March 2005 Archives

I finally got out to Don's shop yesterday to do some more bodywork on the coupe. Don had been working on doing a better job pulling out the old accident damage at the rear of the car. Unfortunately, the metal is thin from previous repairs, and repair is difficult in the first place because of no clearance to access the back of the panel (the inner wall of the engine compartment prevents this). If this were a concours car, you would have to cut off the rear clip to fix it perfectly. In our case, we used the stud welder to gently pull out the dents. The thin metal caused a few tears in the metal, which we then had to weld up, and eventually we realized we were making very little progress. The remaining damage truly isn't very deep and should be able to get filled with all-metal or some other quality filler in good fashion.
I proceeded to tackle fitting up one of the replacement rocker panels. I decided to start on the left, driver's side because this side doesn't require the amount of repairs in the door area that the right side will. I figure it is better to start on the "easy" side to get some experience and then move on to the more difficult work.

The reproduction rockers need quite a few changes to fit properly, as many have told me in the past. First off, at the inside edge where it meets the longitudinal, there is a flange for spot-welding the rocker horizontally to the door-sill area. Originally this was done with spot-welds for three pieces of sheetmetal at a time: The inner longitudinal/sill on top, with the outer longitudinal in the middle, and the rocker on the bottom. Obviously this isn't being duplicated in the same way during the repair, even though the order of the panels has remained the same. I removed the horizontal flange, and I will be using the remaining vertical flange to attach the rocker to the outer longitudinal. Access for making plug welds on the horizontal flange would be near-impossible.
Another part that needs adjusting is the contour of the bends in the rocker where both front and rear meet the fender. There is a piece of wire in the rocker/fender with the metal skin rolled around it; I need to unroll the skin on the rockers, recontour the wire slightly, and then fold the metal back around the wire so that the radius of the rocker properly matches the radius of the fenders. It will be tedius. If there are little imperfections, I should be able to build up a bit of mig weld and then grind.

The portion of the rocker adjacent to the door also is only a rough approximation of the correct shape, and will require hammer/dolly and filler work.

Last, my door isn't in perfect shape. It's dinged up and dented. We worked on pulling out some of these dents, but need to do more. The rocker, which is now simply tacked in place with a few mig welds on both ends, is currently proud (sticking out) past the bottom of the door 1/16 or even 1/8" in places, and it should be flush. I need to fit the rocker in as far as I can, and then I will be forced to re-contour the door bottom to fit it better.

One thing to note, and it may be non-obvious to those who haven't attempted this kind of work before: actual welding time is minimal for many of these body repair/replacement pieces. The majority of the time is getting the reproduction parts fitting well.
Don was working on getting the replacement nose clip in better shape. A month or so ago I tacked the two pieces together where it had been cut down the center. Don was working on finishing this seam as well as working out some dents and other damage. The part isn't great, but it is original, and it is in much better shape than what it is replacing.

I hope people enjoy the pictures...I'm glad to be making progress on the body again. Both Don and I agree that it would be ideal to have the basic metalwork complete in a month. Probably totally unrealistic, but hey, everyone needs goals.

No bodywork progress yet. It is hard to be patient, but I spoke with Don this week. The '40 Ford he was working on is finally finished. I'll be going to the shop next Tuesday to spend the whole day working on the car. Hopefully we'll make some decent progress; I anticipate either working on getting the nose fitted up, maybe even tacked on, or working on the door/lockpost areas.

In the interim, he has been working on improving the old repair to the accident damage in the tail section, which was pulled out in rather poor fashion many years ago and then covered with a pretty thick layer of filler.

In the interim, I kept my motivation up by spending money (of course!) and rebuilding/cleaning/selling parts. As for selling: in the last three years I built up quite an inventory of parts I either needed or thought I would need for the car, including a set of high-compression forged pistons and cylinders, aluminum valve covers, extra cams/cam gears, rods, etc. I got good deals on eBay and I couldn't pass them up. You know the drill, if you have ever had a real taste of eBay. Well, I got together everything I knew I wasn't going to end up using and resold it. I cleaned everything up and made most of it better than it was before I purchased it, and I got my money back, sometimes a bit more. All very nice because I had some expensive purchases left for the C motor.

