My 57 356A T1
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:34 pm
I would like to introduce myself and my car. Sorry if this is too long. I am new to the 356 scene, though I have been a lurker for many years. I have always wanted the proverbial Bath Tub 356 Porsche for as long as I can remember. I have owned many 911s over the years but never a 356, until now. The story for this car started for me a little over a year ago. I had been looking for just the right 356 to fit my specific requirements and was only interested in A’s. I can’t remember how I first got wind of this A, I think it might have been through Adam. If it was, thanks Adam.
Anyhow, I got word of a nice 57A for sale. I made a call and got in touch with Mr. Don P. Connor. Don is a super nice guy and had owned his car for over 20 years. We had many very nice long conversations about the car, exchanged emails, pics the usual. In the end Don was not ready to part with his baby, so he apologized and took the car off the market. He promised me I would be the first person he called when he was ready. In the mean time I found a very nice two owner 73 911S, also high on my collectable list, and bought it. Well, a little over a year went by and Don called just like he said he would. More long discussions and the decision was made to go look at the car. The only challenge was that Don lives in Minnesota and winter was coming in fast along with holiday obligations, so a quick road trip was planned. I bribed my buddy, Scott Houser, into riding with me. Not too much bribing was required because Scott is a major Porsche nut as well, plus who could pass up something this fun. So, we drove 20 hours straight to Andover, MN and met with Don and his lovely wife Shirley.
Don and Shirley welcomed us into their home with hot coffee, awesome Hash Brown casserole and tons of homemade sugary treats. Well, the car was even better than I could have imagined. Don was very honest about the way he had described the car. There is some rust in a few spots, but all very easily accessible and truly minimal. Someone a long time ago was very smart, maybe the factory, but I don’t think so? This car has a ton of undercoating applied and I am not talking about the type that is applied to cover rust after the fact. This stuff was applied a looooong time ago. Since getting the car home, I have thoroughly inspected the car and even after scraping off some of the flaking undercoat, all that is there is surface rust. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this is a “rust free” car, these words cannot be used in the same sentence with the word “Porsche”, but as far as what I have seen, I would consider this to be one cherry 356A. This condition is also attributed, I think, to the fact that the car has been in dry storage for 30+ years, 20 under Don’s care and 10 from the previous owner (Abb W. Ansley III). With info provided by Don, I have traced the original owner Dr. Lewis Lauring of Tampa, FL, but unfortunately, he passed away a few years back. Dr. Lauring was an Optometrist. His affialtion was with St. Joseph’s hospital in Tampa. Still on the front bumper is a parking pass for St. Joseph’s Tampa, FL. The funny part of this is that Don use to live in Atlanta, GA. He bought the car in 1990 from Mr. Ansley in Flowery Branch, GA so this car was originally a GA car, went all the way to MN only to return home 20 years later. Don even gave me the original Atlanta Journal advertisement from when he found the car as well as a picture of the car on a trailer behind a U-Haul when he moved up north. From the pictures it does not look like much has changed on the car. Don hand stripped the car and then life got in the way like it sometimes does. With no paint on the car, I was able to see that it has never been involved in any sort of collision. The only damage is door bottom rust, which was repaired horribly by some PO. I am not planning on fixing this any time soon.
The car does not have its original motor, which is fine with me. It has exactly what I wanted, a 69 912 engine. I did not want an original numbers matching car, I wanted a hotrod. I have done the concours Qtip thing before and it does not interest me. I am too anal, I end up not having fun bc I am too concerned about every detail. That is not to say that this car will not get the royal treatment, but my intentions are to have fun and keep it as a mild Outlaw style car. For now I am going to concentrate on mechanicals, get it back on the road, and drive it like I stole it. I currently have two major restorations going, Porsche 912 and Toyota Land Cruiser, so I definitely do not need a third. I am a hands on guy and like to do as much of the work as possible, so things move slow sometimes. I am not sure how to protect the “Rust Patina” and prevent any future damage. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.
The car was originally Black/Tan, but somewhere along the road it received a Champagne Yellow re-paint, yuck. No idea why someone would do that, but to each his own. It will go back to Black someday. Almost every original part from the car was carefully removed by Don for painting, carefully labeled and stored. Don placed all the little precious items in a wooden tool box. I received all his documentation along with his entire library of Porsche books, repair manuals, even his toy Porsche car collection. He also had many very rare hand tools, which I purchased. He even gave me some pictures of him and his sister sitting on the bumper of a Speedster taken in Germany at a VW dealership. Obviously, Porsches have been in Don’s blood for a long time. I feel honored to be the next care taker of this 57A.
