WCSTA -06- 56 T1

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Harlan Halsey
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WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#1 Post by Harlan Halsey »

This project is the confluence of several streams: I like to have a Porsche project going and they were all finished, I am attracted to the T1 coups because they are all set up for the Carrera engine and I have a spare for the '59 GT. The 59 GT has always been a race car but I have always wanted to drive a Carrera on the street. There is a hundred mile loop through the Santa Cruze Moutains. which I like to run weekly in a 356 (or occasionally in my daughter's 5 speed 912 which is set up for vintage racing). To run the loop in a T1 Carrera would be fun. Also, I have always liked the T1's with their thick seats, lots of sound deadening, and the clean side windows without the wind wings. In my opinion, the epitome of the small bore GT car.

So after the completion of the last project I began looking for such a car. I looked at and rejected several. Then Bruce, body man extrodinare, mentioned that there might be one just down the road in the Santa Cruze Mtns. The owner had contacted him a while ago with the thought of completing the restoration himself. It turned out that he owner had purchased the car way back in the 1960's, drove it a bit and then decided that it needed a restoration. So he removed the floors and tunnel, drilling out the spot welds, then found further rust. He ordered all the repair panels he thought he would need from PB Tweeks, stripped out the wiring harness and all the instruments. But then his business picked up and he put the car and parts in the back of his shop and never got back to it.
We arranged a visit and looked at the car. Although the car was only ten or fifteen years old when parked it must have had a hard life. It had been hit left front, left rear, in the rear and very poorly repaired. Every panel on the car with the exception of the engine lid was damaged. Just to get started, in addition to the new floors, it would need longitudinals, rocker panels, front closing panels, a nose and a tail, and door bottoms, a few more than John had planned for. A left rear quarter panel wouldn't hurt. The transmission was a 644 but the engine was a mixture of 912 and 356 parts. The left rear spring plate was bent and the left front suspension was VW. The wood seat frames were coming apart. The good news was that the car was local, and there was little else to be removed, John had taken care of most of that. You could think of it as a car kit.
And the resources were there: Bruce could do the metal work and the painting, Del has a chassis jig, and I like building engines, transmissions, suspensions and wiring. Bruce has put Autos interiors in several 356's and Palo Alto Speedometer has done instruments for me for decades. So I made John a fair offer-practically nothing. John really hadn't considered selling and thought practically nothing wasn't enough so he rolled it back in the end of the shop, and I forgot about the car. Over the next year a couple of people actually offered John more money for the car over the telephone but backed out when they saw the car. So after about a year and a half, John accepted my offer and Bruce an I went down and picked up the car, the Tweeks panels, and the other parts. I had the surface rust blasted off the panels and chassis, primed everything and, as they say, we're good to go.
Attachments
IMG_2101.JPG
This will be the basis for a Super Super 90: 912 with S90 heads, pistons and cyls, a 17lb 180mm B flywheel, and a 356 B third piece and oil filler.
This will be the basis for a Super Super 90: 912 with S90 heads, pistons and cyls, a 17lb 180mm B flywheel, and a 356 B third piece and oil filler.
More rust in the right than in the left.
More rust in the right than in the left.
IMG_1546 rotisserie 3.jpg
IMG_1257.JPG
It will be a long time before it looks even this good again. It was originally silver with a red interior. it will probably end up silver with a blue interior, inset fog lights, and GT deco strips without over riders.
It will be a long time before it looks even this good again. It was originally silver with a red interior. it will probably end up silver with a blue interior, inset fog lights, and GT deco strips without over riders.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

Per Schroeder
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Re: WCSTA 56 T1

#2 Post by Per Schroeder »

Another great start to a project. I love that people are still finding these cars and dragging them out into the light.
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Greg Bryan
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Re: WCSTA 56 T1

#3 Post by Greg Bryan »

Fortunately there's nothing in the rules about the percentage of original car left!
Great entry!
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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA 56 T1

#4 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Some Progress. Restoring this car is a lot like building a house: First you dig the basement, then you put up the basement walls and the first floor and you are "out of the mud". You do the framing, sheathing, roof, windows etc. and you are weather tight. Then the finish work. Here, removing the rusty panels is like digging the basement, dirty work. That phase is finished. The next step was building a rotisserie, because I wanted the media blaster to have easy access to every part of the car and subjecting a borrowed rotisserie to the sand blast booth didn't seem like a good idea.

