The Official 356Talk Forum

After 2 weeks on vacation I’m back at it. Completed the seam sealer, painted the underside and engine bay. Unfortunately I ran out of paint as I did have the front truck prepped as well but still good progress.

Will see how the coverage is tomorrow and get some more paint so I can take the body out of the rotisserie, paint the inside and get it back on the dolly for exterior painting.

Painted the trunk area this morning, also did the three covers and the insides of the doors (didn’t take pictures of those).

Mark, nice progress. This is how it should be done. What seam sealer did you use?

Thanks Dave,

I used this, my friend who has a professional paint
Shop recommended it. He will be painting the outside next month.

He lent me an application gun that hooked up to the compressor and is used at 100psi. Worked great, no hand cramps and really easy.

Mark

Another busy day, I removed the support bars that were welded in whilst the body was in the rotisserie. I then cleaned, etch wiped the inside and seam sealed everything. After masking I painted the inside, touched up a few places on the outside and it’s done.

I will mount the doors, hood and engine cover and it’s off to the painters for the exterior to be completed.

Mark, the floor looks great, nice match for the original texture. Did you paint with a truck bed coating?

Thanks for the info on seam sealer. I ordered some 3M sealer that looks similar, but had to also order the manual gun. I have a Makita battery operated caulking gun - I agree about how nice it is to use a gun which is powered. I also have a Simpson manual gun for two component epoxy, but it is not the same distance between rams as the seam sealer. I wish the mfrs. of these two component mix products would standardize so that you did not need to buy a new gun for each brand. If you think using a manual gun for the small seam sealer tubes is hard, just try using one for the full size epoxy tubes with the long nozzles to fill 8" rebar holes in concrete

The gun definitely made it easier on my hands.

Yes, I used a 2k bed liner, very tough and easy to spray. I used 60psi to get a nice texture.

Mark

I’ve been busy repairing, tracing out the harness and sorting out all the electrical items.

I have also been working on the engine rebuild. It’s getting close but I do have a question. What’s the easiest method of fitting the exhaust and the last pieces of the engine tinware? Assemble it all now and fit the engine or fit them after the engine is back in?



Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

Straighten the dipstick and leave it out while installing the engine; they did not come that way from the factory. Careless previous owners caught the dipstick under the rear tray and bent it.
Install all sheet metal except the rear pan. Install exhaust; leave the pipe extensions off until the engine is in the car.
Install the carbs and all the fuel lines. Leave the air cleaners off. keep a rag stuffed into the open carb tops.

Hi Vic,

Great advice, many thanks. Still have to rebuild the carbs but everything else is ready for assembly. I should get the body back from paint next month.

Cheers
Mark

Slowly but surely….. paint soon, very soon.

It’s taking a little bit longer than anticipated because the car has all of its original outer panels still other than the bottom half of the door skins. My goal was to repair everything where possible and keep it original. I had a big discussion with my painter who recommended replacing the front clip but I set to and welded it which was very satisfying.

Good choice. It looks great!

Do you know if your car has a high or low overrider bar? I’m looking at the original overrider support tube holes in the nose and see the bottoms of the holes are slightly below the centerline of the horn grills. I don’t know how accurately the factory cut these and don’t know if high vs low bar matters- just trying to learn!

Thanks, the holes are just above center when looking at the horn grill cutouts. It’s a 59 cab but built in Oct 58 so it has the low Over rider bar. I’m not sure if the holes are the same as the higher bar.

I have just found and bought two original front over rider bars and so I will use the one that fits the best and sell the other.