HotRod "Coupster" 57976 coupe into full speedster

[JTR70]

Below are some shots of what I experienced as being either the second or third hardest original part to acquire individually. The dreaded speedster lower windshield frame. This piece was part of an entire frame I had to buy for 3K just so I could get it in the done column. The previous owner had it mounted somehow on his roadster and for whatever fitment issues had cut about an inch off of the rightside lower and the right side upper. My first upper frame was prestine so I kept it and this lower section together.


Great part! Original shape intact with nice chrome. Only drawback was that clipped right side end.


A replacement section had to be fabricated. My mentor Greg parker helped me fix this way back in '02. What was great about greg's place was the amount of scrap material laying around to fix just about anything. We found our donor material in this old brass bell he found at the bottom of his scrap brass barrel. It was cut in half and the donor portion was heat and hammered into basic shape. Lots of careful filing and shaping would be next. Pictured here are the remains of the bell. The left over shaped repair section and the final repair which has now heavily tarnished from the years.


new section silver soldered into position and in final shape.


Getting that half-moon profile along with that gentle sweeping curve took some time and patients.


Ready for replating or maybe not. The rest of the frame is beautiful and I'm now thinking I'll just mount it as is and leave this section raw as a reminder of my old friend and all that he taught me. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[stp356]

Good job on the windshield frame. Pretty creative using a donor bell!!

[JTR70]

Hey Thank you Steve! I have to give all the credit to my dear late friend and mentor Greg Parker. Actually the bell was the closest scrap piece of Brass that he had on hand. It was about the right thickness so we went with it! I learned a great deal from him! Thanks again! Justin

[JTR70]

While I'm on the subject of the windshield frame here are the details of the custom mounts to the car. Now that I had my complete W/S frame set I was ready to get it mounted on my car. My next project was the mounts and recess pockets for the posts. These pockets are a very unique tapered teardrop shape. I wanted this to look authentic so I contacted trevor marshall again about this mounting area. He informed that he could make the pockets but did not offer the actual tube mount for the post shank. He was at 750.00 for just the pockets. I would have stepped up and bought them if the actual mount was included but since I was left to fabricate it;I decided to make the pocket as well and put that 750.00 towards other parts. During this time my 356 restorer friend was rebuilding speedster #54 (80054). Access to this shell provided all the critical measurments and info I needed. While discussing this whole process with him he gave a very valuable piece of advice and a stern warning which set the tone for this side project. He explained how the mount angles and placement in relation to one another was crucial! if they are at all off or uneven the frame would never clamp evenly and I would be cracking windshields once I started sinching up the bolts. This would have been a nightmare senario for sure. Needless to say I heeded the warning and extra care was taken during the tube mounting phase. But before that could happen I had to build my basic components first.


First items where the actual mount tubes for the post shanks. My original posts gave me all the info I needed to fabricate them. Donor tube sections came from a VW tie rod. Really thick metric stock that was then bored out to accept the post shanks. The walls still remained meaty; they were perfect for this job. Cut to length and tops were angle cut to fit flush against the bottom of the post. finshed pieces pictured here.


Last basic pieces were the pockets. To get the right shape and profile I had to make a model. I went back to speedster #54 and carefully pressed tin foil into each pocket. once shaped I gingerly removed them and entombed them in bondo so they could be handled and not distort. With my new models Greg and I beat a pair out of 18 guage steel. Wanted the extra meat for filing and fine shaping. They are pictured here in rough intial shape with the models I made. An intersting detail with this early speedster was that the pockets were not symetrical. One was noticably cupped deeper then the other.


Initial fitment of the cups begins. The crucial install of the tube mounts would follow next. Thanks for reading this! justin

[JTR70]

With basic parts made came the very scary and intimidating prospect of setting the post mounts. Its been about 8 years since this was done but I do remember spending several lengthy sessions getting this all to work. Tacking, adjusting, cutting and retacking of these tubes. Then double checking all over again. It had to be right; fortunately I still had Greg there to guide me.


Mount tube tacked into position. This was probably the fourth or fifth time here. So much had to be right; centered on the car, even laterally, angle on the posts correct, proper position in relation to the cups, even in heigth and on it went.


