Porches and Pastries
Porsches and Pastries will be Saturday, September 25th at 356RESTORE; 8356 N. Sunburst Trail, Parker, Colorado 80134. This will be the fifth or sixth Porsches and Pastries and we usually have 35 to 50 Porsche 356’s. It is an open shop, open house event. Come whenever you can and stay as long as you like. We start at 10:00 am and go into the evening. Featured are the pastries of BJ’s wife Jennifer who was an executive pastery chef before becoming a full time mom. Also, this year BJ’s cousin Doug from Iowa will trailer out his barbeque/smoker and cook up brisket and chicken. Of course there will be water, pop, beer and wine. Porsche 356’s should park on the driveway apron and driveway. Non Porsches should park on the grass either side of the driveway. In the past we have had real early 356’s, Carrera 356s and even an America Roadster show up. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you.

Concours
The 27th Annual Exotic Sports Car Show was held August 8th after being rescheduled from an earlier date. We thought the reschedule might yield lower participation but we were wrong. Perfect weather and what look like close to 500 sports cars. Bill Frey and I entered my 1952 356 race car. One of the oldest Porsches still running. Bill and I co-drive it and recently Scot Petitt has joined the team. At car shows, we like to let kids sit in the 356. At least 50 kids did this and at one time there was a line of five kids waiting to get in the Porsche. I gave Bill a heads up when we saw a boy who had just finished an ice cream sandwich start to get in the car. A few napkins and he was good to go. The concours benefits the United Cerebral Palsy Colorado Children’s Fund which is doing some great work.

Progress
The “Goat car” from Texas as BJ calls it, is about half done with the metal repair, BJ got the new floor pan in and repaired the battery box floor. More work has to be done on the rear interior which was heavily rust damaged due to the goats climbing up the back of the 356 and damaging the rear windshield seal allowing water to get inside. The owner indicates that the goats have been sold.

This 356 also had a hole in the third piece of the engine due to the use of a chemical fire extinguisher at sometime. We pulled the engine and had the hole in the third piece TIG welded. We were going to check the engine on the test stand but then decided to look further, sure enough, sand and gravel inside the engine and the case is shot. We had one of our spare engines checked out and it checks good with some carb rework and adjustments. So we will sell it to the Texas owners. The approach on this 356 is a Sunday driver so the owners three year old triplet girls can go for a ride in the Porsche. Matching engine numbers and exact replacement panels are not a concern.

I continue to work on the Oklahoma Twin Grille Roadster. We continue to find very poor previous metal repairs. We found a repair on the door that was done correctly with the correct butt welds but another “body man” must have done the rest of the work; just tack welding metal over rusty areas and not grinding the welds. At least we didn’t find brazed in oil can metal and stop signs like we have seen in the past.

We also are duplicating the undercoat spray pattern and caulk used by D’Ieteren. This body builder was the only one to use a thick caulk on the seams. On a previous Roadster restoration we removed some caulk from the battery box and it was still pliable after forty five years!

The engine for this 356 had been started up after thirty years by a VW mechanic in Oklahoma. It ran good enough for us to drive it off the trailer but it still needs some valve work. This is the original engine and we are trying to restore this rare 356 to original condition. It should be stunning with black paint and a green interior. We will ask the owner to get the Kadex information as the roadster has the non reclining seat hinges or boomerangs. These may be original but look funny as the lower seat back is exposed where the recliner should be.

We have finished the metal repair in the interior compartment and repaired the door gaps. We are now working on the front compartment and suspension. There is an insulation material around the fuel tank on T-6 356s and it was damaged on this 356 and is no longer available. We found a substitute heavy jute material that works, only it is grey so we paint and undercoat it black and it looks original.

So no work on the shop 356s but we did pick up the shop ’64 Coupe from the painter. It is Signal Red and the son of the painter did the color sand and buff. We could tell he was excited about his first sand and buff as he had pictures of the 356 on his cell phone to show us. When we picked up the 356 it was great! Jordan did a great job on his first job and we could tell his Dad was proud.

Jeez!
We get calls and e-mails from all over as we are the first listed on the 356 Registry vendor page. BJ got one from a shop that was having difficulty getting the seats in. They sent a picture. BJ told them that the inner seat rails were attached to the tunnel and that piece was missing. “Oh well,” they said “we usually restore airplanes.” Jeez!

Grandpa News
Barb was watching Alex while BJ and Jen were at BJ’s 25th high school reunion in Minnesota. Barb and Alex went bowling: Alex beat Barb by one pin!