57 356 A mild resto

[JTR70]

I agree you cannot take water protection for granted; especially with these cars. I went on your link and read your description but could not view the photos unless "I'm a member and logged in". BS policy! If someone wants to join a forum they will but I don't believe you help your cause by annoying them with a mandate.(IMHO) That is why all content on this site will always be available to all. If you would like to join great; if not thats cool too go ahead and lurk to your hearts desire. Anyway it sounds like a fantastically well preserved example. You have a nice pair of cars in your collection. I'd be shocked if you ever sold them! I don't know if you can load pics from an Ipad.(don't own one) Only one way to find out. I hope you'll post some; would love to see it in detail and would be a welcomed addition to the 911 section! Justin

[merbesfield]

Well Justin and all, today was one of those days we were just discussing where you feel like you may never finish your project and be buried dead or alive in it. I started working on the rear inner fender patches and as always I underestimated the degree of difficulty. I guess that is why RD charges $585 per panel. After 5+ hours of work, I have done a total of three patches. Bc the panel has so many compound curves it is difficult to do any patches that are of significant size. And I still have to metal finish the outside. Top it off with three fires from sparks, one near disaster. I removed as much of that damn insulation from the area behind the rear fire wall and under the rear window channel that Justin has mentioned in his posts. Well while grinding some sparks went in the damn hole and caught fire. Panicked I blew it out, which probably just stoked the fire. When I blew from the opposite side the fire came out and blew up into my headliner, which I had carefully pulled back to protect. Before I realized what had happened, the headliner was burning and burned a nice hole in my good, now bad, headliner. Add that to the parts list. I am still having nightmares about a smoldering ember remaining. As a matter of fact I am going to run back over to the shop just to check, not that I could do anything at this point. With it taking 5 hours today, I am looking at 25-30 more hours for just this area alone. Maybe i should buy the panel, though there is a lot of good solid metal there. Will post pics when there is something worthy.

[merbesfield]

I'm happy to report the shop is fine. I went back and checked. I can also say that even a few hours break gives a clearer head. After seeing what I did today I don't feel so bad and will be ready to go at it again in a day or so. I guess once you get tire and frustrated it is best to put down the tools and take a break. I should be ready to go by Tuesday night shop night.

[JTR70]

Hey Mark,
It was like looking into a mirror reading your last two entries. You had the same heavy feelings and thoughts I did a few summers ago. A full day spent with not a lot of progress to show but merely creating a new jumping off point to build on for the next days session. Tired, hungry covered in grinder dust, annoyed with all the back filling you had to do around your new patch because the old surrounding metal was on the thin side and kept blowing through as you stitched! Know it well! Also don't forget about that red hot slag splatter that sometimes falls into your shoe that the tongue catches and channles down inside. Before you can react your bunrned and the slag is cooled from the water in your skin. Had many a day like that and I remember climbing into my Honda for the ride home with a slanted negative outlook on the project and the way its coming. BUT once home I showered, ate, watched a movie or got online to decompress it always melted away and I was ready to hit it again. All of us DIY's go through it! Glad you did not burn up and glad to hear your feeling better! Your not alone!! Justin

[merbesfield]

Thanks buddy. Yep burned my foot many times tonight. How about when you drop one of the tools outside the car or the patch you are trying to fits drops, so,you have to move all the shit out of the way, bump your head one more time and climb out just to get it. I was throwing the F bomb around that's for sure. Glad my kids weren't around. Off to bed.

[JTR70]

No Worries! Oh yeah, All of that stuff! How about when you have your patch panel in the perfect position and you get your first tack-weld down or so you think; go for the next tack and the patch falls loose! THEN, the broken tack now is in the way and has to be ground off so ya gotta climb out of the car to go over and remove it! We could go on and on could we not? Looking forward to some progress shots on Tuesday!
Justin

[merbesfield]

During:



After:



PS before:



During:



After:



