The Horror

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:32 pm

Hi All
here is a fine example of laminated rusty crap, this old dear was Restored some years ago mostly by covering everything over with sheet steel , Nice

I am trying to get it through an MOT without completely recontructing the poor old thing , wish me luck , Bill

Hendrik Moulds · Post by **Hendrik Moulds** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:38 am

Good luck with that.
I had the same scenario with the B I had. Took a lot of work to get it right.
Hopefully yours won't be as bad.

Helen · Post by **Helen** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 8:28 am

yikies

think you might have a little work to do there.

Burma-Shave · Post by **Burma-Shave** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:16 pm

wow, you can see how pretty it must have looked underneath with all the shiny shockers and fittings, before you started poking around!

So, why did Porsche build their cars like onions?

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:44 pm

Hi All
I spent a while this morning staring at the ragged edges trying to figure out what to do first and came up with a cunning plan, the first thing to fix is the bottom of the front bulkhead which is pretty much all still there then the bottom corners of the front axle closely followed by the the little frame rails that connect the front bulkhead to the axle, once thats done I'm going to knock up a simple jig or nick the one holding up my friends A coupe shell, remove its weighty engine and box and bolt it into the jig, then hack out the floor, weirdly most of its original floor is still present encased between sheet steel top and bottom, then repair the patched up inner sills and fit a new floor, lastly the manky longitudinals will be briged back onto the new floor but I wont go too nuts with the welder as they will need sorting later, hopefully the net result of this will be a stiffer lighter 356 that will pass an MOT and won't fold up so readily in an accident , I know a few will not agree with this but the owner wants to drive the car for the summer and I think it won't get in the way of sorting the patched up longitudinals and inner wings etc later , I will post up some more pictures shortly , Bill

roy mawbey · Post by **roy mawbey** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:13 pm

I really wish you all the best with the amount of work you have to do but do you mean this summer for it to be on the road? I reckon once you start cutting and welding it could be next summer. If you buy the floors and the perimeter pieces to install it might even be easier to fit the outer longitudinals at the same time and save all that effort later on.

The problem is once you start cutting and exposing other areas its difficult not to attend to them. I do know just how quickly the hours pass and the weeks to do these jobs you just have to be flexible. In saying that, if you are working full time on it and you are very experienced with the torch and you have done it before, then it might work out for you for this summer. I hope you keep us up to date with progress as this could really be a most informative and interesting thread to follow.

I remember in 1968 looking to buy an "A" in Twickenham it didn't look too bad until I poked my head underneath and saw a complete flat floor I guess like yours. It proved to me, that in 10 years let alone 50, the metalwork didn't exactly last long!

I really hope it goes well for you. ( And I don't disagree with what you are trying to do, it takes a brave guy to just attempt that sort of work!! )

Roy