The Official 356Talk Forum

Harlan, you are right that there are levels (degrees) to this notion of originality.

To start at the absurd: is it original if you put new gas in the tank? How about new motor oil, or fresh points and spark plugs? How about air in the tires or new wiper blades. You say, that is silly, consumables don't count. Fair enough, then do tires count, which are consumable but last thousands of miles and years of driving? Yes because they wear out.

What about cylinder heads, cranks, and pistons and cylinders? Does it matter if they fail after just a few miles instead of wearing out after 90,000 miles?

Then to crankcases and transmission cases (numbers-matching items). They wear out also.

Where to draw a line? Exercising judgement isn't a sign of indecisiveness- just the opposite in my view. There is something qualitatively different when a car has been repainted or reupholstered. For me, buying a used modern car with original paint is ideal. Why? Because it means the car hasn't been in an accident and has been well cared for. That idea spills over to old cars too.

But my mechanic, who has been working on 356 cars since they were new, says who cares if it is original if it is junk. That's a healthy attitude in my view.

As another example of how much this can be a gray area, consider either a new car or a 356 that has had paint work done to a higher standard than the factory, is it better or worse? You will not get the same answer to this from everybody. Very different things are important to each of us and we usually think the other guys are wrong.

Back to the subject: I've never tried it but have heard that dry-ice media blasting can remove individual layers of paint. There's much about it, including videos, on-line.
David

Edwin Ek wrote:
But my mechanic, who has been working on 356 cars since they were new, says who cares if it is original if it is junk. That's a healthy attitude in my view.

That is pretty funny

Edwin Ek wrote:
But my mechanic, who has been working on 356 cars since they were new, says who cares if it is original if it is junk. That's a healthy attitude in my view.

From a restoration perspective even "junk" can provide many clues to how the car should go back together. For example, when they find 550-0001, it had a fiberglass body, but you could still see all the rivets and such in the body. You can bet that "junk" was studied in great detail.

So your mechanic, from a strictly functional parts standpoint might have a point, but our cars have crossed over into an area where form greatly outweighs function, many of the finest Porsche are not even driven anymore.

So I think your mechanic's opinion is a bit out dated.

This 550-0001 is not junk.