The Official 356Talk Forum

Saw this over on The Samba.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... id=1223401

Beautiful reproduction of the "Suitcase for under front hood" for A cars. This one is in black leather. Craftsman is the same guy who did the interior of the Gmund Coupe that won it's class at Pebble Beach a couple of months ago.

I have see a couple of earlier ones that he made, and the workmanship is very impressive.

Tom,
The quality appears very good, but the one I purchased from Fibersteel about six years ago seems to be just as nice. I don't know what their price is now, but it was only around $650 then for all leather. Regards, Bob

Was not Bill Brown making a suitcase? Maybe only for Roadsters.

just take a look here, bought one from Andrea which is very nice, and cheaper (he has a reseller in US)

http://www.classicocorsa.it/

fred ©

I guess that everybody has their preferred seller for the reproduction luggage. The ones fibersteel sells are very nice, reasonable and I know that Esidro has spend many hours sourcing the correct locks and fabric.

Gentlemen. If cheapest was best, we'd all be driving Yugos!
I have seen the Fibersteel units. I own one of the Italian reproductions, and I'm real impressed with this one.

Tom, what makes this reproduction superior to the others out there? materials, construction?

I make the piece that fits over the hump in the back seat. It`s listed in the 356B accessories catalog as "Plastic suitcase for 356 Roadster". Here`s pics of the original sitting on top of my repro and sitting in the back seat of my "A" Coupe....bb

It appears Fibersteel no longer is in the luggage business. I would assume they found it not to be profitable at that level.
I won't or can't point out differences between the luggage on Samba and the Italian product. I have seen both and I think they are both works of art. I do like the American made one for those of us who live here. We can pick out what color leather, to match their interior, and I just like dealing as locally as I can.

I realize that the subject of this thread is modern reproductions of luggage forms offered by Porsche back "in the day" but I would interject a couple of points relative to the actual luggage these makers seek to reproduce. First a disclaimer, as with lots of things Porsche 356 "Never say Never" applies and the Company did do specials for customers. Also the precision and clarity of some of the Factory documentation particularly sales (accessories) brochures leaves a lot to be desired. However, such sources are the primary reference in evaluating the "correctness" of the characteristics of any "Factory" accessory unless other documentation (or documented examples) are available.

That being said, with respect to the underhood leather example that seems to be the most reproduced form of luggage, based upon the information I have from published examples of the brochures, this form appears only to have been offered in the "A" era and most likely was only available in Brown leather. I say 'most likely' because the earliest of "A" luggage appears to only have been available in Brown (No color option was specified) and in the later "A" brochures while the rear suitcases were available in both Brown and Black leather, the description of the front suitcase still does not indicate that there was a color selection option. Could this be an omission in the description, sure, but the absence of the reference means there is no positive proof that any other color leather was available. Also as of the "T5B" accessories brochures, the leather front suitcase appears to have been dropped from the product line with the so called "Gym bag" form in plaid canvas being the only available form for the front space. Maybe they could be special ordered but they weren't a standard offering. Of the original examples of this form that I have seen or have photographs of, while there seem to have been at least two different leathers used, all that I believe are original are in a medium brown colored leather. If anyone out there has an example which they believe to be original in black leather I would really like to get pictures for my research.

A second point is that while other manufactures (MB, Jaguar, Ferrari, etc) may have offered luggage covered in material to match their interiors, there is no information that would suggest that Porsche ever offered their accessory leather luggage in any color other than Brown or Black. Could a customer have ordered luggage in something else, I would "Never say Never" but without some form of actual factory documentation to prove it I would be very skeptical. Yes, Custom paint colors could be special ordered so why not luggage? Possible but the standard forms were made in a very limited number of options for the coverings. I believe one possible reason that the line evolved in the T6B, C, & early 911 period to a lot of the plaid canvas pieces was to provide a more universally compatable decore that would easily go with all interior colors as well as look more "sporty". Again, if there is someone out there that has a documented set of Porsche leather luggage in a color other than Black or Brown I would be very much interested in seeing pictures.
Dick MIlstead

There it goes another brown one (original and unrestored)

Te material shown by Freddy is the exact material I have on my two 3-piece luggage sets

hi
looking for a vendor who sells the front luggage suitcase ?
A few years ago, there were some at the swap meet after the Lit meet..
any one recall who was selling, or making ?
jim

Try Fibersteel in CA. Bob

Hi,

nearly 3 years now.. I want to travel with my Roadster therefore Iám searching for the suitcase for the backseatarea.

Are they available somewhere?

Cheers

tom