This is how it looked when I restored it the first time, in the 70s when I was in my late 20s.
After I bought the basket case, I immediately bought the Autopress, Clymer and Elfrink repair manuals. When I later discovered Harry Pellow's books, I bought them, too. It required much assembly and disassembly before I finally got it assembled right. I did it according to the philosophy that if you have an infinite number of monkeys sitting before an infinite number of typewriters, they will eventually write the Bible.
Now, many years later, the paint is in bad shape and it has some rust again. I have painted the car twice, but apparently the bodywork wasn't done correctly because the paint on the front of the car peeled off both times. Also, one day I was having fun driving it off-road on my property and I spun into a tree and put a big dent in the driver's door. At that point I got discouraged with the project, and I let it sit for about 4 years when I got into Mopar muscle cars instead. I still need to pull that dent out. Here's how it looks now, sitting in my garage while undergoing another restoration:
It's not a numbers-matching car. The engine is an assemblage of parts: 912 crankcase, "C" heads and crank, NPR big bore pistons and cylinders. I rebuilt the engine myself twice because I couldn't afford to have a good shop do it. The first time, I didn't know you couldn't re-use your pistons and cylinders, so I merely re-ringed it. It seized a ring within about 10,000 miles. The second time I installed a Japanese big bore kit and it ran for about 20 years, until I got an oil leak from the pushrod tubes which, coated with dirt, blocked the cooling fins so it began to run hot. I decided to have it rebuilt again before I did any permanent damage. This time I had it rebuilt by Frank Lettini of Sacramento with a new 200-mm. flywheel and clutch and another set of NPR pistons and cylinders that I bought from Harry Pellow. (I remember when I took the P & Cs, flywheel and clutch to Frank, he thought they were very nice and he asked me where I got such nice stuff, but he wasn't acquainted with The Maestro when I told him. Frank's pretty old-school.) I also broke a tooth off the pinion of my transmission (which I don't think was original, either), so I had Frank rebuild it with a 12-bolt ring and it really works great now, too. Frank also set the rear camber and toe-in, replaced the kingpins and installed a rebuilt steering box. The car then ran and drove very nicely, but by then I was financially upside-down in it, so I didn't want to put any more money into the body.
Then I decided recently that I would play body and fender man. I've got more time than money, anyway, so I started it as a winter project. Part of it was because the 356 is so economical with gas, and my Mopar muscle car is a gas hog. When I started working on the 356 again, I was immediately and again impressed with its quality construction (especially compared to American iron) and that inspired me to enthusiastically embark on another, and hopefully final, restoration. So what if I don't really know what I'm doing? It's a learning experience, and at least I'm keeping the car on the road. If I make any mistakes, someone else can correct them later. And I've gotten pretty good at welding thin sheet metal using an oxy-acetylene torch, if I do say so myself.
But every time I look at the car I seem to discover rust. Nothing really big, except that I replaced the longitudinals and I had to weld and lead in a new driver's side door pillar. Now I've found some smallish rust-outs in the front fenderwells that I'm repairing. I'm not replacing the entire panels; I'm just welding in patches. I don't know if this will be an adequate method of repair or not, but there is NO WAY that I am going to drill out spot welds and replace entire panels! The panels I've repaired now seem really solid and strong, but I don't know if the rust will recur or not. Time will tell. I am just hoping that someday I can clean or work on the car without discovering more rust. I am really trying to keep after the damned rust. I'm going over the entire body and pan with a fine-toothed comb, stripping it down to shiny metal and inspecting for rust-outs. The pan and body are really stiff; no sag at all, front-to back or side-to-side, and I think the door gaps are pretty good, so any remaining rust can't be too bad.
There was a floorboard rustout under the pedal assembly, so I cut it out and welded in 16 gauge sheet metal, which is thicker than the factory pan (18 gauge?) and I think stiffened the pan up somewhat. The passenger side of the pan has a similar rust-out, and I am repairing that now. I also had to make new sheet metal toeboard slots for both sides; I bent them up out of 16-gauge, too, which is thicker and stronger than the original. I stripped and rebuilt the entire pedal assembly and resized the pedal shafts until they had approximately .001" clearance in their bushings. Boy, the pedals and accelerator sure do work great now.
I've got the left front wheel well all stripped, patched and painted, and am working on the right front now. Only two more wheel wells to go!
All the brake fluid leaked out of the master cylinder while the car was sitting, so the first order of business was a complete brake job. For years my front brakes had been pulling to one side, and I discovered why: rust and crud on the shoes, wheel cylinders and brake backing plates. So I pulled the backing plates, stripped them, and painted them with Rustoleum rattle cans. I am in the process of stripping and painting the suspension and wheelwells. I've got the left front done and am working on the right front. Then I'm going to move to the back. I bought a new Harbor Freight impact wrench to remove the rear axle nuts, but I'm not sure if I'm going to need a brake drum puller in order to remove the rear drums. If so, I think I will make one for use with a bottle jack. Those front trailing arms had 50 years of rust, grease and crud on them. Judicious use of a Forney type 29 Flap Disc ZA80 in an angle grinder does a good job of removing this, followed up with a 3M rust and paint stripper in your electric drill to get the metal all shiny. I rebuilt the master cylinder and painted it beautifully with Rustoleum black gloss, and then the paint got all screwed up when I spilled a little brake fluid on it. Oh well, nobody's going to see that part of the master, anyway. I was able to find wheel cylinder rebuild kits for the rear, but not the front, and new front wheel cylinders (4 of them!) are shockingly expensive, so I soaked my old wheel cylinders in clean brake fluid and re-installed them. I'm hoping for the best on those front wheel cylinders. Anybody know where to buy rebuild kits?
Since it's only a T5 coupe (not really the most desirable 356 in the first place) and not an original car anyway, I am not going to worry about originality and intend to paint it my favorite color: pearlescent yellow. I'm going to spray the body with Transtar "Direct To Metal" primer and then 3-stages of paint (bright yellow, then pearl, then clear). I'm going to do the interior myself, in some really offbeat contrasting color of leather. It will be a very personalized 356.
So whatsay? Do you think I have my head up my wazoo on this project? You can feel free to tell me if you think so. I have broad shoulders and, like I already said, I realize that I don't know what the hell I'm doing compared to some of you guys.
Bill Crowell