I purchased three Harbor Freight light engine stands for $ 150 and cut them up to make two taller stands with the rotation axis parallel to the ground. These stands each have a capacity of about 1000lbs so they are plenty strong enough.
IMG_2151 Rotissery Front.jpg
IMG_2152 Rotisserie Rear.jpg
About half the bottoms of the inner longitudinals was usable, the rest would have to be replaced by the usual angle pieces. We used a rotary laser level to mark a chassis relative horizontal plane 3" above the floor level, then Bruce installed the angle pieces and the front wall at the right height, establishing the shelf on which the floor sits. At this point we measured the wheel bases, diagonals, and corner heights to see if the chassis was still square. It was to within the accuracy with which we could measure, so the chance that the chassis would fit the chassis jig was good. Had the chassis been off, we would have planned to put the chassis on the frame jig, pulled it square and then welded the floors and Y bracket in on the jig.

Unfortunately, the day before I was to trailer the car to Del's (who has the chassis jig) for Bruce to install the floors, tunnel, outer longitudinals, and Y bracket, thus completing the chassis, Bruce became ill. This could have been a major problem because the window for the chassis jig availability was short, but Del very kindly stepped in and did the work! The rear pan is from Stoddard, the front came with the car, it's from PB Tweeks. The front panel had picked up a little surface rust which was easily rotary sanded off. The joints were flooded with POR 15, then the whole thing rust protected with high zinc primer.
IMG_2092 Floor Installation.JPG
I took this picture of the inside of the tunnel because I knew I would be poking wires, shifter, brake cables, etc. down there later with very little visibility, and I'd like to get them all in the right places.
IMG_2105 Tunnel Inside.jpg
I think Del would have preferred to spot weld, but since Bruce had predrilled for MIG plug welds, Del was stuck with plug welding all those original spot welds, and then grinding them level.
IMG_2106 Installing the Tunnel.JPG
Tunnel installed and PB Tweeks outer longitudinals installed a Stoddard Y bracket was welded in. The three per side inner longitudinal supports were difficult because not only do they have to fit the inner longitudinal, top and sidewall, they have a hole which fits the heater pipe. Well that ain't gonna work because the heater pipe was not parallel to anything. Had I to do it over again I think I would cut an oversize hole and installation slot around the pipe hole. Install the bracket with clearance to the pipe, Then install the cut out around the pipe, slide it up, and weld it to the bracket, making up the gaps with sheet metal.
IMG_2132.jpg Replacing Y Bracket.jpg
The chassis jig is rugged, yet precise. Cylinders slide into the torsion bar tubes, and brackets locate the transmission forward mounts and the hoop mounts.
IMG_2145 Chassis Jig 2.jpg.JPG
And the chassis fit the jig. No pulling necessary.
IMG_2139 56 1 On Chasssis Jig.JPG
At this point we are "up out of the mud", done with most of the rust repair, The floors are in, the chassis is complete, and it's on to the doors. The plan is to repair the door sheet metal and install the doors. Then get the door gaps right by doing the front closing panel and the rear of the front fenders, the rocker panels will be gapped to the door bottoms, as will the rear of the doors to the lock post.

Well.., maybe not so complete: The left front shock mount probably failed in the usual way, the bolt threads rusted, and the bolt broke off instead of un-screwing. The fix is to carefully drill out the broken section, and re-tap the threads. But in this case, somebody ended up running a 1/2" drill through the 12mm hole all the way into the trunk!

