WCSTA -06- 56 T1

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#61 Post by Harlan Halsey »

You have a point, Vic. My usual route was through Boulder Creek and up Jamison Creek Road. 3 mile Jamison Creek is rough and steep so I took he coast highway and came over the Santa Cruze Mtns. on 84. The roads to each of our local tracks: Laguna Seca, Sears Point, and Thunder Hill are pretty smooth and flat.

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Steve Proctor
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#62 Post by Steve Proctor »

Even with tiedowns - remember Del Johnston's '56 coupe??
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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#63 Post by Harlan Halsey »

I now doubt that the steering shafts are internally splined, so I made a clamp: Took most of a couple of afternoons on the milling machine, and then finding an 8mm skt hd cap screw with the right length unthreaded shank took a bit of doing.
IMG_0321 Steering Clamp.jpg
IMG_0321 Steering Clamp.jpg (1.25 MiB) Viewed 5551 times
I ordered the bare shank screws from McMaster Carr, $6.00 a box. If anybody needs 50mm, 20mm bare shank skt hd cap screws, I'll give you some!

The steering shaft wiring is modified, I run the light wire back down the shaft and back up so as to have more play when installing the horn button.
IMG_0320 Steering Shaft Clamp.jpg
IMG_0320 Steering Shaft Clamp.jpg (1.65 MiB) Viewed 5551 times
This is how it looks installed. I should have shortened the shaft housing when I shortened the shaft. I have to disassemble the coupler to assemble the clamp on the shaft.
IMG_0322 Steering.jpg
IMG_0322 Steering.jpg (1.35 MiB) Viewed 5551 times
I also finished the front left shock mount. (You can see Anti Sieze inside. )
IMG_0323 Shock Mount.jpg
IMG_0323 Shock Mount.jpg (1.59 MiB) Viewed 5551 times
The insert is a drive fit, held in with a bearing mount Loctite. This is the finish of the job I started way back. Now the shock absorbers are all installed, as well as the front backing plates with the brake shoes.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Sat Oct 12, 2019 4:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#64 Post by Harlan Halsey »

The fuel sender was in bad shape. The windings were worn, corroded, and the contact was bad. These are NLA, but Stoddard has a modern replacement for about $60. The solution to the problem was to put the new works in the old housing. For this the milling machine was useful to modify the housing and most importantly to place the mounting screw accurately in both parts. Digital readout to the rescue!
IMG_0331 Fuel Sender 1.jpg
IMG_0331 Fuel Sender 1.jpg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 5481 times
As usual withaftermarket parts, some modification was necessary. The new sender woudn't fit into the tank, but fortunately an offending tab could be removed making just enough room.
IMG_0332 Fuel Sender 2.jpg
IMG_0332 Fuel Sender 2.jpg (1.9 MiB) Viewed 5481 times
The remaining part of the housing will hold the cover. I don't think the electrons will care that I didn't have a blue wire handy.
IMG_0335 fuel Sender 3.jpg
IMG_0335 fuel Sender 3.jpg (1.75 MiB) Viewed 5481 times
The old sender cover cleaned up nicely.
IMG_0336 Fuel Sender.jpg
IMG_0336 Fuel Sender.jpg (896.99 KiB) Viewed 5481 times
I measured the current draw of the gage and sender because it is a 6 v. unit and I intend to run most of the car on 12 v. The gage draws .13A at maximun, on empty. This is negligible for any of the redily available 12-6v converters. the Temp gage draws more, about .5A and the gage reading is voltage insensitive, changing only about half a needle width between 5.5 v. and 16 v. I think I will run the Temp gage on 12 v. This leaves the relays and the wiper motor to consider.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#65 Post by Harlan Halsey »

I'm not sure where the throttle pedal I have came from, but it is heavily pitted and then plated. The pin is badly worn, so I decided to replace it. I have a piece of 5mm rod so it's a piece of cake, right? Just peen over the end of the rod, insert it and peen the other end. Maybe use a little heat, but not enough to damage the plating.

Well, the rod didn't peen well even with a lot of heat. Too much heat to use in place, so on to plan B: Use the peened end and braze a washer on the other end. But the braze was weak and took a lot of heat so on to plan C: Have welding wizzard Ron Chuck TIG a washer on. But I checked with Dean Lyon about welding the A2 tool steel the rod was made of and found that that stuff doesnt weld well and becomes brittle-something I had observed after the hot peening. So on to plan D: Drill the end of the rod and peen the resulting ring just enough to hold a washer. That didn't turn out too well either, so on to plan E: machine a sleeve to go in the space between the inner bearings and pin it in place. Volia! that worked.

