I'm sure that we have all been here before...

I had some holidays early this year and decided I needed a new daily driver, deciding that my KG was never going to see daily use (and deserves more appropriate restoration skills than I can offer) I purchased a project notch with the idea of doing a quick 4 week turn around.

After stripping that car down and finding ample amounts of rust and repaired accident damage I ended up scoring a '65(?) partially disassembled but still rolling and with quite a bit of work already done.

Now we're a couple of months down the track and the quick turn around has become a full on, bare bones resto... with a few mods for good measure

I've uploaded some pics to my facebook album which I'll attempt to link to here. However, I'm absolutely crap at taking in depth photos along the way and seem to always forget until after I've completed the job at hand.

Anyway... Hope you all enjoy the show, feel free to ask questions and add feedback as I go along.
I've been really enjoying working on this car, it's only been a few hours here and there max, but I find it somewhat like mindful meditation and good for stress relief. So have decided to just take my time and not put a time limit on this one

As it arrived, yet untouched by moi:


Rear parcel shelf & air intake vents repair:
These cars ALWAYS rust in this area, fortunately for me the previous owner had already done the necessary repairs, along with making allowances for use of pop-out rear side windows - I'm yet undecided if pop outs are best for a daily driver or not.


Shadowy shot:

This section needed repairing, fortunately I had the other notch with a good drivers side sill.


After the repairs were done. As I said, I'm crap with taking photos, so this had to be cropped out of a photo that I took of my cat. This repair was tedious to say the least, I had to split the donor sill into 3 pieces: lower lip, inner sill & outer sill, before welding it all back onto this car.


RHS in etch. This sill was in good condition so needed no real work to the outside other than a strip back & inspect. The front dogleg needed repairs on the bottom & inside tho.


Here you can see some of the welding done to the front of the car. Bottom of the A pillar had a hole & needed some attention. As did the two 17mm corner bolts. The latter I used a section from a donor car and even the outer skin.
You can also see the triangular repair done just as the body curves - this was uncovered under about a foot of filler and was a turd of a job to repair! I spent ages finding spotwelds, drilling, dremelling and welding from both sides! Keen eyes will also note my attempt at using seam sealer on this area to replicate what the factory did originally... needless to say, it's alot harder (and messier) than it appears.
All of these sections I left the welds in all their ugly glory, it's not pretty, but honest and also can't hurt in regards to strength.


I have also completed the chassis, so will endeavour to post across some pics later on tonight.

Cheers,
Cam

Here is the work I have done so far on the chassis:

The original chassis had been covered with what looked like silicon at some stage in it's life. When I started peeling it all away there was pitting and pinholes damned near everywhere, so I decided to let some cutting & grinding wheels resolve the situation.

I left quite a lot of the original floor in place, this guaranteed that I wouldn't get too carried away doing the initial cutting & removal. The part of the pan that runs under the rear seat is yet to have the spot welds undrilled in the above shot.
Keen viewers will also not that the chassis now has twin solid lines. I bought a good late model auto chassis for the floor and once the tunnel was cut away took a template of the return line route and copied it onto the early chassis.

I then pulled the original tiny solid line and replaced it with a larger line (both feed & return are now 8mm solid) along the standard route. I also noticed that the clutch tube had broken one of it's welds so sorted that and took to opportunity to fit a new shift rod bushing.


A few people might be unaware that the pan "inserts" on the type 3's are actually a single 'pan that runs along the whole underside of the chassis, hence the tunnel being fully exposed when removed.

Here is the floor from the automatic chassis when first removed with all it's spot welds drilled out. The pedal assembly, rear seat divider_thingy and rear subframe mount from the early chassis have stayed in place, to make life a bit easier.

It looks ugly with all the surface rust but is solid as hell and will clean up nicely.

Part way through doing all the spot welds.


