Verification Of Sheetments Finishing

[Nathan Ward]

Hiya,

Could somone confirm the sheetmetal finishing is done correctly on this piece?

'57 356 coupe

Thanks in advance!

[Alain Buchert]

Your work seems good
More of detail for you here.
http://buc356.skynetblogs.be/archive/20 ... udure.html
http://buc356.skynetblogs.be/archive/20 ... nture.html
http://buc356.skynetblogs.be/archive/20 ... nture.html

[David Gensler]

Nathan,
The large round hole opening into the heat channel is where the vent door goes. This is a round metal plate, with an operating mechanism (shaft, knob, locking collar) to allow it to be opened or closed from the passenger compartment.

The four small holes (what I think you reference as rivet holes) midway between the hinge brackets should not be there.

David Gensler

[Nathan Ward]

Thanks for the replies!

So it looks like the five ribbed panel is 'finished' correctly on the bottom and I need to do some research on the heater vent door.

Also, the sheetmetal guru working on the car is concerned about the jack mounting plates? I know that the general rule is not to actualy use them if they are installed but I would either like to reinforoce them as there is nothing directly under them in the longitudinals (has this been done by somone?) or omit them to keep the lines clean but this would detract from an otherwise concours car. Any suggestions?

Also, I have two small holes on the top of the front left fender that are obviously for a mirror. Were these only installed on the carreras? My car is not a carerra but would like to keep the mirror there, just not sure if it was stock.

Thanks again!

Nathan

[Larry Coreth]

This what belongs in the hole in the forward door jam

[Nathan Ward]

This what belongs in the hole in the forward door jam

Thanks Alain, David and Larry, that sure helps!

I wonder what they had in those 4 rivet holes, they are exactly the same half way between the hinge brackets on both sides. I was actually refering to the rivet holes around the heater vent hole which are obviously not supposed to be there either.

Now just to figure out the mirror holes on the font fender and the jack spur mounting reinforcements.

[Larry Coreth]

In my experience the jack receivers are perfectly safe if you know they are not rusty and you use a good factory jack. Putting a floor jack under them is a NO-NO as this will tend to crush the underside of the receiver re-enforcement, Obviously with new longitudinals in place there should be no rust. Back in the day I used the factory jack all the time and have on my Speedster recently to change a tire on the road, knowing of course that during restoration in 1984 the longitudinals and the receivers were replaced.

[David Gensler]

Nathan,
I missed the rivet holes around the perimeter of the vent door opening in your photo. They should not be theer. Logical assumption is that somebody lost the vent door parts for your car, and just riveted a piece of tin in place to cover the opening. You could weld them up, but they appear to be in the area that gets the round foam seal so they would get covered up anyway.

The four larger holes between the door hinges open into the warm air ducting, so you should probably plug them up somehow.

Your car should have the 2 rearmost heater tube supports paired directly under the jack receiver, strengthening the area and helping prevent distortion.

[Nathan Ward]

Thanks David,

Can anyone comment on if it is possible that my late '57A coupe 1600N was fitted with a mirror on the drivers side fender?

[Barry Brisco]

Can anyone comment on if it is possible that my late '57A coupe 1600N was fitted with a mirror on the drivers side fender?

Hi Nathan,

Side mirrors were sometimes mounted on the fenders, not on the doors, so it is certainly "possible", unless you have your fenders down to bare metal and see no signs of holes or repaired holes.

Best regards,

[Nathan Ward]

No, there are definately holes in the fender and none in the doors. What would the 'style' of mirror be?

[Tom Tate]

Side mirrors were dealer installed due to different requirements in different countries. Unless there was a notation on the Kardex I'd say the style was whatever the dealer had in stock. There is a very low mileage '56 A here in the northeast that was delivered through a Buick dealer that had a Buick mirror nailed to the drivers door. Looks strange but makes a great story. KTF