57 356 A mild resto

[roy mawbey]

Mark all the best for 2024 and your 356. Bit by bit and keep smiling ! Roy

[merbesfield]

Hi Guys, I am still alive! It has been too long, but the good news is I hope to get back to my project very soon. I am finishing a couple other projects and intend to make 2024 my 356 focus. I hope I keep that promise to myself. Cheers, Mark

[roy mawbey]

Well done Mark, the underneath looks great. You should be pleased with that. Before you do body painting tape up the area's underneath it won't take that long as Justin is right its amazing how that great black finish gets area's covered in rubbing down mess and paint spray. Well done indeed!!
Roy

[JTR70]

Looking good Mark, both you and Scott seem to be rounding the corner. Keep it going!

[merbesfield]

Finally in undercoating. I thought about what what you said Jason, but in the end this will be a driver and I wanted it done. The bottom will be painted with a basic flat black for touch up. Ready to flip this baby and get on to minor body and paint. Pics were just after shooting so it’s a bit shiny but will flatten down once dry.

[JTR70]

Your call of course But I'd recommend holding off on the undercoating until your bodywork and paint phase is complete. The D I'm working on came undercoated before hand was so nice and pristine when it showed but now most of it is a sanding slurry and overspray covered mess. I'll give it a tickle in flat black to clean it up again but it was one more thing to worry about as the bodywork progressed. The rough texture is also more trouble to clean and prep verses a plain primered or painted steel surface. Also, if you have any overlooked slight dings, dents or low spots that you want to address later, the undercoating will make it nearly impossible to locate and work with any real accuracy. Ask me how I know...LOL

[merbesfield]

Next up is prep for undercoating. That will take some time by myself for scuffing, taping and final shooting. Hope to enlist some help from my daughter and BF 🙏🏻

[merbesfield]

Last bit of metal finishing was to perfect the area where I returned the rear tail lights back to their former glory and back to proper Beehive lights. Lots of metal bumping and slapping and filing and killing my shoulders. But it’s done and the are good for minimum filler.

[merbesfield]

Rear quarters cleaned painted seam sealed and painted again.

[merbesfield]

Pan fully painted and seam sealed.

[merbesfield]

Regarding my front fenders I have lost some sleep over this detail. I ended up using some closed cell foam as backer rod and sealed it. I too am worried about holding water. I will go back and make sure water can get out the bottom somehow.

[JTR70]

Glad you got your old PC system all up graded Roy...

[JTR70]

Thanks for the outreach Phil. How fast the time goes, he's already down to his last week huh? They find it too hard to figure out? The picture loading is a little different but not so different from the old system. The original platform failure really up ended things. Jack probably finds it too slow here to participate. Its a real catch22/ vicious circle with these forums; if its slow no one really wants to contribute but then again if no one participates it remains slow. All I can do is to keep on adding my content along with the few great guys like yourself until it turns around again. I've got a really great web master now so that is really half of the problem solved. Thanks again Phil!

[roy mawbey]

Phil and Justin thanks for the info on Bruce. I am pleased he is okay and I do hope after he moves he will respond again. He knows 356 inside out!!

I still have to sort out some things on the forum like the photo's. I will get there much better since I came of Windows XP and graduated to WIN 10 !

Roy

[Phil Planck]

I emailed Bruce yesterday. One week to go before closing shop. I encouraged him to come back to abcgt. Maybe when he gets settled in he will. Justin, I have gotten feedback from some we lost that it was too hard to figure out how to use new forum. Maybe a email tutorial and invite from you could coax some back. Jack is now active on the 912 bbs.