All the welding on one side is completed.
This turned out to be a MUCH bigger job than I could ever of fathomed!
I first took diagonal measurements between front and rear end mounting bolts to make sure the chassis was square. After laying over the late floor I took the same diagonal measurements but to key body bolt holes along the pan sides to make sure it was all square. I then clamped it all down, ran some self tappers through various spot weld holes, took a couple of those new super fine cutting wheels and went around trimming the late and (remaining) early floor section at the same time. Once this was all done the floor was removed again, both were cleaned up with the grinder and wire wheeled on both sides where they were to be welded. The floor was then laid back onto the chassis, all measurements redone as described above, reclamped and welding commenced.

Once again... you keen viewers will note the vertical cuts around the rear. This was done so as to allow the floor to be clamped down over the original for accurate measurements, cuts, etc. to be done.

Since I don't have spot welding equipment, the holes were butt welded from either side, where the edges of old and new meet in other areas were all seam welded on either side and the pan was stitch welded down the spine too. Better to go overkill than under, imho


BTW, hope you guys can see these pics okay. I've heard facebook can have picture hosting problems, but it's working fine as far as I can tell from my laptop.

wow! looking good Cam

so glad to see that the notchback will hit the road again, wish i could've had the patience/money to have gotten it finished off properly

by the way, those other parts are still here for grabs if you want them?

Cheers Muz!

Been really enjoying doing this one, should make a wicked little daily when all is said & done.

Sounds good, haven't forgotten - just been really busy lately. Will definitely get down there this saturday if you're around?

yer for sure, i'll be messing around on the bug when i get home at about 12:30

If you get here earlier someone will be home to help you with the parts

Cool, I should be down there between 1 & 2pm, will text you if it's any sooner or later tho.

Well, braced up the passenger side... (Yes, all you victims of the nanny state it is braced enough) knowing that pieces would have to be removed and it's better to be safe than sorry (hypocrite that I am *points to above statement).


Kinda saw this coming... The outer skin was heavily pitted, so decided to inspect. As you can see, underneath was not pretty at all... I had a ballpoint pen nearby and was able to start punching holes in the inner skin.


Here is a sill that I sourced from a dry late model.
Since type 3's aren't like type 1's. The outer body sides are pressed from one sheet of steel, from roof gutter to the bottom lips of the sill, then joined to the inner pieces of the shell with a heater channel running through/in between the bottom/sill sections.
To repair it properly, I undertook the job of splitting the donor sill.
After aeons of drilling out spot welds, grinding back seam welds, etc... this is what I ended up with: Inner sill, A pillar to C with channel inclusive - hammers & dolly are there to straighten out the lip.
Shit photographer aren't I?


After bracing the car, I cut away the whole sill in preparation for replacement. Here you can see the outer skin of the donor sill waiting patiently.
The A pillar & forward section is missing in this & the above photo due to it needing to be removed to vertically separate the A pillar & back section.

After separating a supposedly solid sill I was surprised to find the inside surfaces very crusty! Can't believe what rust traps these things can be!

Finished up welding in the first corner tonight after measuring 13 times then welding twice.



Got the whole sill (aside from outer skin, obviously) sitting in place. The strings and self tappers work well, I find. Whilst the sill fits snugly in it's hole, this enables me to do all my measurements/micro-alignments without worrying about it just dropping away, yet still gives me some free play.


Rigged this up the other night, it's for our old dog who doesn't like the stairs in the dark. But certainly helps when day light disappears on you and you're finishing up a task.

Man... This thread is up there with Burma in the Visitor Activity department

Here are pics of the tacked in dog leg section (finished this last night). I thought it best to leave the rest of the sill (red G clamp back)not permanently affixed to assure ease of, and spot on alignment of the dog leg.


Here we are doing the measurements for the sill installation. NEVER AGAIN!!! Maybe I'm just too pedantic, but when I get my old man (twice as pedantic) to help me do the measurements it ends up in hours of string lines, jacks, clamps, grips, scribing, marking and finally... tacking!


Finished permanently welding in the sill today!!! Still looks no different than a few days ago, so had to mock up the outer skin to give myself the full sense of achievement and have a somewhat more "complete" looking car to get back into next week.
The outer sill will have to be removed before final fitting, to get cleaned up & straightened. Since - once again - I didn't take pics of the sill itself, I'll grab some next week when I get back into it!

