Marks 64C

[M Penta]

I was under the impression that an appraisal can be done ahead of registration. I'll have to take another look at that, thanks for the info. The reg fee is insignificant either way, but I do plan to reg as antique, as I did with the van (and I drive that thing everywhere...SHHH!). The tax will be the killer, the value of van was only at 800 bucks!

Mark

[M Penta]

I removed the front spindles today and pressed out link pin bushings. I'm sure I can get the king pins out but do not want to risk damaging something with wrong tools, so I'll drop them off at machine shop. All went well, except for that #%$%#^# speedo cable role pin! I damaged the cable trying to get it out, it was impossible not to.

Last night at 1:30 AM I finished reading the 356 restoration guide cover to cover. This is a must read for anyone who owns these cars. Most articles written by experts on this forum, thanks for taking the time to write these! Very helpful and informative book...

[M Penta]

Happy New Year everyone,

Unseasonably warm temps over Holiday allowed me to do some more sandblasting, cleaning and painting. It is always nice to do this stuff with the doors open.

I did some more cleaning to transaxle and engine bay area. I decided to bring the psi washer into the shop, which worked well but obviously made a mess. I dried it out with some fans overnight. It was worth it, all is looking very clean now.

Pedal asm is painted and reassembled, I test fit it into pan/bulkhead and it drops right in. Also got some other small parts painted, remaining items that were sand blasted and cleaned were painted today.

I hope to rebuild the calipers tomorrow. I did not sand blast the bores, just used some scotch bright to clean them up. I was on the fence between painting first, but decided to install pistons before painting. I will be using a silver/zinc colored caliper paint. Apparently they should be gold/cad color, but mine appeared to be silver. All I could get locally was the silver stuff anyway, so silver it is.

With suspension removed I was able to continue stripping and cleaning wheels wells. Very tedious and time consuming work!

Since it was 65 on Christmas Eve, we got out the dirt bikes and go carts. Had a blast on the muddy track with the kids. Since then the temps have dropped like a rock, it was nice while it lasted.

[ryan base]

hi marc just wanted to cheer you on with your project. it looks like you are attending to those necessary trouble spots that will insure a safe reemergence to the road. your car is so straight and now with your floors replaced i'm sure you'll have it rolling soon. i didn't realize what it takes to put these cars back to running condition but facing each issue and implementing the solution i think makes one a stronger person, only i just wanted to drive it. well i see this great divide between guys that have their cars finished or just always kept up and the folks trying to bring one back. in the end the i think the guy who brings one back is the guy to be

[M Penta]

Hi Ryan, thanks for the encouragement. It sure is a lot of time/work, but deserves to be saved! When I see some of the cars here people bring back, I realize I have it pretty easy. I hope your project is going well. What's the status of the engine?

Made a little more progress this week. I am waiting on one more caliper seal kit since I lost an Oring somehow, but brakes should be done soon. I did end up removing the piston guides (or what ever the are called) from inside the pistons. Glad I did as they were pretty nasty in there.

I got a bit sidetracked and started working on the battery box. It is the last of the metal work and I was tired of looking at it. I decided to patch it and not replace. I still have work to do, but so far I'm happy.

Also, I finished painting remaining small parts (dust shields, various brackets, etc). My 7yr old helped clean up the shifter, he put an amazing amount of effort into it. I think I may polish it and leave it bare (since this is what he suggested).

Kingpins should be done tomorrow and I picked up turned brake rotors today.

Also, I could not help myself and brought home another project. Guess I fell off the wagon again... Its an 83 GTI that needs everything, but a good solid shell to work with (especially by VT standards). I will not touch it until 356 is done!
Gotta love AAA, they towed this sucker home for me about 90 miles and dropped it in my driveway! I dragged it up to its long term parking spot in my upper yard. I towed it with the old plow Jeep and got stuck 1/2 way up on the steep drive which was a sheet of ice. Then brake pedal went to floor, almost rolled back into car got stuck etc. I eventually used the tractor in "ghost assist" to get up the hill.

Time is tight, and starting next weekend I will be working OT Saturday's well into Spring.

[M Penta]

Nothing to see here. Squandered a full week of spare time fixing my shop furnace. Ended up rebuilding the whole burner, had in and out like 6 times. What threw me off in the end was a brand new nozzle, identical to one removed, would not work. Installed another new nozzle and finally have heat again.

I am done with car work in the cold unless absolutley necessary. It was like 15F in there all week.

Some progress made: cleaned/painted Fr sway, spindles done, rotors done/painted. I would love to go out there tomorrow but have other things going on, so I hope to find some time next week. I still need to place an order for some random bits and pieces: Blinker return spring, ball shafts for linkages, pedal buffers, hardware, roll pin, etc etc. I also mounted the dual circuit brake res. I made a bracket to lift it up a bit so that both lines would fit through hole. Works fine, can hardly see the bracket as it is tucked up under fender.

[Brad Ripley]

Hello Mark,

To document:

Front trunk "smooth" hood latch plate, what is the chassis number of your 356?

Silver oil filter canister with Fram F 988 decal, what is engine number?

[Larry Coreth]

Mark,

Nice Bali Blue C coupe ! Looks just like mine What color interior does/did it have ? Red or gray ?
I see your engine #712331 began life as a C motor while in a later picture I see Webers have replaced the Zeniths. Did you modify or upgrade the internals also ?
I noted that someone went to a lot trouble to replace the battery hold down/ ground channel ! Do you plan to restore to the original ? I remember my original was pretty much rusted away.