In the picture the pin is not yet fully inserted
IMG_0351 Throttle Pedal.jpg
IMG_0351 Throttle Pedal.jpg (1.36 MiB) Viewed 5424 times
So now I have a working throttle pedal. (This sort of thing is one reason I'm a little behind sechedule!)

Well.. not so fast! Turns out there's a return spring. So plan F: Turn a pin like the original and hold it with a tight drive fit thick washer.
IMG_0397 Throttle Pedal.jpg
IMG_0397 Throttle Pedal.jpg (1.51 MiB) Viewed 3606 times
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#66 Post by Harlan Halsey »

When we got the '56 the wiring loom was stuffed in a box. I laid it out on a large board and patched, spliced, repaired the covering, and checked everything. Bruce and I installed it, pulling through the tunnel and so forth last fall. Recently I have been finishing up the wiring, front rear, and under the dash. Today was the moment of truth, hook up the battery and look for smoke.

Except that I don't do that (anymore). I have a fuse holder with a 9 amp slow blow fuse which I put at the battery. I also left all the fuses out of the fuse block.

IMG_0357 12 v Battery w Fuse.jpg
IMG_0357 12 v Battery w Fuse.jpg (851.81 KiB) Viewed 5365 times

Contact, pull the light switch and volia, panel lights!

Next I will put the fuses in one by one and check each fused circuit. But before that I have one more thing to complete and that is the turn signal switch.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#67 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Assembling the doors is my least liked part of the whole thing. But it has to be done. The window glass was in poor shape, probably because the car sat outside with the widows up for quite a while before the previous owner rescued what was left.
The right window was stained cloudy below the window sill and has some scratches on it, particularly along where the rubber strip touches. Nothing would touch the staining, including fine steel wool. So before going to power tools I consulted the expert, Stacy, of Performance Auto Glass. Stacy took one look at the glass and offered me his polishing buffer and the compound, commenting that scratches deep enough to feel with your finger nail would be very difficult to polish out, and not to heat the glass too much in the process. It would take a while and be messy, he offered.

IMG_0361 Polishing Window.jpg
IMG_0361 Polishing Window.jpg (2.19 MiB) Viewed 5315 times

He was right about that. It took all afternoon and while the deeper scratches didn't come out, the staining did. How noticable the remaining scratches will be remains to be seen. I think the windows will be OK and the small scratches visible under garage lights may not be noticable. My blue jeans went directly into the wash.

Installing the windows is always a pain. More so when the Porsche Workshop Manual method involves bending the lift track with a pair of pliers and then bending it back!

There is another obvious method: Leave the lift mechanism loose and attach the lift track without the window frame in place. Attach the rear roller first and there's just enough room in the door to get the front roller on track. Attach the lift mechanism with its 4 6mm cap screws. Then lower the frame, window down, fuzzy channel installed, over the window. Again there's just enough room to spring the frame nut plates, rear one first, into the door. Then screw the frame in using the specially shortened cap screws. The cap screws must fully engage the window frame without penetrating the fuzzy strip space. The object is to end up with the frame fitting the door opening, just touching the door seal with the right pressure, straight sections of the frame parallel and spaced so the window rolls smoothly up and down. The right door is done and it took about a day. This included carefully cleaning and smoothing the lift track, and freeing and oiling the rollers. I suspect the left door will go faster.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#68 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Left door window is done, the window did go faster. But the wind deflector on the rear edge of the frame was a problem. The chrome plater, "polish" thinned the brass around the screw holes a bit. The result is that the tiny 3mm screws lost some of the already minimal thread engagement and all stripped. I suppose that the solution was to machine tiny stepped bushings, figure out a way to jig the frame on the milling machine. and accurately place the holes. I opted for JB Weld, clamping each screw. Then grinding off the J B Weld on the inside. It seems pretty strong, I guess we'll see.
The four frame mounting screws need to be long enough for full thread engagement, yet not penetrate into the window channel space. 9mm seems about right. I hacksaw longer screws close, grind to length and 45 the end. I had to visit three hardware stores to replenish my run down stock of 18,24,32 TPI blades. The clerks told me, "nobody uses a hacksaw anymore". Sign of the times, I guess, but think it would be hard to cut metal with a smart phone.

The next step is the outside door handles. I don't have any of the T1 style pushbutton locks. The T1s are different from the T2s. I am tempted to modify T1 handles to accept T2 locks. Just switch the internal parts of the housing and add an o-ring in place of the T2 rubber seal. Or maybe just use T2 handles, the difference is slight.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#69 Post by Harlan Halsey »

The T1 door handle issue is resolved: I modified the Stoddard repro handles to accept the T2 moving parts: (Ordinarily I wouldn't work so far from the chuck but the stock I made the expanding mandrel out of was already machined. Running the lathe slow and taking light cuts, it all worked out.)

