Porsches and Pastries
We enjoyed having all of you at our event. We had about forty 356s, it was difficult to count as with the open house/shop plan, 356s would come and go. However we were able to count pastries and Jen had prepared 1600. Only about 200 were left so we know those were enjoyed. (If you stayed late, you got a pastry goodie bag). We received many favorable reviews on our new home and shop. It is everything we wanted. As we get older we will be living on one level as opposed to four levels at our previous home. While Jim designed the basement shop, Barb designed the rest of the house. We were supposed to downsize and Jim filled a large trash container with old sheetrock, lumber and old parts he had saved.
Barb, however, her version of downsizing was to have the contractor build storage areas under the eves. So she has a closet under the eves for Christmas stuff and one for seasonal decorations, another for luggage and another for stuff. Thank you for coming to Porsches and Pastries; we enjoyed it and hope you did to.(One advantage of having a gravel driveway is that it is easy to pick up oil drips from Porsche 356s).
Progress
Not much to report. BJ continues with the metal work on the Shop ’64 Coupe “808”. The front end has been restored and he has started on the rear. We had a good T-6 rear clip he will use, which will save us about $1200.
Jim has restarted work on the Shop ’56 Speedster. The issues is getting the windshield to fit correctly. Almost all the metal in this area is new and correct fitment is taking time. Plus, Jim also needs time to get pasture grass to grow on the bare areas used during construction. Jim wants to get this established before winter. Plus the county requires it as part of the Sediment Erosion and Drainage Control Plan (SEDP) And then we woke up Saturday and we had no water and the well pump guys couldn’t get here until Monday. So Jim was hauling water from our previous home to keep the commodes working. The pump guys came Monday and determined that Jim had run the well dry with all the watering he had been doing to get the pasture grass to grow.
With little new progress to report, we will have some Random Porsche 356 Thoughts. Recently a 1957 Porsche Speedster sold at auction for $341,000. Why is this of interest?
Well, because it was a project 356. It was tired and probably rusty. Discussion revolved around why would someone pay so much for this Speedster. Most thought the buyer had lots of money and just wanted a Speedster to drive and not worry about dinging it. Jim’s opinion is it is just stupid! We think Seinfield’s Coupe sold for about the same amount and it had provenance. It was Otto Mathe’s 356, the one with the roof rack for race tires. Otto had one arm and raced this 356. We saw this 356 at the East Coast Holiday at Williamsburg in 2004. It had a sympathetic restoration which means they cleaned the 356 and made it mechanically sound. So it was not over restored and had a nice patina. One thing we noticed on Jerry’s 356 was that all the slotted screws on the threshold deco were pointed in the same direction. It sort of bothered us as we doubt it was factory but then again, if you were at Porsches and Pastries and checked out the switch plates at our new home, all the slotted screws are in the same direction. The electrician’s helper was German so it could be a German thing.
We had a local guy find us on the Internet and E-mailed us about Porsche seats for sale. He had a VW convertible and wanted to put 356 seats in it. He knew it would take some engineering but said it was the type of thing he enjoyed doing. He was doing a restro-mod on his VW, fitting later parts and features to make it more contempory and different. He mentioned he was with a group of fourteen riding their bikes to Sturgis when they were stopped in South Dakota because they had Colorado license plates. The highway patrol wanted to make sure they weren’t bringing marijuana. While stopped, some outlaw bikers rode by and they said there goes your marijuana.
At Porsche and Pastries, Tom Conway brought Larry Meyers display of dash plaques he had received at SCCA races in the sixties and seventies. Larry was the Midwest Division Champion racing a E-Production Speedster. We saw Larry at the West Coast Holiday in Sedona, Arizona and he was carrying the display. He said he was going to sell it at the swap meet. Jim said No Way! it’s going to stay in Colorado. Jim talked Tom Conway into buying it jointly and displaying it in our shops. So it is now at 356Restore and you must see it. Dash plaques from Continental Divide Raceway and other tracks in the Midwest. For those of you that have been in the new shop you would have noticed we have a lot of 356 parts. Most of these we have acquired with the project 356s that we have bought. Somebody would buy a Project 356 and acquire parts for the project and then never finish it. This also holds for finished 356 projects. A large classic dealer in Canada had bought restored 356s for resale and they came with parts. All parts are reproductions that the seller no longer needed and the reseller doesn’t need. 356Restore has been getting these parts for twenty five cents on the retail dollar.
Newsletter
This month starts our twenty fifth year with this newsletter. We enjoy doing it but as we get older we are not working at our previous pace so less to report. So we will go to every other month. The subscription price will be cut in half (a joke)
Grandpa News
A great fall school break in Seattle WA