WCSTA -06- 56 T1

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#16 Post by Harlan Halsey »

More progress: the entire car is now in primer, all panels fitted.
IMG_3388 all In Promer.jpg

At this point I think we can say that the car has been "saved". From here on its just the usual light restoration: Wiring, Suspension, Steering, etc. One thing I am going to do is fit the car for a B/C shifter. To do that I will use the B/C routing for the rear brake line. We have put the lower hole in the tunnel end where the brake line bracket was. I have a 741 transmission case sitting in the car now attached to the hoop. And right now i'm figuring out how to get the 741 front mounts to mate with the 644 chassis mounts.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#17 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Well, installing the 741 turned out to be more involved than I had thought it might be. The front (nose) mount ears on the 741 are about 1/2" lower than they are on the 644:
IMG_3453 644 741 Mount Difference.jpg
Which meant that he shifter wouldn't quite clear the torsion bar tube. Luckily Bruce had a torsion bar tube center section which he had cut out of a '59, so I hole sawed the 741 hole and used it to see what was what:
IMG_3462 Fit to Car.jpg
As you can see the 644 shifter passes in the dented area of the tube and the 741 must pass beneath the full round section.The torsion tube is 3" in diameter but the space between the 644 and the 741 shifter bosses is about 2 3/4". I decided to move the 741 nose piece mounts up 7/8", 1/2" to put them in the right position vis a vis the 644 transmission mounts, and an additional 3/8" to clear the torsion tube. In the picture the 741 is in the desired position.

To accomplish this, I had Ron Chuck weld on aluminum extensions. He did a terrific job: perfect alignment, easy to machine and no voids:
IMG_3460 Machining Weldment.jpg
This is how it came out.
IMG_3478 741 to 644 front Mount.jpg
We put the modified nose on the transmission case, and installed the transmission into the car. It went in easily, so now on to the next.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#18 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Apparently the shift tube which runs from the transmission to the shifter is called the "Peace Pipe". I hadn't heard that one before. Clearly the shifter is early B because the shift lever has the roll pin and it's socket is slotted. But the one I have is not straight
IMG_3493 61 Peace Pipe.jpg
The bend looks like it could be a factory bend, but is it? Or were they all straight?

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Doug McDonnell
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#19 Post by Doug McDonnell »

Discussion of the 3 types of peace pipes.viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37659&p=227183&hili ... pe#p227183 2 for B and 1 for C cars. I have not had a car with the early B pipe but later B and C have no bend.
1965 356C 2000 BMW 740i Sport 1967 Honda CL77 There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over.

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Vic Skirmants
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#20 Post by Vic Skirmants »

I think that bend on the early B pipe is factory. I can check when I get home Monday. Drop me an email if you want me to do that.

Jon Bunin
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#21 Post by Jon Bunin »

Harlan Halsey wrote:Clearly the shifter is early B because the shift lever has the roll pin and it's socket is slotted. But the one I have is not straight
The bend looks like it could be a factory bend, but is it? Or were they all straight?
Harlan, that's a very early B tunnel rod.
Yes, they had a bend like that, assuming that the socket is still 90° to the length of the rod.

That rod should have an 18mm opening at the rear. If you use it, make sure that you have or purchase the correct coupler for it.
There's also an updated, stronger tunnel rod that will work with your early B shifter, which has 15mm opening at the rear.
Jon Bunin

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Doug McDonnell
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#22 Post by Doug McDonnell »

If you do not have it the correct coupler will look like the one on the left. Photo is from an old post by Jon.
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1965 356C 2000 BMW 740i Sport 1967 Honda CL77 There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#23 Post by Jon Bunin »

Doug, there are aluminum-bodied replacements for all versions, so I wouldn't necessarily ID couplers by appearance.
I think it's best to ID couplers by shaft diameter.
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Doug McDonnell
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#24 Post by Doug McDonnell »

True Jon Here is the link that provides more info on peace pipes and couplers: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37659&hilit=shift+coupler
1965 356C 2000 BMW 740i Sport 1967 Honda CL77 There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#25 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Thank you for all the information. The tunnel was in the basket case '59 Carrera pictured at the left,along with the rest of the shifter. The rod was a bit dented which is partly why I'm not sure what the original configuration was. When I removed the dents and began straightening it, I was left with four what looked like factory dents. two either side of the bend, and the shifter socket is perpendicular to the long axis. The coupler looks like the one on the left above, and the interior diameter of the tunnel rod is a little under 18mm. I wasn't aware that there was a difference in diameters, thank you Jon.

These parts have been sitting on a shelf since 1977 and now is the time to put them to use.
My first Porsche was a 1962 B coupe which I drove to work for years, and sometimes towed the race car, a Lotus S7. That car was lost in a wreck and I replaced it with my '58 Convertible D in 1970 when I came to California. That's a great car but I always thought the shifter is a little crude. That impression was heightened when I got the Carrera which came with the A shifter as well as the early B. I put the Carrera back to 644 configuratiion. The Carerra always seemed to be hard to shift,compared to the D, and very hard to get into reverse. But it was a race car and it was what it was. It was only a year ago that, in conjunction thinking about this '56 that I decided to take a good look at the Carrera shifter. Two things came to light: first the Carrera shifter had been lengthened below the pivot. It was a short shifter! No wonder it took a little more effort to shift. and secondly the longer shifter hit the car bottom a little before it would move over to reverse! No wonder it was hard to get into reverse. Reverse was easy to remedy with a spacer under the shifter mounting. So the B shifter in the '56 may not be quite the big deal I thought it was going to be but it'll be fun to see, and the car can go either way.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#26 Post by Harlan Halsey »

One of the neat things about the 356 is the engineering which went into the parts. I refer here to the windshield wiper mechanism. There's nothing inherently difficult about attaching an electric motor to a crank and running wiper blades back and forth with it, except that it has run and then park the wipers in the same place each time the wipers are shut off. The "C" care have a relatively sophisticated system: variable speed. The control knob connection is all electrical and the motor uses dynamic braking. But that system didn't come about all at once. The 1956 T1 system is crude by comparison: single speed, friction braking and the on off control is by Bowden cable.

