flanges. The bulkhead flange was in perfect shape and I wanted to preserve it. I ground/peeled the floor off from above in the normal manner. For the portion under the tunnel I used worn down cutoff discs in my die grinder to reach in through the linkage access hole and grind off the floor and spot welds. There were a couple of welds right under and next to the tunnel flange I just couldn't get, and these I just broke with a thin sharp hard chisel. Eventually I was able to worry the remains of the floor out of the gap, leaving the tunnel and bulkhead flanges mostly undamaged. After getting the floor out, I wedged the gap slightly open with my chisel, and used a new thin wheel on my die grinder to come in horizontally and buzz the remains of the spot welds from the flanges. It was a somewhat tedious job.
DG

[bbspdstr]

......It was a somewhat tedious job.
DG

I love these great quotes from Dave!

#1 The difference is that a nasty old 356 may have increased in value over the past few years, but that doesn't mean a commercial enterprise can bill for more than the slightly increased hourly labor charge, so whatever is fastest for me that gives a quality result for the least amount I must charge is how I must work.

#2.....I use a jig and a rotisserie.

#3.....I have done more than one.

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Bruce
You like Dave's quotes. I wish my memory were as good as his. Or, it could be I tend to forget those tedious jobs.

Phil

[JTR70]

Not a problem at all mentioning it here Mark. If this info helps you or someone else down the road its just fine by me.(actually I learned today) Besides a break from my slow progress reports on this car might be a nice change of pace. Thanks for the additional info and details about this procedure you guys! This is why I originally referred to Bruce; I quite honestly have never had to tackle this particular problem yet because the four cars I've worked on have been at opposite sides of the rust spectrum: My two cars didn't need floors and the other two were so rusty that the tunnel had to come out. Thanks again! Justin