PROGRESS

This month was spent on assembly of the Silver Shop ’63 Coupe, (previously, I’ve referred to this as a ’60 Coupe- wrong! I have six 356’s now and sometime get confused). While I worked on ordering cleaning, painting and assembling parts, Ryan started paint on the shop ’65 Coupe. We decided to stay with the original Dolphin Cray color and had PPG match it in their “CONCEPT” paint. This paint is like magic! It flows on real good and has a deep luster. Compared to Silver Metalic it is a snap!

But guess what’s next into the paint booth?! Joe’s ’57 Speedster which will be – you guessed it – Silver Metalic. Joe is going with the blue interior and top. This is going to be one nice Speedster.

SCHEDULE

Having been in the corporate world for twenty-five years prior to doing full time what I enjoy the most; I recognized I had a problem. The problem was I has this blackboard in the shop with customer names and work to be done but no schedule. With the paint booth and assembly area it’s obvious I had to develop a schedule to optimize metal repair, paint and assembly.

This has been done for the next six months and the schedule sent to the eight customers who had a commitment form 356RESTORE. This leaves nine customer projects to be scheduled for next year. Oh yes, I did build into the schedule a week off to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary in Hawaii. (But of course Tom L is in Hawaii and I can give him a call to talk 356 Porsches!)

PARTS

I had an excellent response to last month’s parts list. I sold about $800 worth of parts. Many of those were in the $10 range so it took at least a dozen trips to UPS. I believe I found today’s price point. After hauling most of these parts to swap meets for the last three years I basically cut my price 25% and got a great response. The item most in demand was the A floor mat for $80. I had six calls on this. Also the luggage racks and 6-12 volt converters were popular. I think I will do this parts thing only once a year as it takes time away from restoring 356’s.

However I am always interested in buying 356 parts or taking them on consignment (80/20).

T-6 OWNERS

There is a cardboard piece that is tacked to the rear seat backs and keeps the carpet from falling in the crack when you lift the rear seats. This was missing on Abby’s car but Warren’s T-6 was in the shop and it had the original piece. So I make a tracing and reproduced it in waterproof fibre board. I’ve used this on the last three carpet sets I’ve installed and it works great. Installation is easy just a hammer and tacks. Call if you need these pieces, $10 a set seems fair.

TECH TIP

Do you have a safety wire on your front hood latch. If you don’t and your 30-40 year old original hood latch wire breaks you are in deep trouble. I have seen quite a few 356’s where a lage hole has been cut into the batterybox to get access to the latch. A tough job with the spare tire in place. Installation of the safety wire is obvious, call if you have questions (840-2356 or 841-6475).

PHILOSOPHY

We’ve added about 24 folk to this newsletter distribution in the last few months, so I should probably restate the 356RESTORE Philosophy.

356RESTORE was established to offer a reasonable alternative to the restoration of 356 Porsches. We encourage owners to do as much as their skill and time allows. We provide advise at all levels of restoration. We concentrate on street level restoration and are not interested in investor cars. We only do 356’s as we understand and appreciate the owner’s attachment to their cars.

PARTS

’58 Engine #80362 with roller crank. Perfect for Speedster restoration $2000.

’63 Engine #G10283 with Solexs – #1750.

Both engines complete and money back guaranteed.