My SC coupe project. Made by hand…again.

[Tom Perazzo]

Hey Phil,
That piece you don't recognize is NOT original. Good eye. I added it to strengthen this area since its prone to dishing in. Dimensions aren't critical, but I believe its about .5" tall and spans to both sides. This brace is notched to go over the weld nut. I welded the brace directly to the weld nut and on both side walls. This puts the load path directly onto the added brace which transfers it to the vertical channel walls. To make it even stronger, I could have used an L shaped brace with the return flange facing the weld nut.

Thanks Justin, Yes I made the whole enchilada....twice. Makes you miss your carrera metal working days right? I'm always trying to catch up to you!

[Tom Perazzo]

More work on the door today trying to make the door bottom fit. Believe it or not the old door bottom wasn't that bad, so it made a good pattern. C cars had this unique stamping pattern and my replacement panel is an old one from Stoddard.

First, I measured the amount of bow where the skin wraps around the door bottom. Its important that the door isn't flat at the bottom. Its about 1/8" - 3/16" on both ends.

Measured bow on original

New panel has about the same shape. So far so good!

Some of the impressions weren't exactly like the original. I'm committed to doing my best on this car, but even I think this next step is overkill.

Impression profile original

Stoddard shape

Re-shaped stoddard panel

Then, the hole locations were checked versus the original.

Original part

Stoddard part holes are off by about 1/4"

So, I moved them.

Slots partially welded

Door bottom finally installed

All holes relocated. Still need to trim door bottom near the rear. I will take a better picture when I get some better natural light.

That was a entire day spent prepping a replacement part that I thought would be good to go. O well, kind of reminds me of engine building. Always check all the parts before assembly.

[Roland Paterson]

Excellent work tom.

I'm doing my doors as well. Same problem with my piece. Just tacked in the bottom piece tonight! May I ask, how did you drill the four drainage holes on the bottom seam so nicely?

Frazer Carless had kindly lent me his door jig which he made. It sets the bottom curve. I'll post some pics of it...

[Tom Perazzo]

Hi Roland,
Thanks, and please post some pics of that door jig and your door for that matter! Seems like a great idea. I made a jig that defines the curvature going from top to bottom back when I did my other door a long time ago.
There really isn't any special trick to making those drain slots. It was tedious, but here's what I did.
a) TIG Weld a tiny patch where the hole shouldn't be
b) Sand smooth
c) Brush dychem layout fluid where the new hole goes
d) trace/sketch the new slot with a very fine scratch awl
e) center punch the other end of the new hole and drill a tad undersize
f) Run a carbide burr on a dremel to "connect" the holes.
That's it! and I got a lot of practice. They key is to get a good burr especially when tackling welds. Mine was ordered from Mcmaster Carr but I don't remember the part no. Its shaped like a tear drop.

The holes on the stoddard part were way off relative to stamped reliefs. If someone from Stoddard is listening, I'm happy to send my original part in to their QA department for a small parts credit

[Tom Perazzo]

Ugh, difficult day on the rear door bottom. Everything turned out fine, but I was just off today, kept making mistakes and this just took longer than it should have.

If this had been a more difficult repair, I would have just walked away. But I wanted to get this done, so here it is. Sorry there are no progress pictures, just the finished repair.

accidentally cut my patch short. You can see where I extended it rather than make it for a third time.

Lined up the best I could do. More trimming is needed before lower skin is rolled over.

Back side of repair. You can see MIG welding because my trimmed gaps were just too big.

Can't complain, but lots of cuss words today. I couldn't even lob the scrap in the trash can without missing. Ha ha. Luckily the welder made everything ok. Reminds me of a saying I once heard, "The difference between a welder and a machinist is a welder can fix his mistakes!"

[Justin Rio]

really a great looking repair Tom! I can appeciate all the time that has gone into it so far. Doesn't get much better then what you are doing. Keep it up! Justin

[Tom Perazzo]

Thanks again Justin, Trying to work on it once a week. Your panel gaps and side reflections looks absolutely perfect. Very exciting to see you inching closer to paint.

All inner door structure is complete now. Well, except the hinge. I need to order rivets and a rod to position the hinge as Phil recommended.

Progress

close up of corner

Holding straight edge along repair patched to check alignment

Tried to duplicate the gas weld here on the door bottom

Close up of bump stop bracket

Lots of plug welds where the bump stop bracket meets the door bottom

Still a little finish grinding to do, but starting to look like a door again. I've been playing with a tool to simulate the appearance of spot welds. I'll probably use it on the door bottom near those plug welds I made. Will share soon. Almost time for outer skin repair! Thanks!

[Tom Perazzo]

The door hinge is back on.

Note alignment rod. I also used large calipers to locate the hinge up and down. Sprayed a little primer under the hinge surface should be better than nothing.

I used rivets like the factory did. The clinching process was the same as the tow hook for the most part and I was glad to use the same tools I made for the hook again.

Lower hinge rivet smashed

Lower door skin hem being formed on my welding table with a hammer.

Just starting to brake the edge

Hem is done. I hammered it flat with an 18 guage strip in place to simulate the door bottom. Then the hem was opened up slightly to easily fit the door.

Hem formed with hammer only

Barely visible is the beginning of the jog section at the front of the door.

Getting close to finishing this door! Thanks for checking it out.

[Justin Rio]

WOW! Thats alot of hours! beautiful as usual Tom!

[Trevor Gates]

You're killing it Tom, nice work!

[Tom Perazzo]

Thanks Justin, a lot of hours for sure! Slow and steady progress. I hope it will be worth it in the end. It would suck to botch the skin repair after so much love went into the door structure!

Hi Trevor, a big thanks to you too. Roll that caddy by next time you're in HB. Endless summer fun in that beast to say the least!

I saw your TIG practice on your project thread. Some good ones in there! I'm so glad that you were able to take Steve's class to "shorten the learning curve". After you get through all the boring inner chassis stuff, you will be a pro when it comes to the outer body welding. That was my plan anyway

I shot some epoxy primer on the inside of my door today while the access was good. Also injected some primer into all the seams, nooks and crannies to be followed by seam sealer too.

Epoxy primer sprayed on the inside only. A little messy in some areas because I brushed a few runs away after I injected primer into the seams and rolled the door around.

Hope to button up the lower skin this week. I know....the moment you've all been waiting for!!! Just kidding, its really not that exciting

[Tom Perazzo]

Hi All,
I'm going to take a break from updating this restoration journal and 356Talk as a whole to see what shakes out with the new policy changes. Registry leaders need to reconsider their decision to "pay to post" in light of the overwhelming member disapproval. So far they have just replaced web volunteers who disagree and locked topics.
Disappointing, but I will still pay the $35 for the magazine.....no biggie.

[David Gensler]

Tom,
That door is a work of art (as is everything you do)! Been following along with great interest. Very disappointed to hear you may stop posting. But I understand your rationale. I too have been feeling a sense of "heavy-handedness". Just ain't as much fun as it used to be!
Take care,
DG

[Tom Perazzo]

My 356 is back home in my garage!

356 on trailer.jpg (925.13 KiB) Viewed 6336 times

356 back in garage.jpg (727.78 KiB) Viewed 6336 times

I bet you didn't know this would be a life long project did you?

[Doug McDonnell]

Only 10 years ago you started this thread. Bet it seems like a lifetime ago though. What you have accomplished is amazing.