[M Penta]

Hi Brad, Larry,

Vin 217330

Orig engine 712731

Orig trans 76538 (741 2/C)

912 engine (on engine stand, pictured with Webers) 831771

I have not yet requested a COA, but plan to. I also have not researched the numbers, and have a lot to learn about details such as "smooth striker plate", part colors, etc.

Original interior is red (see pics beginning of thread), will be reinstalled soon with new carpet and rubber mat.

Yes Larry, some work has been done to battery side of battery box. It is a very strong repair and I decided to leave that area as is.

Bali Blue is a good color, and I like the red interior as well. Soon it will be time to clean up paint and reinstall interior, can't wait.

Thanks,

Mark

[Brad Ripley]

Mark,
Thanks for the numbers.
Smooth latch plates were on early 356C's .

Send for the CoA to find out when your car was built and other details.

[M Penta]

I had new king pins installed and then decided to install new link pins. I have a question on the link pin "special washer" and Oring seal: The raised "special" washer with bump for control arm gap; it contacts the face of the control arm and the bump barely reaches the gap in control arm. I am thinking this can not be right, and will eventually crush flat under driving/steering load?

I have 4 new Porsche specific link pin seals to install over the shims, just wondering what to do about the VW special washers (my instincts tell me to leave them out).

This is a VW link pin kit (FEBI). I did find one post where someone said not to use the VW seals but it was not clear if this is what they were reffering to.


No pics at the moment, will try to post one later.

'EDIT' Found the answer to this in another thread, the seal washers are in fact different and the VW's do not fit properly. Oh well, more hard to find small bits to track down, or maybe I'll make some.

Thanks,

Mark

[Larry Coreth]

Mark,

the washer with off set face and bump and O-ring are unique to Porsche 356. The bump will fit nicely into the control arm pinch bolt slot, assuming correct washer and installed correctly ! Note also that the "O-ring" is NOT round but rather trapezoidal in cross section ! See pictures below, from shop manual, which I hope you have already read and studied carefully.

Your instinct is wrong, do NOT leave the special washer out of the stack, it is necessary to get the correct adjustment washer stack thickness AND it holds the trapezoidal-ring in place. Why would you not assemble the whole system like Porsche designed it ? See below.

Finally, yes the link pin -bushing fit is not that tight, in the dry condition it does feel loose but with grease and installed it works "just right". And one more thing , do not over tighten the link pin itself during installation ! A light snug tight is all that is required, be judicious here ! The pinch bolt now it should be TIGHT.

[M Penta]

Hi Larry,

I should have updated this. These were my initial thoughts when discovering the incorrect parts, and is discussed in greater detail in another thread in general discussion.

Yes, I most certainly will be installing the correct parts and will shim/install everything properly. Parts are on the way.


My last posts on the topic on other thread:


" Ahhh, OK. Thanks very much for clearing that up. So the original ones sit flush to the control arm face, and has rim that goes around it and captures the outer seal.

I see how the VW ones do not fit right, and will not be using them. The raised portion takes the full load of cornering forces and shim tension, no good.

As for the shimming I think I am all set there. I measured it all by the book and dry fit everything to verify even contact. I had to move one shim from inside to outside on driver side top arm. I will redo all this when I get the proper washers.

Thanks for the replies and pictures, very helpful...."


And...


Bottom line: The VW link pin kit should not even be sold as a substitute for the Porsche. It has the wrong sealing washers and does not come with outer seals. At the very least, it should be clearly stated that these items are different and need to be purchased separately.

This may all seam obvious to those who know these cars, but not to someone who has never worked on one.

While I do not care about the bronze link pin bushings vs the steel, I would have gladly purchased the Porsche kit for 3x more to avoid three separate orders and time wasted".


Thanks,

Mark

[Larry Coreth]

Mark,
I understand your frustration with the difference between VW and 356 parts. But I must disagree with your statement, "The VW link pin kit should not even be sold as a substitute for the Porsche", the cost of the Porsche link pin kits are 2 to 3 times the price of the VW ones when all you need is the pins and bushings. The special washers usually do not need replacement and the trapezoidal rings cost ordered separately do not nearly approach the difference in price of the Porsche link pin kits ($206) vs the VW one ($42).

It may be old news but "Caveat Emptor" applies to 356's too, so my advice, bone up on all the information available, shop manual, parts manual etc.,whenever you purchase parts. Do not expect to be able to depend on the knowledge and/or helpfulness of the parts rep.at the other end of the phone to keep you straight!

Good Luck

[M Penta]

A few small updates:

My tach had a broken needle, described in greater detail in another thread.
I wanted to include this here so this is condensed version:
Remove tach, painstakingly remove bezel, used gel epoxy to reattach needle (the shimming was changed a bit prior to gluing, so that I would not get glue on the paper).

Lubed tach and operated with drill for over 30 min, simulating bumps by jarring it ect. It has worked perfectly so far so I reassembled and reinstalled.

I am aware that the problem that caused needle to break may reoccur, but I will have to take that chance. I also made a small foam buffer to fit over pin to dampen the impact. May not do anything, but seemed like the right thing to do. The needle repair is strong, probably stronger then the needle itself.

I then lubed the original tach cable by making a pressurized “oil bulb” out of a glove. I used a cable lube that I like and allowed it to drain all the way through the cable while using a drill to spin it. A few squeezes of the bulb and about a minute with the drill oil came out other side. I flushed it out several more times until the oil was clean. It spins very smooth now. I wonder if a dry cable may have contributed to the erratic tach movement.