March 1998 Newsletter

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356 Electricals

Joe Leoni a local long time 356 owner has done an excellent job in documenting 356 electrical circuits and problems. He has prepared a two volume document on schematics and trouble shooting. And it is in color and even I can understand it. It is 100 times more valuable than the existing 356 diagrams. The first two volume set is for the 356C but Joe has promised a set for the B and A I think Joe is looking for a distributor and they will sell for around $75/set. Meanwhile contact me for more information. I strongly recommend these documents for anyone restoring or trouble shooting 356 electricals!

RM356PC

The RM356PC is the Rocky Mountain 356 Porsche Club. Barb and I have been members for over ten years. This newsletter reaches close to 350 Porsche 356 owners. Many of you are not members of the RM356PC and you should be! Particularly this year, the 50th anniversary of our favorite sports car. Membership gets you an excellent monthly newsletter and information on 356 driving and technical events. Contact Al Gordon at 12773 Grizzly, Littleton, CO 80127. Phone (303) 979-1072. Dues are $30 a year. The monthly meetings are always the 1st Wednesday of the month at the Brittany Hills in Thorton.

The next club event will be a tour of the Shelby America Museum preceded by lunch at the Mockingbird Restaurant Mar 21.

Progress

Well, my objective has been to finish up customer 356’s and get to some of my own 356’s. We finished Bob’s ’59 Convertible D and he will pick it up this week and do the reassembly. This was a pretty rough 356 but I think we got it close to original. We also got Greg’s ’64 SC Coupe finished and off to the painter. Greg and his daughter will help on the reassembly.

We also got the 741 tranny installed in Norm’s ’54 race car and most of the front suspension installed. We need a few parts and then can get it back on the ground. Updating a Pre-A with disc brakes and later transmission and shocks/suspension takes a lot of fabrication. But hey!-it’s fun! I can imagine myself as a Porsche designer.

So with these projects complete or underway I had to start on my 356 race car for the upcoming season. The previous owner called this 356 the “coyote”. He even had Coyote painted on the back of the wide front mirror. Since the race car is mine, I changed the name coyote to 356RESTORE and now refer to this 356 as “the Company Car”. Right now I’m going through the brakes-it has Carrera drum brakes in front. Then I will clean up some wiring, remove some unneeded parts and make the 356 pretty for the racing season.

Vintage Racing

Readers have asked for the Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing ’98 schedule; so here it is:

  • April 11-12 is Driver School at Second Creek.
  • April 25-26 is race at Stapleton.
  • May 16-17 is race at LaJunta.
  • June 6-7 is race at Pikes Peak International Raceway.
  • July 11-12 is Charity Event Race at Second Creek. (Please support this race. You will have to pay admission. Contact me if you would like to sponsor “the Company Car”.
  • August 8-9 is race at Pueblo.
  • September 4-6 is the big street race at Steamboat.

And the final RMVR event is a Sprint race and Enduro at Pueblo on October 3-4. My 356 is number 135; I’ll be at the back of the pack but I’ll be learning. Contact me for directions to any of the race places.

Swap Meet

This year I did better than expected at the RM356PC/PCA Swap Meet. Usually I sell about $400; this year it was $800. Most of it was small items but then again it looks like I am beginning to have a corner on 356 parts in Denver. I recently bought all the good 356 stuff from Appleton’s, plus I bought 356 parts from Tom Scott and also parts from a guy in Phoenix. I buy those parts to upgrade parts on restoration projects. Many of the used original parts are a lot better than most of the reproduction parts (plus they are cheaper).

Tech Tip/Joke

I tried a joke last month and had some positive feedback but I think I will stay with Tech Tips. However, Barb and I usually watch Jeopardy and recently they had a contestant named “Bobcat”. I said that’s a neat nickname-wish it was mine. Barb said no you would be “Front End Loader”. What did she mean?

Anyhow a guy dropped by with a bumper problem. He had new bumper guards and reproduction overrider tubes and hardly anything fit. I showed him how to relieve metal and rubber to get a fit. Relieving metal means removing metal with a dremel tool or die grinder to get pieces to fit together. I also had to weld thread extensions on the various bolts. The Tech Tip is do not assume reproduction parts will fit. Always dry fit everything before painting.