My fix is to clean up the hole with a 17/32" drill, (It's impressive how much torque these battery powered drills have these days)
IMG_2182 Shock Mount.jpg
Then enlarge the hole to 5/8" using a drill with a 17/32" pilot ground on the first inch.
IMG_2184 Shock Mount 2.jpg
Then machine a piece on the lathe with its inside, the inside of the original shock mount, and the O.D. a very light drive fit into the enlarged hole. Then TIG tack the new piece in place, and repair the trunk end and the flange of the steering box opening.
Last edited by Harlan Halsey on Fri May 01, 2015 3:26 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#5 Post by Harlan Halsey »

More Progress: The left door bottom has been replaced and the door is about ready to fit. The door latch mechanism and the widow winder cleaned up nicely. The next step will be to assemble the door. Here there's a problem: the upper rear corner of the widow frame is cracked on the outside. I think I will end up fabricating a brass corner and silver soldering it in before chrome plating. But before I do that, we want to fit the door with the frame to get the angle right.

IMG_2159 Left door-new bottom.jpg
The right door will be rather more work. The car was more rusty on the right than on the left and we had to remove some of the inner structure to get to all the rust.

IMG_2158 Right Door.jpg
Also, the lower hinge area has been damaged. To attack that, I think we will install the door on the car and measure. Then remove the sheet metal which supports the hinge and fabricate a new piece and rivet the hinge to it. Then jig the new part in line with the upper hinge and weld it in place. Luckily the door latch and window winder for this door cleaned up well except for the door handle mechanism which I had to take apart, clean, and TIG tack together. The window frame only needs plating.

Soon we will need to order the door rubber because we install the rubber first, then adjust the hinges and the latch. In this case the fenders will be fit to the door, so that the finished door will fit the body after painting with the proper gaps.

I think that at this point it pretty certain that we will actually complete this project in a reasonable time. At first, I wasn't so sure, but we now know that we will save most of both doors, the hood, and deck lid. There's a lot of body work yet to come, but the engine has been rebuilt as has the transmission, courtesy of a lot of e-mails with, and parts from Vic Skirmants. The VW steering steering box has been rebuilt, I am curious to try it. The suspension is a piece of cake, but I think we'll need a couple of drums and new wheels. I am tempted to re-route the A brake line to B configuration and put the lower hole in the end of the tunnel so that I can either use the original 644 with the monkey motion shifter, or use a 741 (with the front mounts suitably modified to level it) with the B shifter.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#6 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Progress: All the door parts, window winder, latch, door handle mechanism, window frame, and door tops are clean, media blasted, or out to the plater with the exception of the door sill chrome trim.

The cracked window frame was braised, then silver soldered to smooth it, then milled flat before sending it to the plater.
IMG_2171 Window Frame Prep.jpg
The door tops are apparently Pre-A style, without the fuzzy strips, and with the rubber seals "sewed" in place with a wire door long wire clip. This means that the rubber has to be slotted about every 3" for the clip wire.
IMG_2190 Door Window Inner Seal.jpg
That must have been quite labor intensive, no wonder they changed the design with the T2s

Oddly, the chrome window sill parts are both left door, judging by the mounting hole pattern, and the left one is about 3/16" shorter than the right. But both have the correct end tapers. Rather than chroming these now I think I will wait until final assembly to see what this is about.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#7 Post by Per Schroeder »

Great work!
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Bill Sargent
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#8 Post by Bill Sargent »