You know you could tub it and narrow the front inners while you are at it Cam

Looking good , but i'mm getting that no daily driver feeling when finished

Quote:

Originally posted by koolkarmakombi You know you could tub it and narrow the front inners while you are at it Cam

Some pics!

The hole that I mentioned earlier You can kind of see my "snotted on welds" (as my English mate called them ) attaching heater channel to vertical heater tube. This area needed a damned good tidy up!


This photo looked much clearer on my phone's preview screen. Heater channel in etch (you can just make out the above mentioned hole is now fixed) and awaiting outer sill.


Outer sill after a rough clean up, bare metalling of the inside & welding up any holes.


Inside of outer sill post bare metalling, patching, de-ox, rust conv' & etch priming.

good stuff campbell will ask for a real look when i come down ive got sum odd bits for type 3s so if ya need anything give me a list and ill look through my stuff

What size is the mig you are using? Gassed? What are you using to cut it with?

(I am keen to see the tools you are using...)

Loving your work!

Thanks guys!
Am right for the sec, Mac. But will have a list growing in the coming weeks, so will definitely hassle you for some bits

Be more than glad to, dude. I'm not a pro, nor is this going to be a show car so am just using what I've got at hand. Which is:
A gas mig, just a cigweld 135 which I was lead to believe is the best of the low cost gas migs (was around $600 from memory). Also, go for the big bottle of gas. Not that shitty little knee high thing, it costs the same amount to fill the bigger one & you won't be recharging it constantly.
Get yourself some good quality gloves, mask (my mask is broken and I'm hating using the one that came with the welder) and uber-heavy-duty wooden handled wire brush!

Most of my cutting is done with a standard grinder running the thin flexovit steel cutting wheels. pictured here:
http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/157/24/780954061/n7809540...
and here you can see the difference between these and the standard cutting wheels.
http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/157/24/780954061/n7809540...
These things are awesome and I'll never go back to normal cutting wheels again!
You'll also need some grinding wheels and a wire brush for your grinder too!

Hand files come in really handy! I just have a flat file & a good medium sized round file, both of which I couldn't do without!

I've got a no-name version of a dremel, with a few of those $10-15 attachment kits which I rarely use but does come in handy.
I use a standard drill on the spot welds. Start with a pack of those small double ended drill bits (they do break easily, but get through nice & quick) and then once you're through step up to a bigger bit. A drill bit sharpener will save you lots of $$$ in blunted bits.
You can get spot weld drill bits, but I figured out that those things must hate me! I can never get the metal off cleanly once done. I've also found that unless you intend to rent one of those spot welder things the end result is much stronger if the replacement "spot" welds (in this case butt welds) are done through a hole from either side.

That's all I've been using (off the top of my head) lately. As I said, I'm not a pro so if others can recommend different tools and techniques then please feel free to chime in.

-C

Nice work Cam - good to see jobs such as this done properly and with care/attention to detail!

Cheers Alan! You know what they say, 'a stitch in time saves nine'. Whilst this won't be anywhere near a DAS build standard your threads have definitely been an inspiration with this project

Back to tools for a sec:
Something else that's really come in handy has been my hammer & dolly set which I got off ebay. My kit came from a Aus' based store but this one http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-Autobody-Hammer-and-Dolly-set_W0QQitemZ23025064115... looks to be exactly the same as far as I can tell and seems to suit the hobbyist just fine.
I also have a small range of different sized G clamps & vice grips too.