IMG_0362 Door Handle Machining.jpg
IMG_0362 Door Handle Machining.jpg (1.31 MiB) Viewed 5059 times

It was easier to machine a brass T2 end than to take the end from a T2 handle:
IMG_0368 Door Handle Conversion.jpg
IMG_0368 Door Handle Conversion.jpg (1.81 MiB) Viewed 5059 times

The notch milled in the brass end cap takes a key made of the brass strip. The key is silver soldered in. when I get the new lock recievers from Stoddard, I will line everything up and JB Weld the end cap on.

As usual there was a slight complication: The pushbutton stands a litle proud of the T1 handle with the T2 hardware so I thickened the end cap to bring it more into line with the less curved T1 handle. That looks right, but then the lock pusher pin had to be shortened the same amount to allow the door to latch. All these years, I've just opened and shut the doors without thinking about the mechanism.....

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#70 Post by Harlan Halsey »

The following is conjecture, based on the 356s I own, and several I have observed: T1, resulting in the 356A, was a nearly clean sheet redesign of the 356 body. Porsche must have been confident in good sales of Carrera engine powered cars because they incorporated the necessary elements into every T1 body, not just the Carrera engined cars. These elements were as follows:
1. A lower engine tray seal attachment to acomodate the larger Carrera engine and the lower position of the tray. Made the pushrod engine tray removable.
IMG_0380 Carrera Engine Tray Seal Track.jpg
IMG_0380 Carrera Engine Tray Seal Track.jpg (2.86 MiB) Viewed 4800 times
2. Two hat sections on outside of the left rear engine compartment wall to mount the oil tank to.

3. Delete the left rear fender brace and use the oil tank shield instead see picture 1. I think the fender brace was bolted to the inner wall.

4. Put holes in the left rear engine compartment wall for oil line pass through.
IMG_0379 Carrers Oil Tank Holes.jpg
IMG_0379 Carrers Oil Tank Holes.jpg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 4802 times
5. Put the fuel pressure regulator mounting bracket on the firewall.
IMG_0378 Carrera Fuel Press Reg Bracket.jpg
IMG_0378 Carrera Fuel Press Reg Bracket.jpg (1.31 MiB) Viewed 4802 times
6. Two extra holes in the dashboard to acomodate the Carrera coil switches. Only on Carera engne cars.

7. Two extra holes in the front of the tunnel, pass throughs for lines for the front torsion tube mounted fuel pumps.Only on Carera engne cars.


8. Right cover in the tire well is removable to access the fuel pump.

If the car were to be a GT rather than a "steel bodied" GS, the front and rear would have the bottom edge rolled around a wire rather than flanged, then alunimum parts would be substituted for the deck lid,tunnel cover, doors, seat shells,fuel pump access cover, and hood. Front brake drums would be 60mm wide with wheel cylinder spacers, longer bleed screws,and vented backing plates. Rear drums had 20mm screw on spacers to equalize the track, and the wheels had aluminum rims on steel centers with 20mm different off set to acomodate the wider drums. Windows were plexiglass, except for the windshield, and the window lift mechanism was replaced by a leather strap. The GT cars omitted the Carrera script on the front fenders, and omitted the side mouldings, and had a simplified deco strip on the bumpers.

By sometime in 1956 it must have become obvious that Carrera engined 356As were going to be a small minority, so for 1958, as part of Porsche's T2, elements 1-5 and 8 above were eliminated. During and after T2, Carrera elements were incorporated only in the few cars which actually shipped with Carrera engines. Porsche did build a few 356GTs which were essentially GT Carrera bodies, but with the pushrod engines. It is not clear to me whether or not T2 GTs incorporated Carrera GT elements or not.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Sun Dec 22, 2019 4:30 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#71 Post by Vic Skirmants »

I don't think the dashboard for a pushrod car had extra holes. Those would be easy to add for a Carrera body.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#72 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Right. Also true for the fuel line holes in the front of the tunnel. I have had to add these 4 holes. I've amended the post, Thanks

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#73 Post by Harlan Halsey »