Eventually we did get it all set. With the tubes in final position I capped the bowls and began glueing everything together.


Always something new to learn. While doing major rust repair on speedster 83142 I found out there is a reinforcement cover plate behind the cups. I shot this picture so I can replicate and install them before the dash goes back on.


Mounts complete and ready for fine finishing. I can still remember a huge sense of relief and accomplishment the day I shot this picture.


Windshield frame fully mounted and drawn tight here. This was a biggy! I used this broken windshield for the first few installs with no additional damage occuring after tightening. I eventually got brave and installed my new windshield with no problems! So far so good. we'll have to see what happens after a few road miles are put on it. Thanks for looking at this! justin

[Craig Richter]

Justin, just spent some time catching up on your project. Wow! Did you ever bite off something big! It will certainly be interesting to follow your future progress...
I'll save any comments about your sanity for (much) later, but you sure have gained my admiration for tackling such a dream, along with (I assume) job, family, and now this super forum. Do you ever find time for sleep? Craig

[JTR70]

Hi Craig,
I really appreciate you taking a moment to look through this thread. It is a very involved project which has changed and evolved through the last ten+ years. I was crazy to start this before finishing my coupe so I have questioned my sanity as well. Roy Mawbey had asked when I found time to sleep as well right after I started this new site.(I am glad to hear you like it BTW) My seceret is I don't have any children and I am self employed. This allows me the freedom to chase after these crazy passions I have. I have been meaning to update this thread so I'll round up the next batch of photos here shortly. Thanks again for that nice post Craig!
Best Regards,Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Now that part of the job really interests me. To make those pockets by the method you explained has made me re read your post twice. I can understand you pressed some foil into the original and then presumably let that sit in a light mix of bondo. I thought first of all plastercine would do that but of course removing it from the impression would have deformed it.

But using then the resultant male form to make the master being so small and because its bondo, how did you form the sheet metal part? I am lost here, I can see with special rounded end punches you can make the depressions but to check it I am lost. How did you do that????

Its ended up of course perfectly good, I think if you were able to tighten the screen into place without fracture it will be okay on the road.

That also saved you a lot of money which can't be bad. Pleased to know I am not the only one who wonders how you do all that and find time to sleep. Thanks for the explanation!

Roy

[JTR70]

Hi Roy,

I triple plyed the foil to help a bit more with rigidity. once pressed into the cavity it was ever so gingerly removed. Once out I mixed up some putty and carefully swiped the smooth outer profile with bondo applied with just my finger. Once I had the shape stabilized enough I applied it to the rough and ratty backside as well. once completely entombed and ridgid I began sanding and shaping the outer profile smooth. I took it down where I could just make out some foil begining to come through. I now had my basic profile to shoot for.
The cups themselves were fashioned the old way with lots of torch heat an anvil and a couple of dies that helped to tighten up the curves. These things really got worked! It was really my mentor Greg that did most of the shaping on these.
Thanks Roy, they turned out pretty good but there are a few things I would improve on knowning what I do now. I may tidy things up a bit more when I start back to work on it. Hope that description made sense.
Thanks again! Justin

[JTR70]

The day it was ready to come back to me.

These shots were all taken before the luxury of the digital camera so you'll have to forgive the large gaps in progress. These were taken on the afternoon that Warren had gone as far as he could go at the moment so the car was finally ready to come back to me after almost two years with him. I could not have been more excited and happy as I was this particular afternoon!

Car was almost a roller; the rear was anyway.

All the cagework so far looked just a good and cool as I had hoped it would!

911 block and trans all mocked-up with motor mounts etc. The real teadious work was just about to begin creating patch and closing panels to tie old in with new. Note: the old rocker torsion tube hole with the new more forward torsion position to get the stock wheelbase back using the much longer late model 911 suspension. More to come. Thanks for looking! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Thanks Justin, I get the idea now. The idea is one thing forming those little devils is something else!! I tended to forget about heat!!

I really miss my gas welding kit, I had the large bottles and extension hoses. When I moved house the car was done I had my fill of welding but now all those years later I miss it.

Roy