Ben's '56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

Alrighty! It's warmed up and I had a couple minutes to poke around in the garage. Got the body off the chassis:

I think the rust in the beam might be terminal and the frame horn is not much better:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[Major Woody]

Agree on the beam. It's toast. Luckily they're cheap and easy to come by.
Need to cut into the frame horn and further investigate. Might just need a patch but it was definitely loaded with water for a period of time so you'll need to treat what must be extensive rust inside the tunnel.

Good luck. Lots of interesting work ahead of you.

[motofly196]

If your plans call for lowering that car, the beam is still useable if you do a 4 or 6 inch narrow NOS beam patch kits pop up every once in awhile here, but I bet that metal is thin everywhere. You can always find another Oval beam, hack off the bumper stop with the number on it, and weld it onto the new beam. Easy job.

[ernstben]

The car came with a pair of floor pans, but they probably weighed in at a couple pounds all together. I took some calipers to them and they came in at .7 to .9 mm depending on where you measured. Like... dental floss thin...

So, I ordered some from WW. Let the games begin!

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[motofly196]

I just fit a set of WW floor pans into my 56 Ragtop this week. Very minimal trimming involved. I was extremely impressed. I did have to reshape the front outers just a little to fit the curve of the napolean hat brace. Definitely worth the money, I won't be messing with any other brands if I can help it. I did need to order floor mat pins, and battery tray hold down parts. And for some reason, the pedal stop bracket area on the floor pan only has one hole/ nut instead of 2.
I have another 56' pan with original metal that has a locating pin for the front hole of the pedal stop, and one hole/ nut. I will probably just fit the pedals on the WW pan, and drill a hole and weld a nut on the back side.

[ernstben]

I built a little body stand for the oval to make room in the garage for other things while it's under construction:

Then, I took the angle grinder and the ol' hammer and chisel to the old pans:

After a little bit of grinding and general clean up, I laid the new floor pans where they'll live:

It's still in the lower 40's here and rainy/windy, so I haven't had a chance to really get into it out in the garage yet. The 7-month old doesn't help matters much either!
_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

[ernstben]

I'm trying to make the most of little bits and pieces of time that I can free up. Today, I removed the carpet retainer piece from the driver's side heater channel as it was welded on backwards:

Then, I cut out the vents that are in the forward position and welded in the original ones in what should be their original positions nearer the firewall:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

Figured out the source of the rust in the pan head:

F$%#ing mice! I spent a really, really gross couple of hours evicting their mummified corpses from their previous home. In the end, I think a couple spray-downs with acid and some metal patching and all will be well again. Started with some exploratory surgery:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[SixVolt]

Great job Ben! Keep working! The weather in CLE is just as cold and rainy as in Michigan. Our Great Lakes are GREAT for cold weather!

[ernstben]

[ernstben]

Did some serious clean-up on the pan over the last week or so. Finished up patching small spots here and there:

Removed the swing arms and only sheared off 1 bolt which I was able to successfully remove using the "weld on a nut" method. Only the second time in my life I've been successful at it:

You can also see there that I had to replace the end of the floor pan support due to corrosion.

Then I hit it with a couple doses of phosphoric acid:

After that, I gave it a dose of primer and laid the WW floorpans in place:

I'm really close to welding the pans down (I even popped a bunch of rosette weld holes in advance as you might notice), but I have 2 questions for the experts. First, on fitment. When I bolted the heater channels down lightly to see how it all fit together, I noticed that they hit the jackpoints before seating:

Is that normal? I can't see any other way to have welded those jack points on.

Also, I'm a little bit taller than most people (6'4''ish, but long in the legs I think) and I've found my old bug and ghia to be uncomfortable to get into and drive for long periods of time. I'm considering moving the seat tracks back a bit:

My only concern is that the rubber floor mat someday might look goofy ending several inches before the seat track. Anyone had that happen? Is it better to make some sort of adapter? Thanks in advance!
_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

Well, too late, I did it!

In the end, I moved it back about 3 1/2 inches. I also trimmed off the top of the jack points and welded on a little cover plate to give it a little rigidity:

I also was a bit worried that the WW seat tracks might not fit all that well based on some users' reviews here. They were perfect though:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

Got out the ol' protractor and set the spring plates by first zeroing out the tunnel:

And then setting the arms to 13 degrees:

It seemed like there was some disagreement as to what to set them at, but in the end, I think I'm fairly sure that a '56 should be at 12 degrees +/- 30 minutes. I decided to give it a little extra spring because I plan on putting a slightly larger engine back there.

After hitting the pan with some black paint, I dug out parts of the old mouse-piss-corroded fuel line:

And started the process of feeding a new one in the tunnel:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

So, the roughest part of this project going forward, I think, will be the nose. It definitely got hit pretty darn hard at some point. There was a repair done at some point (and a NOS nose piece was used as there is no VIN stamped to the body by the brake reservoir), but it was done poorly to say the least. I'm thinking a full-blown front clip replacement is necessary here, at least back to the gas tank mounting rails. Photos of the carnage:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

Work continues! I finished up back-dating my heater channels to be appropriate for the '56. This included welding in the original vents in the forward position, cutting out and smoothing over the later-model vent area by the seat, smoothing the area where the rear of the front fender sits, and deleting the existing vents. Here's some pictures of the driver's side channel in situ:

The chassis is all painted up, the swing plates are installed with new baby-powdered bushings and fuel line run. Here's a cool view of the chassis that won't be possible going forward:

Then, I welded some supports for the body before I remove the heater channels:

I've been thinking about what to do about the rear cross member:

But decided to remove it entirely and replace instead of patching:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[ernstben]

The W decklid is in really decent shape except for the area where the spring mounts. At some point, that entire section ripped out. I picked up a donor decklid at the most recent MVVC festival. You can see both the damaged original piece and it's donor piece here:

I drilled out the spot welds on the newer decklid:

Did the same for the W decklid and put in in place and did some plug welding:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

[rich caramadre]

I need to do the same repair on a W decklid. Do you know what years would correctly fit as a donor?

[ernstben]

[rich caramadre]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Pretty much what I was thinking. I guess as long as the spring mount is the same I should be good.