Seahawk 356 project:

[speeder]

Here are a few more. Minor detail painting on the transmission cradle, I think you can see the oil filter canister in here as well. The OF canister is not a perfectly correct concours color but close enough for now, it was really beat-up looking and it's the first thing you see when you open the hood.






Sorry, here's the O/F canister. I even clolor-sanded it between coats.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Schumi

My father used to have one of those Nissan King Cabs (in can't-catch-me-copper)...

That dual plug motor ate one side of spark plugs like mad. They were such a ***** to change all 8, that I think my father would just change the easier 4..

Hmmmm, that's funny... they are pretty accessible on mine(?).

[Superman]

Speeder.......if I get a 356, can I park it at your house for a couple of months?

Someone asked me whether an old 356 would be a reliability worry, if driven a long distance. I said no. And certainly not this one.

[speeder]

Moving on to the spring plates, these were powder-coated at the place across the street from TRE, it's called Ajax and they did a nice job.



These each have a bit of a cut on them from where they were rubbing on the spring plate covers due to suspension sag. (Caused by the worn-out bushings). I put new bushings in and we simply switched them right/left to put the cut on the bottom instead of the top. They are identical parts L/R and hopefully the bushings will never be that neglected again so it won't rub anyways. The cuts:



These get re-installed on the T-bars with a liberal dose of grease on the splines in consideration of the next guy who has the remove them someday. An incline-o-meter is used to get the correct angle. I am using the factory spec rather than the previous measurement since everything was of course worn and shot. The car will obviously get a proper 4-wheel alignment once put back together.



The Germans were pretty clever in terms of making the T-bars adjustable. You simply turn one end one click (spline) in one direction and the other end one click in the other direction for one (1) increment of adjustment. I remember being a kid with a VW bus and not understanding this, it's amazing what a shop manual can do for you.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Tyson Schmidt

I might be there sooner than you think. Looking for a job in L.A. area. I can't take 6 month long winters any longer!

Move to Arizona instead. Lots of very good reasons why its better than Kali...

[speeder]

The final two bugaboos are the axle tubes and the wheel bearings/backing plates. The 356B has drum brakes and a slightly complicated set-up for the rear bearing carriers and axle seals. We have new bearings and seals, I will post pictures of those when I install them in a couple days.

The transaxle has has swing axles and they are shimmed to the differential by using multiple gaskets as necessary in differing thicknesses. There is a factory tolerance for the elbow joints but I cannot for the life of me figure out how it would ever be measured. You would need to put a trained hamster inside of the flange with a feeler gauge and ask him what the clearance was after you torqued them down with him inside. If his tail got stuck between the parts, that would ruin your measurement. Luckily, all of the books describe a proper "feel" for the axles once installed that is plenty accurate. They need to be tight enough for slight resistance when moved by hand but not so tight as to bind-up. That condition would severely affect the reaction of the suspension components. The swing axles:

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Move to Arizona instead. Lots of very good reasons why its better than Kali...

Don't listen to him. Steers and queers...

[Rich Lambert]

Great thread...thanks for sharing!

[speeder]

Got one of the axle tubes shimmed last night and will do the other this am. I was having a little problem getting the right feel from the first one throughout the range of motion, (loose for half of travel and then binding for the other). It finally occurred to me that the flanges have 48 years of wear and stress on them and that I simply needed to rotate them until I found the *unused* part, ie. what was previously the unused sides as opposed to the top and bottom. Worked like a charm. You do not have the option of rotating the axle tubes, they are oriented in one direction only per side unless you remove the shock mounts/wheel bearing flanges with a press. (And re-install w/ press).

Anyways, you can see the small paint hash-mark on the top of flange to mark where the *sweet spot* was once I found it. Finally, I removed it one last time and put gasket sealant on the gasket/shims and torqued it together. Next is installing new axle boots, they are the split type but very well-made and should not leak if put together correctly. These are what are used for all boot repair jobs on the car because installing 1-piece boots requires breaking the aforementioned mounts/flanges from the tube.

Here is the cradle installed. Luckily, the big rubber trans mounts were in great shape because they are expensive and will affect the handling of the car if worn due to the transmission being the connecting point of the axles.


Here's a shot of the spring plate cover with its new rubber bushing greased and ready to install:




Here is a detail shot of the new split boot showing how it's fastened together:




And finally, the boot installed. Believe it or not, there is actually a technique for these that needs to be followed or they will stretch and break. Basically just a little silicone grease on the part that meets the axle and the axle must be straight-out when installed, finally, there is a little "slack" when you tighten the clamps so that it does not stretch when the axle swings.

[Sarc]

Glad to see this thread alive again. Really enjoy the updates, Denis.

[RPKESQ]

Speeder,

I have been following this thread since the beginning and I am impressed by your work and efforts. I am also so very glad the result will end up with a good person who will truly appreciate your labors.

Makes me want to find a car for you to restore. I'll start looking!

[speeder]

Thank you! Always looking for a gig, I am.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by RPKESQ

Speeder,

I have been following this thread since the beginning and I am impressed by your work and efforts. I am also so very glad the result will end up with a good person who will truly appreciate your labors.

Makes me want to find a car for you to restore. I'll start looking!

I've said it before, Denis gets it right...he is incapable of shortcuts. The central part of this deal was Denis...I had no way of doing this from Maryland: The goal has always been a cross country jog in this car.

The mechanical restore has gone longer than we anticipated, but really for all the right reasons.

Nary a pimp hand exchanged in either direction

[azasadny]

Fantastic project! Thank you for sharing this with us!

[Shuie]

Awesome.

[speeder]

Had a hard time with the second (left side) axle tube due to heavy scratching/gouging on the ball socket. I could not get anything like a consistent feel through the range of motion no matter how much I rotated the flange or varied the gasket thickness. It would be loose on the bottom half of travel and bind on the top half, etc...

The damage to the ball socket had to have been caused by a broken axle boot at some point that was left unattended way too long, road dirt and grit got into the socket and wreaked havoc. That part of the case is hardened enough that I could not correct it with my flat stone so I got a new smooth file and very carefully fixed the deep scratches until it moved smoothly with fairly even feel through the up/down motion of the swing axle.

Here is where the damage was:


Here it is with everything buttoned-up and the boots on. The boots will be a little less than 1/2 full of trans oil once it's filled and installed so you want to orient the split part above the water line, so to speak:



I can't tell you how relieved I am to have this little phase completed.

[kaisen]

Looking good Denis!

[speeder]

The next hurdle is the sound deadening material under the car and above the transaxle. We have just ordered some material from McMaster Carr that I will cut to fit. (Thanks Redbeard for pointing me towards that place on my other thread)!

The old sound material was either destroyed or missing on that part of the car.


Cleaning the remainder of it off was something that I easily put off for quite a while. The car is basically 2 feet off the ground and it required laying on my back and scraping it off...god only knows what Porsche put in that padding 48 yrs. ago.

Yes, I did use a respirator.

[speeder]

Once I got the metal cleaned-off, I could not believe how good it looked. The large area above the trans had only the scrap shown in the previous post left so it was basically exposed to the elements for *who knows how long*. I thought that it must be an aluminum panel and actually took a magnet to it-- nope, sheet metal.

Being from Minnesota, I still can't believe how clean cars stay out here if they are inland. This is 48 y.o. bare sheet mental on the underside of the car:

[speeder]

Someone in Europe is killing some kittens looking at those pics.