The Official 356Talk Forum

If I was to sell all of my speedster parts to Porsche, have them put a sticker on them and then buy them back and build a speedster would it then be "authentic"?

Mike DeJonge wrote:If I was to sell all of my speedster parts to Porsche, have them put a sticker on them and then buy them back and build a speedster would it then be "authentic"?

No.

Recently somebody noted that the cars restored by Porsche Classic are not very correct. One problem being that many of the parts they sell are not correct for the vintage of car they are installed on. We are hitting upon the reason that some original cars with what could be called excessive patina are purchased for double the price of a pristine restored example. Are the buyers stupid, or discerning?

doing some more mock up today, with some of the parts we buy. We are looking at fitment so we can make improvements to our own panels. we will make the panels as "authentic" as possible. This not only enchances a car that has had a restoration, but will give us quicker repeat-ability when we build the cars

The factory movies show various fixture stations for aligning and welding. Is that how you will do the assembly, from one station to another until completed? Would you do the finish fit on the moving panels or leave that to the customer?

the plan is to have a number of fixtures that can be attached to the celette bench to help in alignment. We will also put small marks on the panels with out laser, when they are trimmed after the stamping process. These marks will align with other marks on the adjoining panels.
When parts are stamped out they are then laser trimmed to ensure that they are the same all the time, this is done by putting the stamped part on a fixture, so at the same time we trim we will do some marking also.
currently we have a stripped down speedster sitting beside our mock chassis so we can compare, and we also have factory dimensions available to us.

what do you mean by moving parts?

Mike DeJonge wrote:what do you mean by moving parts?

Doors and lids....gaps and such.

we will gap as close as possible. We certainly will not be using any lead.
when we digitally scan our parts we leave the lead on the part so the new part will be better.

A Cleco alignment hole in the laser marks, a No#40 hole, in the overlapping joints would be nice. Espically for the nose and battery box. Even distances from the weld edge for but joints. That would give you a third hand when setting up the panels.

cleco alingment holes are a good idea
more parts to add to our chassis mock up, A door lock posts, inner . This part is from a small trial run, so not perfect yet, we have to do some die modifications to get rid of some wrinkles and tearing.
then when part is good a laser jig will be made so all the parts can be made the same.

Mike, can you put together a speedster for me? At least the metal work. I can fit out the rest.

Fantastic work Mike! Your panels will enable many more enthusiasts to enjoy the hobby.

John, give me a call at the office on Thursday and we can discuss