How long did it take to build a 356?

[Dan Macdonald]

Guys,
OK, I've watched "Made by Hand" a gazzilion times. But I don't think it ever states how long the process took.
Does anyone know how long it took from the time the sheet metal was pressed into shape until a finished 356 rolled out for delivery?
I assume the early cars took a lot longer than the C cars.
Anyone know or want to take a SWAG? (Back in the Navy that was a Scientific Wild Ass Guess...)
Thanks.

[Don Gale]

Toward the end of the 356 line, they produced about 50 cars per week, so 10 per day, approx. 1 per hour?

[Geoff Fleming]

Dan is asking how long it took for an individual car to be completed, not how many came off the line.
Probably at least ten days +/-, when you consider painting, interior fitting,exterior trim, etc. Paint and upholstery glues took time to set, suspensions had to be lubricated, wheels aligned, etc.

[Wes Bender]

It really depends upon how far down into the "build" you want to delve. Some components would have added time to the overall number. Or do you want to consider them to be "on the shelf"? The bodies would have been built before assembly at Porsche. I think you need to establish some ground rules before the question can be answered.

[Dan Macdonald]

Wes,
The "ground rules" were as I stated in the original post: Does anyone know how long it took from the time the sheet metal was pressed into shape until a finished 356 rolled out for delivery?
Kinda like they showed in Made by Hand.

[Wes Bender]

Then my guess is that it varied considerably. The sheet metal was pressed in a couple of different plants. I can't wrap my mind around a decent SG from my WA.

[Vincent Gillespie]

What a great question, I know that with familiarity and skill comes speed but by fecking christ dismantling and putting these things back together makes one think, 'what the feck! you have to be kidding what fecking eejit thought this up'.

For example one of the last things I did on our pre A 55 was install the the sunvisors. To get them to pull down without pulling out the TINY self tapping screws, whilst not falling down under there own weight, was really difficult. Then a friend, who is a brilliant engineer, pointed out a tiny little bend in the hinge rods and said 'Hey maybe it was made sloppy & that's how they, very simply and quickly, stiffined up the swing, made sense to me and it worked & certainly would have speeded up production. Same as changing from shine down to shine up light SOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier to install.

To me, I believe, we have to always keep in mind these are a simply a product making a profit for a company, for example, if the coat hooks could be sourced from the local hardware supplier 10 Pfg cheaper because they were pot metal, not brass, they would be, then some form of plastic came available, so we'll go with them etc.

So back to the original question, which hopefully someone will know, I'd also be fascinated in the answer and also how much faster it got from when they took over body production from Reutter to the end of the C production.

V