Something I'm pretty pedantic about is eye & ear protection. I've never been a fan of those stylised safety goggles (that look like sunnys) so instead use sunglasses (tinted or yellow) with some traditional (school lab style) goggles pulled over the top.
I also wear the big fugly ear muffs for ear protection (both these and the goggles can be bought in cheap kits from any hardware store), if I'm doing lots of cutting/grinding or am in a confined space I also wear ear plugs for extra assurance.
The advantage of the ear muffs means I can also have my ipod on underneath and my tools would be useless without a good motivational playlist:

Well, it's been a couple of weeks... Unfortunately, the time I would of spent on the notch was spent building a small trailer for my Girlfriend & I to take our karts out with.
Started with this broken, rusty, bent & high riding pile of wood and steel (will just do links, spare you all atleast some of my nerdyness):
http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v290/157/24/780954061/n7809540...
Only the guards & main square part of the frame were salvageable - you can see how bent the A frame is in this shot.

One piece of the A frame:
http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v290/157/24/780954061/n7809540...

with the new A frame & top box section welded on (& gusseted):
http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v290/157/24/780954061/n7809540...

Rolling, reco-d & lowered axle and jockey wheel:
http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v290/157/24/780954061/n7809540...

Primered & ready for it's maiden voyage:
http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v290/157/24/780954061/n7809540...
It will get rear half sides, tailgate & coat of black when time permits.

Right then.... Back to why I'm really here.
As I said, not much done... Got all the welding on the passenger side finally finished:

Looks like a dogs breakfast currently, will be giving it a good clean up tomorrow at some stage.

The rear under guard section needed some mods as the late fasty unit didn't match the early notch shape, abit of V cutting, squeezing & tacking saw it taken care of tho.


Found a couple of these areas around the rear inner guard

got them all welded up, but forgot to take pics of the end result you get the idea tho

Til next time!!!!

I have been pondering whether or not to sell this project or not, purely because I haven't been able to do much on it at all lately. Unfortunately I've just been way too busy lately and when time permits, the weather normally doesn't.
I have however been able to finish all the work on the body and am getting ready to mate it up with the 'pan. I also picked up a running late model type 3 to swap all the drivetrain over and am getting a mate to help me do the frame horn/IRS converted subframe for the rear.

I will get some more pics over the w/end.

Feel free to email me if you have around 2.5 to spend on a notch project with most of the gruelling stuff done.

don;t give up now cam,u just got the winter blues

you should drag the ghia out from under the carport and put a tarp over it,put the notch in there so u got some dry workn space,crank some rein in blood ,zone out and just think of the finished product and how kool its going to look finished,youv done all the hard work and it's lookn sweet ,keep it up

what did u end up doing with my old notch,i miss that car

haha, nothing fixes the winter blues like a bit of slayer
Unfortunately, your old one was hiding some nasty surprises underneath in the form of some pretty messy old accident repairs. I got some good panels off it though (will get to in a sec) and a couple of donor sections, so it lives on in other ways.


I finally got it all rolling again!!!


Also got all the panels on and dropped the suspension a couple of inches. It will probably go into storage like this for a couple of months, but we'll see. Seeing it looking like a real car again has got me hanging to do more with it .

Don't leave it in storage too long Cam.
There are a lot of people loooking forward to your next installment.

Looking good now. Just wondering if the car is an imported 65 1500S or has the hinges for the popouts been put in here. Would be good to see another "S" on the road. Other bits also suggest a 1500S.

DH

watch out the leaves dont catch fire when welding sparks hit them, you might feel yourself warming up really quicklygood work!

He must have made it look-a-like! I saw the hinges in the B pillar but doesn't look like the nut plate is there for the latch. It has the wrap around indicators on the front and has had a bonnet trim on it. Maybe a all from a F/back or 69 model . I now read back where you said the previous owner had the hinges fitted. Well worth having popouts for ventilation on any driver!

If it was one of the imported S you would have a rare bird for Australia now. One came up on Evil bay a couple of months back in Melbourne. Aaron Britcher has it now in Adelaide to restore. It looks like there may only be about 6 left here in OZ so the more we can keep going the better. Most of them seemed to be in Vic and SA. Have only seen about 6 here in NSW since 1965.

DH

The previous owner did the mod's for pop-outs, and the guards, bonnet & boot are all from a '69 that I wrecked... Hence the S-alike-ness of it.