The unit on the '56 T1 was in need of some work: The gear boxes were frozen and the smoke had escaped out of the armature windings.
IMG_3441 Wiper Armature.jpg
The armature is a bit unusual in that it has a brake band below the windings. I gave it to Palo Alto Electric to be rewound and they sent to to So Cal where after a couple of try's they finally got it right.
IMG_3444 Wiper Brake.jpg
Here you can see the brake band attached to the start/stop lever.

In the following picture, you can see the wiper control. The control lever rides on a cam attached to the output shaft, a circle with a notch in it. In the picture the motor has stopped in the running position but the cable is in the stop position, because that's where the motor happened to stop when I disconnected the power. When I reconnect the power, the motor will run until the spring succeeds in pushing the lever into the notch. Then the points attached to the lever will open and the brake band will tighten on the armature. Pulling on the Bowden cable with the dash knob will pull the lever out of the notch closing the circuit, and releasing the brake band. As long as the knob is in the run position, the spring will be prevented from pushing the lever into the notch and opening the circuit. Volia! A single speed system with the park function. (In the later electrical control systems, the cam lifts a pin which opens a set of points, and the speed control is by a variable resistor in the field circuit.)
IMG_3439 Bowden Cable Connection.jpg
The gear boxes cleaned up nicely, the only problem was hardened grease with which they were packed. These early boxes can easily be bolted back together, and the push-rods have conventional steel ball and socket ends, not the molded in plastic sockets which the later systems use.
IMG_3451Wiper Gear Box Components.jpg
The one thing I am missing is one 8 mm x .75 mm threaded nut which goes behind the dash to clamp the Bowden cable end. Luckily the outer chrome bezel and the knob are there.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#27 Post by Harlan Halsey »

The '56 chassis is undercoated and ready for the color coat. We will choose one of the shades of silver to go with the blue interior.
IMG_3736 Ready for The Color Coat.jpg
There are a few small things yet to do before paint: for example, I decided to remove the star wheels from the hood hinges so that the hood cannot be easily kinked again. A hood prop will be required, but I feel that will be a small price to pay.
IMG_3731 Hood Hinge.jpg
Removing the star wheel pivot is not trivial because the axle/bearing is larger than the hole in the side plate. The smaller tube is flared over the outside washer. When i tried to drill, the whole thing spun. The solution was to clamp a slightly larger drill in the vise, and set the bearing on it. That way the base drill tends to cut into the bearing tube and prevent it from turning while the bearing tube is drilled out.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#28 Post by Harlan Halsey »

This week we had some good weather and Bruce painted the body. Big milestone. The 2 stage silver will get a few weeks of drying, depending on the weather, then rub out. The doors, hood, and deck lid were painted a couple of weeks ago and got a couple of days drying in the sun.
IMG_3743 56 Painted.jpg
The paint is a fine flake metallic silver, chosen both to look like the 50s Porsche color and to compliment the blue interior.
56 T1 In Paint I lowK.jpg
And then final assembly: Wiring harness, brake lines, fuel line, shifter and the interior. We already have the complete new Autos interior. This is exciting progress.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#29 Post by Harlan Halsey »

One of the last pieces I need has been hard to find: the pivot bracket and U-bolt for the hand brake. Because the torsion bar tubes swell at the end, this clamp has about 1/4" larger clamp diameter than does the steering damper bracket. Vic Skirmants gave it to me! Thank you Vic.

This bracket shows one of the reasons I like working on 356 Porches: The pivot pin has 4 different diameters, where many manufacturers would get away with one or two, and a washer. The U-bolt is a forged part.
IMG_0087 '56 Hand B Painted and Plated.jpg

I haven't seen the type of horns which came with the car. they are a little larger in diameter than the later Bosch horns which I am used to. You can tell by the bracktry and the yellow color that these horns were on the car.
IMG_0094 Horn As Was_8.jpg
IMG_0093 56 Horn Front_4.jpg
And they lack the grille which the later horns have.

But amazingly, though I had to use the acetylene wrench to disassemble them they are cherry inside! It looks like clean-up, plating, painting, and new gasket will be all that is needed.
IMG_0092 56 Horn Inside_6.jpg
A Talk Line search on "Horns" came up with the information that these are in fact the type that came on 1956 T1 cars. I just hadn't run across them before.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#30 Post by Harlan Halsey »

The body has been polished out.
IMG_0105 56 Polished Out.jpg
And the interior and the underneath appropriately coated
IMG_0098 Front Trunk Textured.jpg
IMG_0100 Interior ready for Sound Deadner and Carpet.jpg
Next week the car goes back on the rotisserie and we start installing the wiring and the brake lines.

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