356 Cabriolet or not Cabriolet

[Christophe Goncalves]

Hi Folks,

I found a 356 Cabriolet, the car is getting restored and I have some suspicion, it might be a coupe transformed into a cab, I have the COA and the car was matching, may be those pictures from before and after below will help you to give me your though as from you knowledgeable fellows.

[Doug McDonnell]

Cab from the VinDb: https://porsche356registry.org/chassis? ... mit=Search Looks like it started kinda rough from the pictures.

[Christophe Goncalves]

Thanks, but the body is looking a bit weird , I don't know if the cab use to have also the heating hose on each side of the rear seats??

[Doug McDonnell]

Does the passengers side hinge area have the chassis number? Under the hinge cover plate? Looking through Cabs in the project section. That area looks different than your car.

[Vic Skirmants]

Thanks, but the body is looking a bit weird , I don't know if the cab use to have also the heating hose on each side of the rear seats??

No defroster tubes in a cabrio chassis.

[Greg Bryan]

Those pipes in the rear corners of the rear interior look like the remnants of a roll bar installation. There definitely was some body hacking done on the engine bulkhead and surrounding area.

[Jules Dielen]

+1 on checking the right door hinge post. Or perhaps parts of a coupe were used to save this one earlier in life.

Either way that looks like an unpleasant surprise after the media blast if the pic of the red car was the way you bought it. I can see 80 - $100k in resto cost

[Roy Smalley]

Look to see if it has been clipped. To me this looks like a rolled car repair with a mixture of parts (if you look just above the rear upper portion of the rear seat area on the passenger side you can see a crush that is not supposed to be there).....poor repairs on the rear partition but that can be replaced/repaired. I can't explain how all the cab unique parts seem to be correct as if they used a lower chassis for perhaps a cpe and upper and wheel wells from an open car. Most of what I see can be repaired without too much effort. I would measure the (height, length, width, and "X") or if available, mount to a dedicated bench like a Celette. With doors, hood, deck lid, top frame mounted.

Some more photos would help....including underside of the rear cowl, the front of the wheel well adjacent to the lock post....

My assumption is, the car is in a shop that has repaired open Porsches before......

Good luck

If all the dimensions are within tolerance, then what is there can be replaced and repaired.

[Martin Benade]

Does the top fit the windshield properly when bolted to the door-jamb areas? If it was pieced together hopefully that important detail was good.

[Adam Wright]

I've had a couple like this. I had one a couple of years ago where it looks like someone had a rusted out C Cab, and grafted all the cab stuff onto a C Coupe. They left the C Coupe VIN, so no deception, just topless fun. The car sold to a guy who just wanted that, fun.

Some of the welds in the back seat area looked like this car.

[Wil Mittelbach]

Hi Folks,

I found a 356 Cabriolet, the car is getting restored and I have some suspicion, it might be a coupe transformed into a cab, I have the COA and the car was matching, may be those pictures from before and after below will help you to give me your though as from you knowledgeable fellows.

As a cursory comparison relative to your car; a T6 cab's windshield width is less than a coupe's, and a cab's rear deck-lid is lower and slightly curved as are its grills.

[Christophe Goncalves]

Many thanks for your help, I am looking for a Cab body or another cab to restore, let me know if you see anything decent around.

[Norm Miller]

Thanks, but the body is looking a bit weird , I don't know if the cab use to have also the heating hose on each side of the rear seats??

Defrost tube might have come from the donor car. (a coupe or notchie).

Norm