I had to put the transmission in before it was ready to trailer the car home. So now I've pulled it, put in the side cover gaskets, and drilled the hockey stick on the other side so the set screw can be more easily accesssed from the top as it has to be in an A car. I installed the new rubber doughnuts and set the trailing arms to stock. I made two of the trailing arm bolts 35mm long (stock is 30mm) to make it easier to pull the cover on. The right bearing was impossibly tight on the axle, so I sanded the axle down .0002". That was easier than I expected.
IMG_0383 Mod Shift Lever.jpg
IMG_0383 Mod Shift Lever.jpg (1.93 MiB) Viewed 4523 times
The throttle wire is a mystery. I think the one which came with the car is the one with a kink in it.
IMG_0387  Maybe 644.jpg
IMG_0387 Maybe 644.jpg (1.14 MiB) Viewed 4523 times
My guess is that the '56 body, 85017, was set up for the 519 transmission which probably had the bell crank pivot closer to the center of the car than did the 644. Maybe the kink was to compensate for the 644. Or maybe the 644 bell crank joged toward the centerline?

IMG_0388 Maybe 741.jpg
IMG_0388 Maybe 741.jpg (1.29 MiB) Viewed 4523 times
Or maybe the kinked throttle wire ins't a Porsche part at all?


I think the one on the left is a 644, the one in the middle is a bent 644, and the one on the right is a 741 as is the transmission in the car.

IMG_0391 Three Bell Cranks.jpg
IMG_0391 Three Bell Cranks.jpg (1.38 MiB) Viewed 4523 times
My approach for now is to modify the bent 644 bell crank to line up with the hole in the car, so as to use a straight throttle wire. The lever arm on the 741 bellcrank is shorter than the one on the 644 bellcrank. That will mean more throttle pedal travel then for, say the SC. I will have to assemble everything and see.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Thu Jan 07, 2021 5:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#74 Post by Vic Skirmants »

That 741 bellcrank is for an early 741. You want one for the later trans; the pull arm for the carbs is much longer.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#75 Post by Harlan Halsey »

I went to install the LED tail lights and found that one of the sockets had been crushed a bit on assembly so that it woldn't accept a bulb. Just remove the socket and fix it right? Well it turns out that on this car there is very little cleaance between the socket and the engine compartment rear wall. Bruce had taped the nuts in place, which worked for assembly but not so well for removal. After an hour of fiddling I got the nut off. Later cars (Tear drop tail lights) addressed this issue by having hole in the engine compartment wall closed with a rubber plug, but not the T1s. Also the center hole was too small for the rubber boot to pass through. The obvious soluton was to enlarge the center hole and put captive nuts behind the sheet metal. That way the socket with its wiring can be accesssed from the outside.
My method of choice for making large holes in sheet metal is to use a hole saw, 35mm in this case. But a hole saw requires a center. hence the tool made of a piece of scrap 3/16" below:
IMG_0423 Beehive Tool.jpg
IMG_0423 Beehive Tool.jpg (1.11 MiB) Viewed 3235 times
The bar has 6mm holes spaced 55.5mm apart for the hole saw center, and 4mm holes with the same spacing to guide the socked mounting screws parallel while the epoxy sets. Otherwise the curved tail panel might angle the screws differently.
The machined insert T nuts fit the holes in the tail panel.

You can see the difference in the center hole diameters. The outer Beehives are accessible from the fender well, so I only modified the inner ones.
IMG_0422 Tail Light Modification.jpg
IMG_0422 Tail Light Modification.jpg (1.91 MiB) Viewed 3235 times
This is the tool in use holding the T-nuts in place while the epoxy sets.
IMG_0424 Setting The Epoxy.jpg
IMG_0424 Setting The Epoxy.jpg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 3235 times
Of course were not quite done, It turned out that the light socket was set too high or at an angle in the mount in the other three lights, (5 lights counting the front two) the LED interfered with the lens, so it was necessary to un-solder and then resolder the the light socket deeper and with the axis perpendicular.
IMG_0433 Socket As Purchased.jpg
IMG_0433 Socket As Purchased.jpg (858.74 KiB) Viewed 3194 times
As delivered, The "bulb" position is too high and the socket is cockeyed.
IMG_0435 Socket New Position.jpg
IMG_0435 Socket New Position.jpg (1 MiB) Viewed 3194 times
The socket position is corrected, exposing a gap from outside to the bulb. This gap would normally be covered by the rubber boot. But why not cover it with a this piece of shim brass and be sure.
socket Finished.jpg
socket Finished.jpg (833.11 KiB) Viewed 3194 times
This is the final, The LED is set deeper and straight, giving clearance between the LED and the lens. All 6 Beehives are modified, installed and wired.
since all the sockets are dual, they are all using only the bright side. In the future they could be rewired so for example, the fronts instead of only serving as turn sigbals could be running lights as well.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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