Roadster P15

[Ulu]

It appears that I have one good hinge and one Frozen hinge on each side. Maybe I can swap some parts around and make this work so I have two good passenger side hinges. I don't know how expensive hinges are for these cars so I don't know whether I should bother refitting mine.

One thing is certain and that is that I won't be fighting the huge wide door sill as I open the door. The door will taper down at the bottom like a 50s car and the hinges should be ok.

 

Well the rain has dried, but Edith d' Plymouth still hides under a tent cluttered with all of my  boat junk, spare aquarium plumbing &  used fish tanks, until I can get the boatyard organized and roll her outside.

Once all the really filthy messy work is done I will be able to put her inside my garage. But I have a finished garage and I don't want to do any major body work in there. I stripped the entire body outdoors, on my concrete pad, under a tent made from waxed canvas and cyclone fence poles.

 

There's still lots of dirt and rust to deal with.

 

I'm preparing to put up a steel welding shed so I can avoid dragging all my tools in and out of the garage all the time.

 

I already have a nice shed but it's all built from wood and I don't want to burn the thing down.

 

 

[Ulu]

Looking at the rear deck, this board approximates the rear seat back line (though it will not go this tall.)

You can see that I may have to fill as much as a foot of the deck at the widest point. If I can make it look okay without doing any finished metal work to the top of the deck I will be extremely pleased.

 

This car will not have an adjustable seat. I'm going to build it to fit me.

 

It appears that I have about 3.5" to cut off the door bottom, but only where the new door will occur. By filling in the cut panels I will be able to create a 7in tall rocker in the door area.

Since I am reducing the length of the door considerably, as it will not have to accommodate rear-seat passengers entering, this should help make the right side of the body stiff enough without a roof.

 

[Ulu]

The idea of cutting the new door in, at the bottom of the front hinge pocket 3.5" up, was proposed on the basis of actually moving stock doorposts, door jambs and hinges around.

 

That would be total nonsense. The shape of the body would never allow this without an enormous amount of diddling around. It lofts in three dimensions and you simply cannot start moving bulkheads from Station to Station.

 

 

[Ulu]

I will weld the doors all the way around with fillers as required and a continuous  angle of 16 gauge inside the wall of the body. I will only cut off  enough  of the existing door and the existing body to make the small new door.

 

Of course this means that my new door will contain a good piece of the B post. Plus I'm losing the continuity of the top and the upper B post body structure which is considerable.

 

That's why I needed all the vertical reinforcing in my full body sketch.

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I discovered this old scan of a photo from 1986.

 

I had installed overdrive, lost the rear VW tires, and put bigger radials on.

Firestone 721s, which eventually split apart. Recall issue, but mine were bought used.

 

 

Removed the lowering blocks too, as the lakers would drag all the time.

Long chrome shackles in back brought the tail up a bit, but I eventually lowered the front more.

 

In those years I was commuting every day in this car, some 40 miles a day.

Most of it was 55mph+ too, so the OD was a blessing.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Ulu