Harlan,

When you get to the point where you need to install the oil lines and front coolers there is a vendor supplying the complete 356A carrera front oil cooler ducting. Company called Gretener Prototype Engineering (GPE) makes beautifully accurate A carrera oil cooler ducting. They also supply the cooler mount blocks, the mount brackets and the oil line fittings. Price per side for the mount block, two of the 90 degree oil line fittings, the entire ducting assembly and mount brackets is $US 1395. Contact Mr. Urs Gretener at 805-239-2866 or by Email at gretener@worldnet.att.net.
Gretener oil cooler ducting.
Gretener oil cooler ducting.
100_5618.JPG (31.9 KiB) Viewed 12401 times
Ducting and mount bracket parts
Ducting and mount bracket parts
GPE-356-GTOCSKL.JPG (34.49 KiB) Viewed 12401 times
Oil cooler mount block parts
Oil cooler mount block parts
GPE-356-GTOCMB.JPG (34.41 KiB) Viewed 12401 times
For the oil lines, several of the metric supply houses sell the 15mm OD by 1mm wall tubing. Fittings are Parker EO 15mm tube fittings - get their catalogue and you can order the necessary fittings from any large hydraulic supply house. Only real difference is the large nuts that secure the ferules had a round section machined on them back in the day. Now they are hex shaped top to bottom. Spyder sports sells the oil line brackets that you weld in the wheel wells. Alternately if you feel like fabricating the cooler ducting parts and brackets and the oil line brackets I can send you PDF files with full size tracings. But the GPE stuff is very nice!
Regards,

Bill Sargent
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#9 Post by Justin Rio »

You always find the cool stuff Bill and it never ceases to amaze me!

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#10 Post by Harlan Halsey »

That's neat stuff. T1's however, had only the oil tank, no front coolers. (I think the factory coups built for the street began using the front coolers with the 692 plain bearing engines starting in 1969.)

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#11 Post by Harlan Halsey »

More progress: The Trevor nose has been mounted, the front fenders repaired, outer rocker panels installed, doors installed, door gaps corrected. the car is in primer back to the rear edge of the doors. The right rear fender and the tail panel are installed. When Bruce finishes piecing together the left fender, the body work will be finished.
DSC04301.JPG
DSC04300.JPG
DSC04299.JPG
DSC04312.JPG
I had John Buddenbaum shape a front panel for the hood and TIG welded it in.

I have yet to make the inner structure for the 8" ahead of the hinge to repair the kink. Meanwhile the hood is braced straight so that the nose piece could be fit.
IMG_2828 An Incompetent Repair.jpg
IMG_2827 Hood Brace.jpg
I intend to permanently repair the kink by spot welding an L shaped piece to the inside of the outer skin, then doing the same to the inside of the inner structure. When the two webs are spot welded together a channel section will result. The visible inner structure will then be just cosmetic. although it will contribute some strength.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#12 Post by M Penta »

Nice Jig! and nice work too. Looks like that Trevor nose piece fit perfectly.

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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#13 Post by Kirk Romanotto »

Some nice workmanship in this thread.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#14 Post by Harlan Halsey »

More progress: Repairing the hood kink.

L pieces
IMG_3292 Kink Repair 1.jpg
L pieces spot welded in they are now TIG welded at the ends, the hood is now stable but the hard part is to form the inner structure which is mostly cosmetic at this point. (Apparently the 8" or so of the inner structure where the kink occurs is not available from the usual suppliers.)
IMG_3294 Kink Repair 2.jpg
I decided to replace the front section of the hood after repairing the inner structure:
IMG_2835 Hood Front Inner structure Repair.jpg
Cardboard egg crate template for John Buddenbaum to form the new3 nose piece to.
IMG_2839 Cardboard Hood Template.jpg
New hood front in place:
IMG_3299 56 Hood.jpg
Meanwhile, Bruce has been busy with the body:
DSC04545.JPG
The left rear quarter panel was a problem because it had been repaired at least twice before. Fortunately they lap welded the replacement parts in so there was more metal than necessary and Bruce was able to reconstruct the panel, butt welding the pieces. For this it is fortunate that he has two other restored 356A coups in his shop to measure from. The tail panel is actually a T2 with the exhaust cutouts for the through the bumper guards. I think I will retain the T2 setup because of the ground clearance problem with the under the bumper T1 set up.

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Harlan Halsey
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Re: WCSTA -06- 56 T1

#15 Post by Harlan Halsey »

Structural repair of the hood is done.
IMG_3303 Hood Repair 1.jpg
IMG_3309 Repaired Hood.jpg
Next step is to mount the hood on the car and adjust the gaps.

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