Party Time!

356RESTORE’s fifth anniversary party will be Sunday, September 28th from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. All of you on distribution of this newsletter are invited. It will be an open house/shop so come when you can, stay as long as you can and leave whenever you have to.

Invitations have been sent to owners of the 356’s I’ve worked on over the past five years. They will get preferential parking. They will have “356RESTORED” decals on the back of their inside mirror. I would like them to park in the new courtyard area and on the grass around the house. Other 356’s should park on the sides of the driveway. Non 356’s can park on the sides of the driveway and along the road in front.

Since it is open house folks will be coming at different times so it is important to leave space down the drive. If you are going to the Trans-Am race at PPIR or RMVR race at Pueblo you may want to come north on Hwy 83 from Colorado Springs to avoid I-25; check your maps. We will still be partying on your way home.

Since 356RESTORE may make a profit this year, you need to bring nothing. I plan to cater the event and have continuous food and beverage. However, we would like RSVP’s by September 22nd, (call 840-2356 or 841-6475, both have answering machines).

We could have well over a hundred 356 enthusiasts and plenty of neat 356’s, so plan to attend!

Progress

Dr Jack picked up his C Sunroof Coupe, Bruce picked up his Convertible D and Jack H finished his SC Coupe. All of them seemed pleased with my work.

Since then I’ve been working on Ron’s ’60 Cabriolet. This has been a challenge as it was basically a shell with parts from other cars including a Coupe that Ron salvaged after a wreck. This is almost like building a new 356. But I love a challenge. Collision damage to the body meant none of the doors/lids fit. Even though I checked them prior to upholstery/seals, I still had fit problems. I had to drill new holes for all the threshold and hood seals. And there was no way the non original rear deck would fit without major grinding to the deck latch.

And then there were the brakes! Somebody installed a dual master cylinder but didn’t connect everything. The emergency brake lever in the rear drums was installed wrong (it goes behind, not in front of the brake shoes, also the cross piece has a stop notch for the emergency lever). After dumping a pint of brake fluid on the floor I finally got this fixed. (Do you know what brake fluid does to a painted floor! I have to repaint the floor before the party.)

Since I will be the first person to drive this restoration, it was important that I get the brakes to work. This 356 also had about two feet of extra wire in the tunnel bundled with electric tie wraps. Somebody spliced in a rear harness. However I have everything but brake lights and turn signals working. It helps to have two other T-5’s in the storage building to check original wiring. (I don’t like 356 electricals!). Ron plans to pick up his ’60 Cab the day of the party. Hopefully I will have it done. I should pick up Steve’s 356 from Blast Tech this week and drop off Peter’s Karman Coupe. However, I may hold them in the storage building for a few days as I need to repaint the shop floor.

Norm dropped off his ’54 Coupe which we will turn into a Carrera Pan America car. Right now it is just a shell on a dolly. I also keep getting calls for more 356’s to restore but am not making commitments. As I’ve said before, this is suppose to be fun for me. Looking ahead at a huge backlog is not fun.

Vintage Racing

We saw a lot of you at Steamboat. Thanks for dropping by. As you could tell, there is a lot of work to vintage racing and I didn’t have a lot of time to chat.

My 356 ran about tenth out of 29 historic cars in practice and qualifying but we finished fifth in Sunday’s feature race! We finished behind a Carrera Speedster and three big bore cars. (There is more to the story of this good finish, but you will have to ask me-timing and scoring may be listening!) This was the last race of the year for the Coyote. There is lots to do to get it ready for next year when I will drive. (I think I was smart having an experienced driver sort out the 356 this first year. What I’ve learned is I’m too competitive, now I know how to do this racing for fun.)

Directions

To get to 356RESTORE from the North, take I-25 to Lincoln and east to Parker Road; or 225 south to Parker Road. South on Parker Road to Hilltop (after Main Street). East on Hilltop 1 1/4 miles to Sunburst Trail. Right on Sunburst Trail (also the entrance to Butterfield subdivision) one mile to 8356 Sunburst Trail. From the South go north on I-25 to Lincoln or take Hwy 83 out of Colorado Springs, past Franktown, past the Pinery and east on Stroh Road to Sundown and then left onto Sunburst. If all else fails give us a call and we will give you directions.

Upcoming Events

A reminder that the RM356PC’s monthly meeting is the first Wednesday of the month. The Brittany Hill Resturant has put on a good food spread and the time spent sharing 356 stories is almost as good as driving. Plan to attend Oct. 1st.