57 356 A mild resto

[merbesfield]

I would like to introduce my 57 356A. I was lucky enough to buy this car from Don Connor who owned it for over 20 years. He kept is safe and dry in his garage the entire time. Prior to that it lived in a barn in GA for 10 years. I am very lucky that it is almost rust free. I am not claiming there is no rust, that would be a joke. But for as old as these cars are and from the many I have seen over the years, this thing is just about rust free to me. The minimal amount of rust repair that will be required is very good news to me. I have just finished major rust repairs on a 68 912 and a 66 Toyota Land Cruiser, so I am very happy to not have to do any serious repairs to this car. This is a cross post of sorts as I have been keeping a record on the 356 registry. link below. My car has a 69 912 engine so it is already an Outlaw. This was done over 30 years ago, so it was an Outlaw way before the name became cool. This is exactly what I wanted bc I am not into the concours Qtip thing. I have sand blasted the front inner fenders, shoot them with epoxy and will be painting them black soon. Then the entire front will go back together. I will be notching the beam to allow for lowering of the front end. Pics soon. Thanks for looking.

How it looked when I first saw it.




After sand blasting front end.






After epoxy primer






After seam sealer.

[JTR70]

Congratulations on finding this car! Cherry accident free body with minimal rust; a super rare Bird nowadays for sure. My restoration buddy here in town said he could find cars like yours all day long in the LA times back in the 80's No More, those resto-candidates have all but dried up now. Just cancer buckets today as you well know. Anyway nice find! I see you masked off the body while you sprayed the underside; are you leaving the body as is for a rat-rod look? J.

[merbesfield]

Still debating the look, but thinking rat will be the tone. Will prob leave a lone for a while, then E prime in black. Then someday nice black. I like the idea that the car project has an evolution of style and things to keep me busy

[gkw]

Mark
What type of seam sealer did you use and what did you think of it?
Thank you, Gordon

[JTR70]

Hey Gordon,

Mark is M.I.A. at the moment. Here is what I use: 3m heavy drip check. It applies easily, shrinks down into the seam, stays flexible and is paintable. I love this stuff!
Justin

[merbesfield]

Sorry guys for failing down on the job. I forgot the brand name and then forgot to look, duh. Anyhow, I have used several with mixed results. The latest one I am using, which also happens to be reasonably priced, has been great. I had really bad experience once w the Wurth sealer where it reacted to my undercoating and caused cracking after shooting. I am sure it was not necessarily the seam sealers fault, just incompatible products. He would have thought that, you hear it all the time, don't mix products, but seam sealer! Here is what I am using now and I love it. Flows great, brushes great, does not dry too fast, has good control for when you want to do small areas. And not too expensive. I was told that it is a sub line of 3M? I have used 3M, not what Justin has above and did not like it at all. I have also included a link to an Auto body forum that has been very helpful. The guys that run it don't seem to push Their products and are always quick to answer help questions. Good luck and post your work pics. Thanks

http://www.tptools.com/Product.aspx?display_id=1812

http://autobodystore.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?2-General-Discussion

[JTR70]

There you are Mark, Welcome back! Yes, that has happened with me bofore when using products that are not compatible. I really liked that tar sprayer you posted a link to. How much does that unit run? Justin

[merbesfield]

Time for an update. There has been a good amount of progress. Front has been painted chassis black and some of the suspension has been mounted. The front beam has been notched to allow for a lower stance and all the brakes are ready to assemble. The last part of the puzzle is to have the pads ground to fit my drums. I will attempt to get that done tomorrow. I ended up having to re-do the caps of all the wheel cylinders. I did not know you were suppose to grease the pistons. By the time I pulled the rubber caps to do it, they had already rusted. Now I know. The battery floor pan has been roughed and is ready to be fit. Of course the drain hat was first made famous by Justin. Mine was too rusted to reuse, so I fabed a new one similar to what Justin did. My car is an early 57, so it has both the drain hat and no rib on the floor. All the off the shelf pans are for T2 cars. I felt like the Simonsen pan from Zim's was the best quality and closest to the original in shape etc, so I started with it. The support rib actually has a flat top to it and The pics tell the story. Fairly straight forward job.

