Progress

Even with vacation we have made good progress. BJ’s Coupe is ready for Autoweave at the end of this month. The Shop ’56 Sunroof Coupe is ready for paint after BJ spent a week on body prep.

I am glad he has the skills in this process as I don’t enjoy this work. It involves inspecting every square inch of the 356 and making the panels and curves flow together. I’m good at seams, and what I call rough finish, but have been paying the painter do the final finish. This can cost us a thousand dollars or more. I’m glad BJ is getting good at this and he seems to take pride in this kind of finish work. While BJ worked on the Shop ’56 Sunroof, I started on the Shop ’61 Coupe we recently picked up. This is the one that needed a complete rear clip plus other repairs. I had a good T-6 rear clip but this was a T-5. I love a challenge. The issue is the T-5 has the single grille deck lid and the T-6 the twin grille. So after I got the rear clip on I had to fill in with sheet metal to fit the single grille. Turned out great! You use the deck lid as your jig. I also cut out some poor previous brazing repair in front of and behind the doors. Also poor repairs around the foglight opening were corrected.

Those of you with 1960 to 1965 356’s should check this area below your bumper. There is a flat piece in the front that is used to secure the optional foglights. This flat piece is up against the curved front nose piece. A wonderful mud trap with resulting rust. This area must be cleaned, rust treated and caulked.

Scotty’s ’54 Coupe is still at the painters and Rhome’s Roadster at the other painters. So we have assembly (fun) time coming soon. I looked at a possible Shop ’61 Roadster project and made a fair offer but have not yet heard whether it will be accepted. There appears to be a lot of emotion associated with this twenty year project that never got done.

So while we are trying to concentrate on Shop cars and my own cars, we did accept a customer car.

This is a ’60 Cabriolet which was abandoned and stripped in Carbondale. It is the second worst restoration I’ve attempted. (Barb’s Twin Grille Roadster was the worst.) This one has no floor, longitudinals, closing panels, struts or battery box. Metal repairs alone will be about six thousand dollars plus it needs lots of parts (luckily most of which I have)’ Since the owner got it for free he just might be able to restore it for less than market value.

Congratulations

Time out to recognize Sugar and Spice Bakery (and Barb and Jen) which was recently recognized as the best Bakery and best Bakery for Wedding Cakes in Douglas County! Thanks to a very special car friend who nominated them!

Restoration

Always looking for another challenge, we recently bought another Porsche for restoration. But this one is a tractor! It is a 1962 Junior, one cylinder diesel and red. The metal work restoration should be straight forward and mechanically it is sound. I helped pull small tree stumps with it. What a blast! We will use this for shows, pulling 356’s out of the basement shop and for snow removal.

356 Prices

While most models of 356 Porsche have held or slightly increased in value, Coupes are increasing in value. This is good as most of us have Coupes. It also means you have to stay on top of your maintenance to maintain it’s value. Do an inspection (or have me do an inspection) and budget for betterment this year i.e. new rubber, undercoat, paint touch up. You know the ‘ol “stitch in time” thing.

Parts Needed

We are selling more and more 356 parts; mostly used. If you are sitting on some, let me know as we need to maintain our inventory. I can’t offer top dollar (usually 25 cents on the dollar) as I have to store and restore parts prior to sale or use on projects. Please call (303) 840-2356 if you have parts. I would rather see them on the road than sitting on a shelf.

Upcoming Events

The Rocky Mountain 356 Porsche Club will have a track event/car show and swap meet on June 16th and 17th. It will be at Mountain View Raceway in Erie and Ed Carroll Porsche in Ft. Collins. We will be in charge of the Swap Meet. More details next month.

Also the annual Multiple Sclerosis Charity Concour will be June l0th; once again at Arapahoe Community College. More details on that next month also.

The RMVR racing schedule includes two charity races both of which we encourage you to attend to support these causes. The first is at Pikes Peak International Raceway on June 30 and July I and the second at Second Creek Raceway July 21 and 22. Mark your calendars now.

Tech Tip

Never, ever, use your Porsche jack to jack up your 356, and never use the jack points. I’ve seen a few 356’s damaged by using the Porsche jack which slipped. Buy a scissors or hydraulic jack ($8410). Don’t jack up the side. Jack up the rear using the transmission hoop. Jack up the front by using a thick board under the battery box.

Support the rear with jack stands under the axle tube. Support the front with jack stands under the front sway bar mounts. A floor jack works best and the small jack can be used when traveling.