I got around to ordering most of the missing parts for completing the C motor overhaul, including a set of big bore pistons and cylinders, as well as a full flow oil pump cover from Precision Matters. Ron LaDow, the proprietor of Precision Matters, has always been very helpful with advice and answers for me throughout the 356 restoration, and I totally believe that his full flow oil filter is a great key to longevity for 356 motors. The original 356 motor only has a bypass oil filter design, which Ron's careful and scientific analysis has shown only filters a miniscule portion of oil. With bearing, crank, rod, etc. prices being what they are, metal and other foreign object contamination (and damage) is not what we need. Full flow oil filtration should solve this problem in most cases. While the pump cover is expensive ($495), it would more than pay for itself with any one expensive engine rebuild part. Piece of mind is worth a great deal as well. I'll have a review as it is installed and used.

The other thing I've done is rebuild my fuel pump. The one that came with the car didn't have any pumping action left in it. I ordered a rebuild kit a few months ago; they cost between $25-30 and included a new pump diaphram, filter, and screw set. Installation is pretty much as easy as splitting the pump housing, replacing the diaphram and filter, and screwing things back together with the proper springs in place. It is much more cost effective than a new fuel pump, which would cost on the order of $200.

I hope my next entry will include shots of the last stages of bodywork on the shell of my 356 coupe!

After waiting what seemed like an eternity to get my "C" crankshaft back from the machine shop, I finally have had a chance to get the bottom half of my engine assembled. The "C" crank returned from being cut to 1st undersize on both the main and rod bearing journals, something I hadn't counted on being required when I bought the engine, but I'm glad I disassembled the whole thing and inspected it just the same. The "soft plugs" in the crank were also removed, and all the internal oil passages were cleaned and flushed before replacing them. The machine work is beautiful but it was pretty pricey -- total cost to grind and re-harden (nitride) the crank, as well as resize and re-bush the connecting rods, and resurface the cam lifters/followers, came to $550. The work appears to be first rate, and it is cheaper than buying a new reproduction crank, which would cost nearly $1000. The accompanying picture shows the crank with the rods reassembled on it. The small specs you see on the journals are from dust left behind by "lint free" Kimwipes, so it is nothing to be concerned about.
As you can deduce from above, I got the shortblock assembled. My rods fit beautifully on the "new" crank with 1st undersize rod bearings, and after having done the '59 engine with all those dowels to hold the main bearings, using the split shells with the retaining tabs on the "C" engine was a piece of cake. I cleaned up the case halves very well, inserted the bearing shells, and gooked everything up with moly lube and "secret sauce" (Harry Pellow's way of describing a 50-50 mixture of STP Oil Treatment and motor oil). Once again Chuck let me borrow his priceless huge tube of Loctite 574, and I coated the right side case half with the flange sealant. With the crank, cam followers, and reground camshaft (a "torquey" 266 degree street grind somewhere near performed by Tim Berardelli Racing in Alexandria, VA) in place, the case halves mated without any trouble. Having some experience from the '59 motor was a plus. Everything has gone much more quickly and smoothly to this point.
I torqued the case together without incident, and now the motor sits awaiting further assembly. I haven't had a chance to source a new set of pistons and cylinders yet, I plan on doing that this weekend. I am also convinced that for the amount of money I have invested in the project, a full flow oil filter adapter for the oil pump cover is a very good idea. I mean, machining costs on the "C" engine alone are about $1300! I will be ordering a cover from Ron LaDow, who runs Precision Matters.

I need to call Don Mills this weekend and see if he is finished with the '40 Ford and is ready to start helping me finish the bodywork on my own car...he has promised me he is nearly done. Somehow I have my doubts. That said, I optimistically registered for the 2005 356 East Coast Holiday, to be held near South Boston, VA. It is a fairly short drive and I do plan on doing everything in my power to drive the coupe there under its own power.