[merbesfield]

I have also gotten the inner fenders coated in chassis black and some of the suspension installed. I also found this interesting exhaust. Anyone seen one like this before. Should be nice and loud. Next up brakes.

[merbesfield]

Opinions needed please. I am going for the Outlaw GT look, I have been second guessing whether I should cut a center fill gas tank hole in my original unkinked hood. Same question goes for the rear deck lid. I want it Louvered. One school of thought says it is not nos. matching and will never be, but then I know there where many dumb things done to very collectible cars in the 80's that people look back on now and say WTH! I guess I could look for some extra pieces and shelve the originals but that will be very expensive. I know GT Werks does the deck lids and Mike with Rest Design in in progress with new A hoods, but have no idea of cost. I don't see the car ever going back, but even if someone wanted it back, they could do the metal work to reverse the "damage". Feel free to futrther confuse me. I also think Rick sells a fiberglas deck lid w Louvered, but I'm more of a steel kind of guy.

[JTR70]

Hey Mark,

Great work on the battery floor and the drain hat! They turned out nice! I'll bet once you flattened the edges on the pressed rib that it back filled what the cutting wheel took away and fit perfectly. I like the painted wheel wells. A nice GT look. I take it you are not undercoating it anytime soon since you have your nicely detailed spindles, tie-rods and sway-bar ready to go on. Did you fabricate that exhaust system?

On your GT panel conversion question: The hood filler is relatively easy to reverse should the day come. If you have your matching #'s lid I would buy another, which I did and have it louvered. They are plentiful so finding one from an A or BT5 car should be very easy. Hope this helps! keep up the great work and the updates coming! Justin

[JTR70]

on the drain hats: looks like you used no heat. Did you cold press it?

[merbesfield]

I did cold press the drain hat. Super scientific, a couple of appropriate sockets lined up in the press. Took a few tries to get it perfect bc I was too lazy to use layout marks. As for the rib filler, I thought about using the cut out piece, but I had enough scrap on the off cut to use it, so I just cut to size vs. having to hammer the edges and work the metal. No I am not applying undercoating yet. If it was in a rotisserie and I was doing a full on resto I would, but I could not decide which product to spray, Wurth vs. Tar. I most likely would use Wurth, but don't want to spray part Wurth with Tar still on the old parts of the car. Does that make sense?

Exhaust, I bought it from a friend. He does not know the history. It was cheap so I thought it could be fun. I don't think it is new.

I definitely am planning on the GT look, foregoing the oil lines. I talked to my mechanic and he said w my motor it would not be necessary. I have an extra deck lid, but it is rough and not sure if worth the effort to Louver. All my body panels are no. matching so I am hesitant to cut them. A front hood is expensive from what I have seen on the use market. I see that Rest. Des. is coming out w a new hood so that is an option. Are you doing the center fill?

[JTR70]

Hey Mark,

Again nice job on those parts! You're right, a nice unkinked, rust free 356A hood is a 1,000.00 all day long. There are three GT items that I am not putting on my GT clone and one is the through hood fill. I prefer the clean uncluttered look which is why I also shaved the hood handle. While its race inspired purpose of quick access I would never put a hole in my #'s matching unkinked "A" hood. Also I have an original 904 gas cap going on my tank and could never leave the car from my sight with that poking through the hood for fear of that getting swiped! This is strictly my own personal taste for my own car but I am not mounting those leather hood straps or the big mesh screen headlight protectors either. The car looks too "insect" like with them on. The leather straps were obviously a mandated precaution during that era but there is no way in the hell I would drill holes in my hood or nose just to mount belt buckles. Again, not knocking those who have or will just my own opinion for my car. Keep up the great work Mark!
Justin

[merbesfield]

Not in the budget for another hood and I honestly don't think I could ever bring myself to cut a hole in my original hood. I do intend to do the leather straps, but have a thought that they could end up being a PIA to unbuckle every time you have to gas up or get into the bonnet. But I love the look. I got the battery pan welded in last night, worked till midnight. No pics yet, too ugly to post. Will require skilled grinding to beautify. Welding upside down sucks. I was definitely spoiled with two rotisseries.