Project 25

[Ignatzcatz]

Just back from the awesome DDK Tour de Jurassic and the message on my answerphone said 'yer rims are done' so Monday morning and I'm off down to my polishers to pick 'em up. And how blingtastic are they. It's a full wheel polish job which should really upset the cognoscenti and I've got chrome lug nuts too. These are 16 x 7's to go onto the rear of the 356 which is going to have the bottom part of the rear wing pulled out about 30 to 40 mil so the 205 tyres will be well within the confines of the wheelarch. The inner wheel dimensions have all be checked and there is no chance of anything fouling so I've gone a bit mental on the rear suspension and ordered a bunch of stuff from Elephant racing in Santa Clara Ca. including phosphor bronze spring plate bushings. We are still deliberating on position for the oil tank on the car, one thought is to have the tank in the offside rear wing with the fill flap punched out on the wing ala early 911's. If it can be done it would be uber kool but available space is the first consideration. Still loads to do but the end of Summer is still a likely finish time.

[jeremyg]

I can’t wait that long to see this Graham!

[Ignatzcatz]

A long overdue progress report. Steve down at Classic Fabrications, where my car currently resides, has been a little down on manpower of late which has effected the progress of the build also there has been additional, unforeseen problems concerning the bodywork. This is something I was aware of but I didn't think it would have any effect on the build, but I was wrong. I recall when I was in the throws of restoring and building my 356 when I installed the original 4 banger motor the fit was tight to the extent that the rubber gasket around the engine tinware was pressed hard against the bodywork in the rear of the engine compartment. No bother I thought and just got out the porta-power and after a few demonic pumps I had eased the bodywork out sufficiently to get the motor in nicely. However when Steve, he off the 10th of a millimetre Vernier and cross measure and plumb lines got checking, he found the rear end out by a rather substantial 25 mill, so much so that the 16 x 7 Fuchs with 205 rubber was sticking out of the offside wheelarch. This was not good so on discussion when I was last in the workshop we decided to copy an American 356 that this done to it so it could run big rims, and this was to slice the rear fender up to the rear side window and insert a thin pie cut of steel to compensate for the old damage to the car. I'll leave it to the pics to further show what Steve did, craftsman that he is.
Oh crap, all the pics are too big to be posted and I'm just too shagged out tonight to minimise them but I'll post this note now and do all the pics tomorrow OK.

[Bootsy]

Looks forward to them

[sladey]

+1

[Ignatzcatz]

To continue . . .Stevo got the weapons out and proceeded to slice up the bitch, glad I wasn't there, I wouldn't have been able to watch after all the hours of block sanding and priming, but it had to be done. I remember my painter mate Andy saying it looked like there was a fair bit of pug in there, there being the offside rear, but it was smooth and everything fitted so I did not delve deeper. My mistake and I really should have gotten the whole shell bead blasted way before I started but that's hindsight for you. So here's how it went . . .

[Ignatzcatz]

That's Mrs. Kerti's curtains there, they'll wash out. And it all got stitched back together. A minor problem was the repositioning of the tail light which needed it's bum chopped off and re-welded. Thankfully I still have a bit of paint left over for the touch ups.

[hot66]

wow

[Ignatzcatz]

I received glowing reports about the replacement phosphor bronze bushings that hold the torsion bar tube ends and spring plates manufactured by Elephant Racing in Santa Clara which is near to San Fran in California. In fact I met one of their main men - Art at the Lit Meet in LA earlier this year. He was enthusiastic about this conversion and, of course, highly recommended the parts offered by his Company. It was a bit of a no-brainer not to get hold of this kit because it would make the set up of the rear suspension simplified and exact. Not cheap and not helped by the crappy exchange rate but it all fitted perfectly and will be a bonus to the car.

[Gary71]

That’s a brave cut!

Is it symmetrical now?

[Ignatzcatz]

I most certainly hope it is symmetrical but I have just had an OMG moment because when I was chopping the rear to fit the frenched boxes for the Ford tail lights I did measure the distance from the engine lid and other points and, as far as I know got them equally spaced. The rear end was found to be 25mm out and Steve had to move the O/S tail light box but I'm sure everything is kosher.

[anglophone1]

Fab, Graham, just fab!

[S.J.Szabo]

If one may be so bold, do I understand correctly that you have "wedged" one fender and not the other?

A tricky business what with the square-ness of the shot and all, but it seems to my old eyes that the butt is noticeably asymmetrical in the shots above.

As an aside, this mod (called "wedging") is not so very uncommon on this side of the Pond. The trickiest part is not getting carried away such the curvatures remain smooth, especially in plan view.

This is certainly a more sophisticated approach than the 2x4 I used to massage the back of the wheel opens to get my 195/65s on 5.5" disc brake wheels to fit under my T1 A.

[Ignatzcatz]

Don't freek me out, Steve who is doing the body work is the most amazing metal worker, uses English wheel like a knife and fork, so I cannot imagine he's got it wrong. I actually saw the back end was 25 mm out and that's what he put back into the off side fender so it's gotta be kosher, although looking at the pics it does look way out I grant you. It wasn't a case of pulling the fender out to gain clearance for the wheel, the whole bodywork had been pushed over to the left to the extent that the wheel simply stuck outside the line of the fender. Presumably an ancient accident that was never properly repaired.

[roy mawbey]

Amazing work for sure. You have to be brave to attempt all that. Its odd that when you apply primer to an area on the back of the car on one side only the eyes have to take that into account as it can seem to lower one side to the other. Only when you look very closely do you see it is really level.

This is going to be special when finished.

Well done!

Roy