37 Seconds of Fame
356Restore was featured on Channel 9’s “Shirt Off Your Back” segment on May 2nd. A while back, Greg Moss the business news anchor asked for businesses to send in a shirt with their logo and he would wear it during the morning business news.

He wanted a extra large so we sent in one of BJ’s, along with a hat. Channel 9’s website indicated the day our shirt was to be featured but it did not happen.

We learned Greg did not have time to change shirts so the business owner was invited. We were contacted and answered a few questions for the script and agreed to be at the TV studio at 8:15.

The studio is large with robot cameras and a few people. We gave Greg a picture of a 356 Speedster to show as we guessed few viewers would know what a 356 is.

Greg showed us where to stand, the camera came toward us and the light went on and we could see our self on the attached monitor. Greg read the script we had prepared, showed the Speedster picture and it was all over in 37 seconds. He did get a smile out of me when he said I should have brought some samples.

We recorded the segment for family and friends to watch but had zero feedback as the segment aired at 8:40 in the morning.

Progress
We picked up the Oklahoma Twin Grille Roadster at the upholsterers shop and took it to the top shop where we installed the windshield. We had left the windshield out, as the upholster needs it out to do the dash.

The Roadster sure looked great with the new interior.
While waiting on the Roadster we finished most of the reassembly on the Texas ‘60 Coupe. And we took it to the mechanics for engine installation, linkage adjustment and tune.

With space in the shop we brought down the Shop ‘64 Signal Red Coupe for assembly. This Shop 356 should go quickly as it had almost all original parts in good condition. The major issue was the engine which had to be rebuilt.
BJ is almost done with the body work on the Shop ‘58 Cabriolet. He has turned a rust bucket into a straight 356.

He will get to decide what color to paint it.

While doing the final assembly on the Texas ‘60 Coupe, we had an issue with the electrics. We asked Joe Leoni to make a house call. One of the issues was we were using used electrical parts to keep the cost down. Almost all the parts on this 356 were unusable due to outside storage. We could not get any power to the back of the 356. I checked underneath and the wiring looked good with the original protective covering. We continued to work the problem with no success. BJ joined us and found the problem. When I got under the 356 I only checked the wiring from the starter, which worked, on back. BJ found that some rodent had chewed thru five of the ten wires in the harness right where the harness exits the chassis.

We were able to pull the cut wires thru the tunnel to the front of the 356. Fortunately, we have plenty of wires from old harnesses acquired over the years. We were able to splice in enough wire to connect to the remaining cut wire at the rear. We were unable to pull the repaired wires through the tunnel and ran them along side of the shifter where they will be covered by the rubber tunnel cover, under the carpet on the tunnel and thru the chassis to the rear. Once completed, everything worked at the rear of the 356.

We are now in what we call “the last five percent” of reassembly on both the Texas Coupe and Oklahoma Roadster. These is where the little issues that were put off at last have to be done and takes more time than expected. For example, we had put off deciding on what to do about the seats on the Texas ‘60 Coupe. The driver seat was unusable due to rust damage and both seats had torn upholstery. We have about fifteen sets of used seats but they are all piled up in the storage building. We needed the single rail seat and knew we had plenty of the later double rail seats. Anyhow, we went thru the pile of seats and could not find a good driver seat bottom. We made some calls with no luck and then Bill Frey provided one. Then it was an issue to find seat hinges as the ones with the 356 were badly rusted. We found some and we will use a seat cover to hide the damaged upholstery.

Events
The 28th Annual Exotic Sports car Show and Concours d’Elegance is Sunday June 12 at Arapahoe Community College. Early registration is by May 27th. Contact Lizns@cpco.org for an entry form. We have entered the Oklahoma Twin Grille Roadster (hope we make it)

Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing had their first race and driver school at HPR near Byers, CO. on May 14+15th. They will then be at Pueblo, CO. on June 11+12th for the Trans-Am Invitational. Followed by the Pikes Peak Hillclimb June 26th, HPR Charity Race Aug 6-7th, Hastings Neb Race Sept 2-4 and the HPR Enduro Oct 1-2.

Grandpa News
Alex had a presentation to make at school and practiced on Barb and I. Her presentation was on pennies and she did the research on the internet. She had pictures on the display of a penny, the Denver Mint, details on the metal used and other information. Her practice went well and when she was done, I raised my hand and asked what number president was Lincoln. She immediately said “sixteenth” Her mom was surprised she knew that. She got an A on her presentation.