Moving Cars
We seem to be moving a lot of 356s this month. We have a trailer with a winch which makes loading and unloading easier. We picked up Jim’s ’61 Sunroof Coupe at the mechanic’s and trailered it back to the shop. We finished a few detail items, took it on a test drive then Jim came and drove it home. We trailered the Wyoming Speedster to another mechanic to have the front suspension checked and then trailered it back to the shop. We trailered Caroline’s ’62 Coupe to Blast Tech and then trailered it back. We trailered the Shop ’54 to the painter for a repair. We trailered George’s ’60 Roadster to the upholstery shop for a new top. And we trailered the new Shop ’64 Coupe to the shop from Elizabeth. What! Another Shop ’64 Coupe?

Yes, we got a call from the owner in Elizabeth about selling her ’64. She was the second owner. The first owner was an Army Captain who bought it at the factory. The present owner was recently widowed and was rearranging her life. Her husband had pulled the engine when it failed and the 356 and the engine were just sitting there collecting dust. We made her a fair offer and she said she would check with her son and call me the next day. But she called that day and said she didn’t have to check with her son as it was her 356 and she could sell it. But she did check with her parents, age 96 and 93 living in Nebraska and married for seventy two years! They told her to sell it. We picked it up the next day.

Progress
Kit’s ’64 Coupe is almost all together, just waiting on the carpet which we will install. Then it is off to the mechanic for engine installation and checkout.

BJ disassembled Caroline’s ’62 Coupe and after blasting we see it is in pretty good shape. There were some rough previous repairs to the top of the left rear fender and left front fender. Both areas had been hiding under bondo. In general the 356 is straight and metal work and preparation for paint should go quickly.

When George’s ’61 Roadster comes back from the upholstery shop we will have a few small items to complete and then it will be off to the mechanic’s for checkout.

The Wyoming Speedster’s front suspension checked out OK at the mechanic so we knew the problems we were seeing were in the body. We cut and repositioned the left front fender and it looked like we had solved the problem. But after numerous measurements the Speedster still sits a little low at the left front. We checked the body for square and the suspeneion alignment is OK. We think the Speedster took a hard hit in the left front and the body is tweeked but measures correct. We have seen this before. A small change say an eighth of an inch can result in a big change further down the unibody.

When we were doing the final checkout on Jim’s Sunroof Coupe we had to call Joe Leoni as we could not get the wipers to work. They would work with the switch pushed in but blew the fuse when the switch was pulled out. We had it wired correctly according to Joe’s book. Joe came and verified we had it wired correctly. The only option was to pull the wiper motor. This means we had to remove the ashtray, radio and glove box; we then pull off the wires and remove the difficult wiper mount bolts. With the motor on the bench we pulled the cover and while it looked the same as a 356 wiper motor it was different. Joe had not seen it before and we quickly discovered the wiring was different, with the motor back in the 356 and the wiring changed the wipers worked correctly. We think the wiper motor came from a different car.

If any of you have not purchased Joe’s book on 356 electrics, you should! We refer to them all the time. There is a book for each model 356 and they are in color. Before Joe’s books, all we had was the black and white lined drawings from the owner’s manual. Joe also has a website at 356electrics.com that has trouble shooting tips for things like hard starting and generator problems. The website has information to order Joe’s 356 electric books.

Events
The Rocky Mountain 356 Club(name change from Rocky Mountain 356 Porsche Club at the insistence of Porsche NA) has some neat events coming up.

There is a tour of Dave Crouse’s Hot Rod shop in Loveland on Saturday, July 25 at 10:00 A.M.. Address is 1067 Des Moines Ave.

On August 23rd the RM356Club will have a Westfest at Ed Carrol Porsche in Ft Collins. This is always a fun event. Contact Gary Moschetti at (303) 494-7281 for details.

On September 19th at 9:30 AM the RM356C will tour a Motorcycle Museum in Lodo close to Coors Field. Contact Norm Petitt at (303) 698-0249 for details.

Porsche is being featured in Monterey at the Laguna Seca Racetrack and there are numerous related events the week of August 11-17. A schedule of events is in the latest 356 Registry

Grandpa News
Alex and her mom have been visiting “Minnesota Granma” most of the month of July. But before they left they had to go shopping for supplies for starting kindergarten ~ they were sent a specific list of items which when tallied at the cash register amounted to a bit over $65. Some of you will nod and say “yup, know that”.

The only news reported from MN is that they slept in a KOA tepee (in the rain) and she attended a gymnastic day camp and loved it, particularly the trampoline. With the swimming and now the gymnastic Grandpa is thinking he had better start saving for the 2020 Olympics for sure.