So far all I have done is remove the loose undercoating so I can treat the surface rust and clean up under the front fenders in preparation of restoring the braking system. I wish I could leave the undercoating alone, but original or not, I cannot allow any rust to go unchecked. If the undercoating is supper strong it will be left alone. Any undercoating that is loose and flaking will come off. I realize that some people think it should be left alone, but not on this car. Another thing that might have helped this one survive was the fact that it was Ziebarted long ago as evidenced by the little plugs. I am not a fan of drilling holes in cars, but in this case it seemed to have helped, though not so much in the door bottoms, which is where the majority of damage is. We tried to start it and it almost started, but the battery died. It was only 10 years old! Don called some of his strong neighbors over to help with the loading. I had to apologize for taking them from the football game. Once loaded we cruised back home with no drama. It is now on my lift with the wheels pulled. I will post here as I progress. Thanks for looking, Mark
Anyhow, I got word of a nice 57A for sale. I made a call and got in touch with Mr. Don P. Connor. Don is a super nice guy and had owned his car for over 20 years. We had many very nice long conversations about the car, exchanged emails, pics the usual. In the end Don was not ready to part with his baby, so he apologized and took the car off the market. He promised me I would be the first person he called when he was ready. In the mean time I found a very nice two owner 73 911S, also high on my collectable list, and bought it. Well, a little over a year went by and Don called just like he said he would. More long discussions and the decision was made to go look at the car. The only challenge was that Don lives in Minnesota and winter was coming in fast along with holiday obligations, so a quick road trip was planned. I bribed my buddy, Scott Houser, into riding with me. Not too much bribing was required because Scott is a major Porsche nut as well, plus who could pass up something this fun. So, we drove 20 hours straight to Andover, MN and met with Don and his lovely wife Shirley.
Don and Shirley welcomed us into their home with hot coffee, awesome Hash Brown casserole and tons of homemade sugary treats. Well, the car was even better than I could have imagined. Don was very honest about the way he had described the car. There is some rust in a few spots, but all very easily accessible and truly minimal. Someone a long time ago was very smart, maybe the factory, but I don’t think so? This car has a ton of undercoating applied and I am not talking about the type that is applied to cover rust after the fact. This stuff was applied a looooong time ago. Since getting the car home, I have thoroughly inspected the car and even after scraping off some of the flaking undercoat, all that is there is surface rust. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this is a “rust free” car, these words cannot be used in the same sentence with the word “Porsche”, but as far as what I have seen, I would consider this to be one cherry 356A. This condition is also attributed, I think, to the fact that the car has been in dry storage for 30+ years, 20 under Don’s care and 10 from the previous owner (Abb W. Ansley III). With info provided by Don, I have traced the original owner Dr. Lewis Lauring of Tampa, FL, but unfortunately, he passed away a few years back. Dr. Lauring was an Optometrist. His affialtion was with St. Joseph’s hospital in Tampa. Still on the front bumper is a parking pass for St. Joseph’s Tampa, FL. The funny part of this is that Don use to live in Atlanta, GA. He bought the car in 1990 from Mr. Ansley in Flowery Branch, GA so this car was originally a GA car, went all the way to MN only to return home 20 years later. Don even gave me the original Atlanta Journal advertisement from when he found the car as well as a picture of the car on a trailer behind a U-Haul when he moved up north. From the pictures it does not look like much has changed on the car. Don hand stripped the car and then life got in the way like it sometimes does. With no paint on the car, I was able to see that it has never been involved in any sort of collision. The only damage is door bottom rust, which was repaired horribly by some PO. I am not planning on fixing this any time soon.
The car does not have its original motor, which is fine with me. It has exactly what I wanted, a 69 912 engine. I did not want an original numbers matching car, I wanted a hotrod. I have done the concours Qtip thing before and it does not interest me. I am too anal, I end up not having fun bc I am too concerned about every detail. That is not to say that this car will not get the royal treatment, but my intentions are to have fun and keep it as a mild Outlaw style car. For now I am going to concentrate on mechanicals, get it back on the road, and drive it like I stole it. I currently have two major restorations going, Porsche 912 and Toyota Land Cruiser, so I definitely do not need a third. I am a hands on guy and like to do as much of the work as possible, so things move slow sometimes. I am not sure how to protect the “Rust Patina” and prevent any future damage. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.
The car was originally Black/Tan, but somewhere along the road it received a Champagne Yellow re-paint, yuck. No idea why someone would do that, but to each his own. It will go back to Black someday. Almost every original part from the car was carefully removed by Don for painting, carefully labeled and stored. Don placed all the little precious items in a wooden tool box. I received all his documentation along with his entire library of Porsche books, repair manuals, even his toy Porsche car collection. He also had many very rare hand tools, which I purchased. He even gave me some pictures of him and his sister sitting on the bumper of a Speedster taken in Germany at a VW dealership. Obviously, Porsches have been in Don’s blood for a long time. I feel honored to be the next care taker of this 57A.
So far all I have done is remove the loose undercoating so I can treat the surface rust and clean up under the front fenders in preparation of restoring the braking system. I wish I could leave the undercoating alone, but original or not, I cannot allow any rust to go unchecked. If the undercoating is supper strong it will be left alone. Any undercoating that is loose and flaking will come off. I realize that some people think it should be left alone, but not on this car. Another thing that might have helped this one survive was the fact that it was Ziebarted long ago as evidenced by the little plugs. I am not a fan of drilling holes in cars, but in this case it seemed to have helped, though not so much in the door bottoms, which is where the majority of damage is. We tried to start it and it almost started, but the battery died. It was only 10 years old! Don called some of his strong neighbors over to help with the loading. I had to apologize for taking them from the football game. Once loaded we cruised back home with no drama. It is now on my lift with the wheels pulled. I will post here as I progress. Thanks for looking, Mark
