1960 Porsche 356T5B - Full restoration to GT Spec
Strip down begins
Cage welded in to prevent distortion during the stripping process
At first glance the shell seems solid enough but unfortunately it has been restored in the past and has an awful lot of patchwork repairs that are well below todays standard. It has also suffered from accident damage to the righthand rear wing, bumper and chassis rail as well as the lefthand front.
Both front wings are a patchwork of repair sections and plates in many cases overlapping one another, hammered down and filled over.
Underneath the front wings is no better
Some repairs aren't even welded but pop riveted
A similar story underneath on the floorpan, poorly welded repairs roughly hammered into place.
And inside the floor similar repairwork.
Even the roof has suffered with a repair to the outer skin and inner rails
And a repair under the petrol tank.
Some newer rust damage in the engine bay
On the positive side all the removable panels are original to the car
The engine lid is good
The doors have some poor repairs that will need re-doing but are saveable
The bonnet however will need replacing.
Since the panel alignment starts with the doors and works forwards and backwards from there, we will start by restoring the doors first.
The skin is cut off and damaged areas of the frame replaced a section at a time.
More repair sections made
All the sections removed from one door!
Interior coated with a 2 part Zinc epoxy whilst it is still accessible.
Similar work is carried out on the other door, basically consisting of reconstructing the lower half of the frame.
Wax is injected in the seams after the Zinc epoxy is applied
Door skins are crimped on but not welded yet.
A much healthier looking door!
Doors and frames trial fitted to give a data point for future work.
A long way to go....
Shell mounted to the rotissary
Work starts on removing the floorpan
More rusted sections found once the sills are cut open!
Floor pan and previous poor repairs to the perimeter removed
Work starts on properly repairing the perimeter of the floor pan starting with the lower bulkhead for which a section is fabricated.
Repairs to the front chassis rails
All closed sections are zinc primed inside
Diagonal cross member trial fitted
Damaged tunnel sections straightened out
Inside tunnel protected whilst accessible
Fuel tank floor removed
Guides and brackets are removed from the old section and spot welded onto the new panel
New panel not quiet correct so edges are modified to match the original
And welded into place
Complete with drain holes as original
Underside and under dash protected whilst access is easy without the floor in place.
Pile is growing!
Trial fit of the floor pans
Welding into place along the centre tunnel only for now
Floor perimeter will be attended to later on.
Rear of the engine bay
Sections removed
And a new rear crossmember fabricated
New sections welded in place
And zinc primed
New heatshield spot welded in place
Rear chassis leg rot cut away
And repaired
Crushed section of chassis leg removed
And replaced once straightened
Areas of shell etch primed
Shell removed from rotessairy to allow nose sections to be removed.
Hundreds of spotwelds drilled out...
More corroded internal panels which will need repair
The ever increasing scrap pile!
Jig brackets fabricated to enable the shell to be bolted to the jig bed to keep it flat and square whilst the floor and sills are welded in place.
Remaing front end panels removed
Inner sill sections fabricated and welded in.
Original style of fabrication joins re-instated
And still it grows..
Trial fit of front end panels
Trial fit of outer panels
GT style wing mirror
Donor engine lid for GT louvred Skin
After removing the outer panels again, the inner panels are fianlly welded in place
Spotwelded as original where possible
The metal is then etch primed to protect it whilst work moves to another area of the shell
Before the sills (longtidudinals) can be fitted more areas of rust need to be cut out and repaired.
Also the heater channels need repairs, with new sections fabricated for the ends of the pipes
New heater tubing made up
Inside of sills coated with epoxy before fitting
Repair sections fabricated to panels adjoning the new sill
Jacking point welded in place
Similar repairs needed for the other side
That's better!
Smaller closing panel spotwelded in place
Trial fit of larger panel
Modifications needed
B-Post and rear inner wing removed
Repairs to edge of window frame
Trial fit of new panels
New inner wing trial fitted
Welded in place
Trial piece to check door gaps, a little more needs to be shaved off.
Repairs to the ends of the scuttle as the new front wings don't extend this far.
Inner sections treated with Zinc Paint
Progress
Inner wing removed from other side
These two are meant to fit together!
Thats better, as if by magic!
Trial fit show some reshaping required
Somewhat better now
Repair piece for the other side of the scuttle tacked in place
With both sides like this we are almost ready for the front end
Protected and sealed whilst accessible
Final check of bonnet gaps before welding on the nose cone
Further repairs to inner wing in engine bay, over lapping panels look untidy but it's how Porsche did it!
Repair sections welded into rear wing to replace thin pinholed metal.
Repairs around rear screen
Repairs to shock absorber mounts
Poorly done patch in rear seat pan removed and done properly
Repairs to rear quarter window surrounds
Trial fitting the seats to fit the mounts
Trial fit of the pedals to locate the mounts
Trial fit of quarter windows after repairs to B-posts
Repairs to the roof skin next, the old repair removed
Repairing the gutter rail first
Followed by a seamless repair to the outer skin
Next a new B-pillar is made from scratch
Trial fitted
And welded in place
Getting ready to fit the front wings
Rear edge has to be folded around the inner wing.
Tacked in place ready for tig welding
Nice gaps
Starting to look like a car again
Rear of car had suffered from poor repairs after accident damage so a new rear skin was ordered.
Before it can be fitted the new engine lid has to be put together, an aluminum GT skin is fitted to an original frame.
Rear is cut away and the inner panel cleaned up and treated
Engine lid used as a guide for fitting the new panel and setting gaps
Looks like we've got some work to do getting a good fit!
Some hours later and a good fit has been achieved and the panel is tacked in place
New section made for the lower corner
And finally off the jig
Back on the rotessairy for some final welding to the underside in areas impossible to reach on the jig.
A complete shell once again..
Seats painted satin black before triming
