1956 Porsche 356a

[josephferreira]

Does anyone have a pic or know the correct position of the door strike plate on a 1956 356a?

[Jim Karaba]

This is a T1 speedster, but all T1's are in the same location.

[josephferreira]

see mine its a T2 door strike plate, is it possible that the whole door jam was replaced?

[Vic Skirmants]

Door jamb, doors, and the shifter is in the T-2 location. The seats are also T-2 instead of the fat T-1. Show us the dash.
What is the chassis number?

[josephferreira]

57505, I know the engine is from 1957 by its number.
is it possible to return car back to original ? and is it even worth doing it?

[Vic Skirmants]

That is a T-1 dash. It is interesting that all those T-2 changes were made.

[josephferreira]

the rear is also t2, is it possible the car had an accident and they replace all with t2?

[Vic Skirmants]

That is very possible.

[Dennis ODonnell]

"Is it possible to return" and "is it worth doing it?"

Anything's possible. Worth it? Not monetarily. The kind of $$ involved to return to its original state could exceed the value of an unaltered A. Add what you paid for it and you're well into the red.

If you want an original A buy a good one and sell this. It's a nice looking, heavily modified car that will make someone happy to drive as-is.

[Jim Alton]

The late T-1s (from mid-1957) had the teardrop taillights and shine-up license plate light so the rear could be T-1.

Your car seems to have a lot of T-2 features--maybe it's a T-2 with a T-1 dashboard. Heck, Jim Liberty has a VW transporter with a pre-A 356 dashboard so that's possible.

Parts of the chassis numbers should be stamped on the doors and deck lids. If you want to unravel this mystery you might need to look for them.



Didn't T-1s have the speedometer on the left and the combination gauge on the right? Even if that's true they can probably be swapped without tools so it doesn't really prove anything.

[Vic Skirmants]

Only the early T-1s had the speedo on the left. Don't know when they changed, but certainly later ones were on the right.

[Jim Alton]

I'm just guessing, but you may have a T-2 which got a front end from 1956 T-1 coupe chassis number 57505 following some calamity.

If the number stamps in the rear decklid and the doors all match that could be fairly likely.

If the engine was originally from a T-2 built in late CY 1957 and it turns out it matches the rear decklid and the doors it's real likely.


Do you by any chance have a ZF Steering Box? That was introduced with the T-2 and it's considered an improvement. If half your car was T-2 that might have been saved.

[josephferreira]

Where are the numbers on the door and deck, when you say match do you mean the numbers will be the same, I'm a little new to the 356 world so please educate me as to what and where I should look for these numbers. also what is a ZF steering box?
Thanks

[Jim Alton]

Where are the numbers on the door and deck, when you say match do you mean the numbers will be the same, I'm a little new to the 356 world so please educate me as to what and where I should look for these numbers. also what is a ZF steering box?
Thanks

Extra Chassis Numbers

There's an article at http://www.convertibledregistry.com/fac ... tions.html with the extra chassis number locations. You usually see just the last few digits.

If all the chassis numbers aft of your dashboard match, you might just have a '56 front end on a T-2 rear end. One of the folks with access to Kardex data might be able to tell you if the engine you have came in the car with those ending digits.

There can't be too many really early T-2 coupes with the same last couple digits in the chassis numbers.

ZF Steering Box

Starting with the T-2, Porsche installed steering boxes from ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF = "Zahnradfabrik" = "Gear Factory" according to Wikipedia). It's supposed to be an improvement over the previous VW-sourced unit.

If you have a ZF steering box there should be a ZF in a circle on it.

Here are photos (arrows added) from Aase's website:

ZF on Steering Box

ZF on Steering Box

[josephferreira]

Thank you for the info Jim