We’re Back
BJ and I had a great time at the Porsche Swap meet in Anaheim, CA. Barb and I had a very relaxing time in Maui.

The swap meet was huge! Hundreds of Porsches on display including at least a hundred 356s. There must have been over two hundred vendors and thousands of spectators. Over forty thousand dollars were raised for charity.

We sold over eight thousand dollars in parts which was one of our best years. We see no value of parts on the shelf when they can be used to keep these great cars on the road. We are always looking for 356 parts so let us know if you have some for sale.

Next year’s swap meet will be at a new location as the present site owners were offered too much money not to sell their land. As usual we donated a percentage of our sales to the American Cancer Society. This used to be a percentage of the gross but now it is of the net due to BJ and my stop in Las Vegas on the way to California.

This has become a tradition to break the drive and still arrive in Anaheim in time for all the festivities.

Burned up 356
A few months back a friend of one of our customers called for advice. Her home, along with 150 of 200 homes in her community was destroyed in last years California fires. Her 356 was totaled and her insurance offered $11,500. I did some research on comparable 356 values and faxed them to her. When Barb and I returned from vacation, she called to thank us and said her insurance company settled for $17,000.

Restoration Book
My 356 restoration book titled “Porsche 356 Guide to Do-It-Yourself Restoration” will ship in early April. Already the publisher has received close to 100 individual orders and large orders from automotive book sellers.

The book is 112 pages with 208 photos. It sells for $24.95 plus $4.00 shipping/handling. It can be ordered online at www.tpr-inc.com or by calling 1-800-553-5319. I will be happy to autograph your copy at 356 events this year. We will be at West Fest in Boulder, Monterey and hopefully Williamsburg.

Progress
Well we hit the ground running after the swap meet and vacation. BJ is doing all the usual metal work on the Shop ’59 Coupe Outlaw; floors, longitudinals, battery box, etc. We did chop the top to fit a Speedster windshield but may not get to the rest of the Outlaw mods until we finish customer commitments.

I finished all the metal work on Tom’s ’64 coupe and soon it will be off to the painter. We have to disassemble Fritz’s ’64 Coupe do some minor metal work and get it ready for a new paint color. It will also need some upholstery work. While this is a fairly easy job the next one, which is Mathew’s ’59 Coupe, will involve a lot of metal work.

Mathew’s 356 came from Arizona but looks like it spent some hard winters in Minnesota. But no rust damage we haven’t seen before.

We will be bouncing around as we still have George’s ’60 Coupe and Michael’s ’62 Coupe at the painters and they will need reassembly when they return.

Bill is working to get the ’52 Coupe Race car ready for the season and then we will convert the ’58 ex-race car to a street Outlaw. Soon Al Lager will have the engine ready for the Shop ’64 Coupe and we will sort that out. If the Shop ’64 is as good as we expect, we may keep it and sell the black ’63 Sunroof Coupe. So basically, we are full up for this year and there is still a 356 coming from New Mexico.

Events
To promote the book and to also have a fun time, we will be attending the Rennsport Reunion II at Daytona, Florida April 23-25. Followed by the RM356PC West Fest on May 1-2. Next will be the Joy Lutheran Classic Car Show May 29th here in Parker for the benefit of the youth program. If you are in the area and want to show your car for these kids call us or Bill Frey.

In June the Speedster Fest will be in Monterey, California and September 30 through October 3 is the East Coast Holiday in Williamsburg, Virginia. There is no West Coast Holiday this year due to the Speedster Fest but next year we think it will be in Texas. The RM356PC is planning to offer to host the 2006 West Coast Holiday here in Colorado.

Porsche Tractors
A growing collector hobby is Porsche tractors. While not many were originally sold in the U.S., thousands were sold world wide in the sixties. Many are being imported now. Roland Lohnert in Castle Rock at (303) 663-4363 can help you find one. Roland use to work for Porsche Diesel and recently obtained a large inventory of original spare parts to keep these Porsche classics running. So contact Roland or visit the www.Porsche-Diesel.com web site to learn more about Porsche tractors.