What first-hand experience have folks had with the various sheet metal suppliers? My initial thought is NLA / Stoddard, but I see that there are a few vendors for what I expect are the most common parts. I'm speculating that a fair evaluation of sheet metal would be judged by:
Quality of metal (i.e. thickness, metal grade / composition, rust protection)
Fitment of pieces (i.e. how much rework is required)
Price
We will be replacing most of our floorpan to start with, and are drawing up the need list.
P.S. I see that there has been some sensitivity in the past regarding discussion of vendors. I guess that topic was never created. I'm not trying to stir anything up, so feel free to PM or Email me if you're not comfortable posting on the forum. Just seems like a valuable source of knowledge, it would be a shame not to poll it.
1960 356 S90 Sunroof Coupe
1970 914-6
2014 Carrera S
I have used various sheet metal parts for a T6 from Stoddard and was very satisfied with them. Nothing will be a simple"bolt on" so it is expected that you will need to know how to make things work out.
My experience is that there is not one go to source for accurate sheet metal. You have to shop around if you are looking for the best fitting most authentic panels. For my '56 we really pushed for an as authentic job as possible. All panels had to be massaged. We ended up using pieces from Restoration Design and Zims/Simonsen.
Floor pans are an easy one, Zims has the best ones. They come from Simonsen/Torsten in Germany and has has gone through the trouble of really making the stamping as original
Just looks very closely at the metal parts with body lines and corners.. I had a big problem with a tight radius corners, such as fender into door jamb, or fender to headlight.. I got metal and it would of cost me more time hammering the corners correct then to just fab my own parts...
Thanks,
Bill
65' 356 SC Cab Irish Green
82' SC Targa
81 VW Westfalia with 2015 Forester Engine
BMW 64'-R50/2, 75'-BMW R90/6, 74' BMW R90/6, Yamaha BW350
In no particular order:
restoration design
Trevors hammer works
Zims
Stoddard
Dansk (all of us resell dank products)
and we make the steel dash buck
Dennis Vogel wrote:What first-hand experience have folks had with the various sheet metal suppliers? My initial thought is NLA / Stoddard, but I see that there are a few vendors for what I expect are the most common parts. I'm speculating that a fair evaluation of sheet metal would be judged by:
Quality of metal (i.e. thickness, metal grade / composition, rust protection)
Fitment of pieces (i.e. how much rework is required)
Price
We will be replacing most of our floorpan to start with, and are drawing up the need list.
P.S. I see that there has been some sensitivity in the past regarding discussion of vendors. I guess that topic was never created. I'm not trying to stir anything up, so feel free to PM or Email me if you're not comfortable posting on the forum. Just seems like a valuable source of knowledge, it would be a shame not to poll it.
Nearly 30 years ago Zim's became the sole importer for 356 sheet metal that was manufactured in Denmark. Each year as the demand increased, the quality of stampings improved and the selection became larger. Metric sheet metal that was used the same thickness as Porsche used. Demand for 356 cars has increased, our new European manufacturer has expanded the selection of floor pans to 5 covering all but the Gmund Porsche's. We initiated the reproduction steel speedster seats using the latest style seats and have duplicated the aluminum seat complete with copper reinforcements and copper rivets. In the past our sheet metal was painted to prevent rust while in transit across the ocean. That has been replaced with a very thin galvanized coating that is not toxic to weld and adds additional protection to the body of the car. Zim's is in constant contact with our manufacturing source for product information. Small shipments can be air freighted to D/FW airport a 15 minute drive from the shop. Zim's Autotechnik 800.356.2964 2019/01/26
www.allzim.com
356 Parts and Services
www.facebook.com/ZimsAuto/
www.instagram.com/zims_autotechnik/
Surprised little mention of elaboration on Trevor's Hammer Works. I know and have worked with Trevor and am aware that his products were often used by Bruce Baker's shop in high quality restorations a few years ago.
I can attest to the fact that any sheet metal will likely require some degree of "fitting" including rework. When Bruce did the sheet metal work on my cab about 10 years ago he used NOS Porsche pieces that I collected over a 15 year period in the '80's and '90's. Can't get any better than that, right? Nevertheless there was still a fair amount of such rework required in the body restoration.
My suggestion is to follow the recommendations of the body man who will be doing the work. And have him order the parts directly.
If you are doing this yourself, then check with a couple of 356 experienced body men. The quality of sheet metal parts varys over time, and no one vendor seems to be the best for everything.
We used Trevors Panel Works for the nose, Stoddard for the front floor pan, and a lot of old PB Tweeks parts for other things. Some panels we fabricated ourselves or used non Porsche sources.