The process was fairly involved. First I made a paper pattern, laid it out on the sheet metal and transferred it with my punch. I then began to use the metal brake to create the corrugated ribs. 8mm down, 16mm across and 8mm back up. My break is a Chinese suck ass piece of shit so it made the job very tough. Did I say don't buy Chinese tools! So once the ribs were laid out and in place I then had to hand form the closed curved ends. From doing this in the past I had a steel buck that I made for the Land Cruiser that was almost perfect. I have also learned from the past to not make myself too crazy about the ends bc once they are welded, finished, seam sealed and under coated who can really see much. Because the ribs create rigidity and the piece has multiple curves, compound? It was necessary to cut relief slices into the ribs so it could flex when beating it on the sand bag. I also had to slice the ends of the ribs so they would close up when hitting against the buck. Lots of whacking with mallets and body hammers. Once the shape was there, I tack welded the piece together, metal worked it more and then more smoothing. I also used the English wheel several times to smooth out the dents from the sand bag. Still more work to go. I planished the areas as needed and generally worked the piece until it was close. I decided to wait for my buddy, Scott's help holding it in place before the final fit and welding. I only have two hands and needed three or four. In the end, as I said, a good experience, but smart money would be to buy stamped metal, assuming they are good pieces. Looking at the time invested, I probably would bill out at $1 per hour and still have to file bankruptcy. Sort of how our government works. Sorry this is so long. Thanks for up loading the pics Justin.

[merbesfield]

I am posting this from my iPad. If it works I will update info.



Wow, it worked from my iPad and not my PC?

Anyhow, this is the brace at the door corner. I have more pics showing the process, but much the same as above. Pattern, transfer, bend, form, smooth etc. this one was very challenging bc the curve is very extreme and had to be worked a little at a time. I was worried the metal would tear, but it just moved along as I asked of it. Again, this is not finished, just about 90%. Thanks

[JTR70]

Really nice fabrication job on those repair pieces Mark! You're right those closing panels are curving in several directions all at once. Those ribs really do thier job don't they? Looking at the condition of the originals this was the right choice. The reinforment plate patch looks great too! Alot of time invested for sure! Great job! Thanks for the update! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Mark,

Difficult panel repair there. Nice result though! Well done. By the way are you using a different browser to that of your PC? The browser can make a difference I have found 'Internet explorer 8' seems to work very well here. My other browser was not so good at all.

Also I shrink the pics now they seem to load faster. www.shrinkpictures.com ( apply 750 pixle and ' good ' in the request
boxes ansd leave the others as they are. )

Roy

[merbesfield]

Mark,

Difficult panel repair there. Nice result though! Well done. By the way are you using a different browser to that of your PC? The browser can make a difference I have found 'Internet explorer 8' seems to work very well here. My other browser was not so good at all.

Also I shrink the pics now they seem to load faster. www.shrinkpictures.com ( apply 750 pixle and ' good ' in the request
boxes ansd leave the others as they are. )Roy

Roy, I was using Firefox, which I have used in the past with success. I do resized all my pics before posting to 800 pix and it does make a big difference, just not sure what was going on. Done it tons of times the same as before, but yesterday no go. I will chk out shrinkpictures.com. The freeware I currently use is pretty good, but could be simpler.

[merbesfield]

Been also working on all my sheet metal readying it for the Powder Coater. Mostly just metal working the kinks and a little bit of repair followed by glass beading.






Also re-spot welded the little flipper panel, not sure what it is, where I could see it was spot welded from the factory. Must be an old access panel hold over for early 356 engine. This is a 69-912 motor.

[gkw]

Mark, nice job, looks great.
I also was not able to load pictures from my pc.
Gordon

[JTR70]

Sorry you guys are experincing trouble. Just spoke with my webmaster and explained everything I.E. loading trouble for Mark and no loading problem for me with the same photos. Roy is on the right track; my WM thinks the problem lies with the web-browswers your using because he says nothing has changed with the site. He is a big fan of Google Chrome and highly recommends it over any other browser. I am partial to internet Explorer because its what I've always used however I have had problems with it losing all my photo attachments while I was editing and trying to add more photos. Very, very frustrating! I would then switch to Google chrome just to add the photos; never had a problem with dropped attachments using GC. This size of the photo won't generally be a problem unless its huge but the software will notify you of that. So if your experincing glitches try Google chrome for your web-browser. Hope this helps! Sorry to muddle your build post Mark...back to your car.

The small parts restoration is a nice diversion isn't it? They look nice! Your car's front wheel well area and brake detail look great too in the background shot. That Tiny access hole in the front tin is an old hold-over from the early days. Its for a hand-crank to start the motor. Can you imgine? Justin

[JR]

Roy and Mark,
All the pictures that I have posted I shot in small resolution and I use IE8.
I don't have to down size that way and they work better on e-mailing.
Roy helped me out a great deal.
I call up Internet Explorer pull up the 356abcgt web site and go from there.
It solved all my problems.
Thanks again Roy!!
Dick aka JR