The Official 356Talk Forum

Hi Forum,

I guess it's my turn to start a build thread on my own back from the dead Porsche. I've always loved 356's and have been looking for a Coupe for about 3 years. But not one that was already restored, where I had to worry about the quality of the restoration or one that was priced through the roof out of my price range. I bought mine about 2.5 years ago on Father's day weekend. It was advertised on Craigslist as a 58, but it was actually a 57 (ashtray in the dash and high door striker). Thanks Adam @ Unobtanium for posting the listing here on the Registry, you commented that it was too far for you to get, but that someone else might want it. I did! In the Craigslist ad, Porsche was misspelled and so was torsion bar, and people laughed at it. I saw what I thought could be a diamond in the rough.

So... here's the story: This man Toby had the car for about 40 years, he always planned to do something with it, but just never did. You know the usual story, too many projects and too little time. So Toby and I get to talking some more and he asks what my plans are for it and if I've looked over all the pictures he sent. I say yep I've seen the pics and well no offense here, but I've always wanted to own a 356 AND bring one back from the dead, yours looks like a good fit for me. He then says, I should tell you the 356 has been cut. Hmmm... I'm thinking, what do you mean CUT? Well... as in cut up in three pieces: front, middle and rear. So now I'm thinking WTH, who cuts up a 356. The story goes, the car was left in a field for dead stripped of all it's major parts and then some buildings started getting built around it. The only way he could rescue it was to cut it up to get it out of the field.

Toby and I made a hand shake deal over the phone on a Wednesday night for me to pick it up Saturday. Woke up Saturday @ 4AM loaded my son into the backseat, still sleeping in his pajamas and we hit the road for a 4.5 hour road trip up to Paso Robles to trailer the car home. I was suppose to meet Toby @ noon at his house, but I showed up at 9:30. When his wife answers the door she says "he's still sleeping, hold on". When Toby comes to the door, he's smiling and says, "couldn't sleep huh, Well I know it's going to the right guy".

Anyway, enough talking for now. Here are some pics of it...

Trevor

I just gotta love you, man. I thought my project Speedster was going to be a challenge! Don't give up and promise yourself to do something with the car every day, no matter how small. We are all in this with you.

Keep the money out of the kid's hands or he will think it is all his!

Glad someone got it, another one saved, buy lots of mig wire, the large spool and keep us posted.

Trevor,

Keep us up to speed. This could be as epic as Rusty Willey's "new to the registry and building two As" thread!

Jerry - Thanks, I'll take all the love I can get. I've heard of the 1 hour a day EVERYDAY rule. I did it on another one of my projects and it really does work. As for the money, my son knows he has to share it with his sister (4 years old) and she already likes shoes, yikes! BTW, post up some pics of your project when you can. Just think, it can't possibly be worse than mine.

Adam - TIG welder already on order (suppose to be delivered tomorrow) and one my good friends knows how to TIG and he's promised to give me some lessons. And of course plenty of 18 gauge steel metal to practice on first.

Bill - Thanks, I don't know about as epic as Rusty's, those are big shoes to fill, but his thread certainly is an inspiration; just as Justin's, Joe's, your faux cam and I'm sure a few others I'm forgetting are. I have modest goals in the short term, like just getting it in one piece and building a rotisserie.

Trevor-
Welding is a lot like chess, easy/quick to learn, but can take a lifetime to master. Mig welding is fairly easy and you can start producing good results fairly quickly, Tig is a lot harder and takes skill. Since this is your car and it needs to be super rigid, since it is in three pieces, I suggest you start with a mig and move up to a tig.

I'll chime in on the suggestion to start with a MIG. The heat on a good unit is variable and with all of the rust and other contaminants you will encounter, temp control is a must. You will have lots of blow outs that will be needed to fill in. Sometimes you will find that you will be welding on previous welds and short bursts of the MIG works pretty well. I'll post some pictures of my project when I figure out how to do attachments.

Hi Trevor,
Welcome to the project forum. I can't wait to see you dive in....its going to be better than TV!
Don't want to hi-jack your thread and turn it into a welding topic. All I will say is good choice on the TIG. I'm in Huntington Beach and you are welcome to come by anytime for some TIG practice. MIG too if you want. I'm going to work on my door next week.
Take care,
Tom

Adam and Jerry - Thanks for the advice. Since I've got the TIG machine, I'll start out on that doing a lot of practice welding first. With any luck I'll get decent. I look forward to the challenge of trying at least.

Tom - I knew I forgot some projects in my above post, yours being one of them. I love the made by hand again title! Don't worry about hi-jacking the thread, I think of threads more as a bunch of guys hanging out at the garage having a few beers, talking about a common theme, but conversations change topics sometimes, so no biggie it can always get steered back. Now if Cliff decides to show up talking Corvairs somebody turn off the lights and everyone keep quiet. Only kidding Cliff, just giving you a hard time (if you read this). Tom, send me a pm with what day your thinking of doing work on your door, if I can make it up I'd love to.

So the news of today is I got my TIG from Eastwood. I also loaded up the body pieces in a trailer so I can drop them off at the media blaster tomorrow. Once it's blasted, I am getting some help getting the three pieces put back into one piece. That help is coming in the form of Steve Hogue putting the body on one of his chassis frame/tables and welding it together. To me there is a BIG difference between welding a patch panel vs structural welding. My goal is to have him get the three pieces straight and square on his table and welded into one piece. Then I'm going to do the floors, longs, battery box and other patches.

As my brother said to me tonight, hopefully there is something left after it gets blasted

Last pic of it in the garage.

Trevor,
That looks like a fun project. Except for the non-standard chassis separation points, it looks better than a lot of the other project starting points posted here. When it goes for the suturing and is on the jig, I'd recommend you have the longitudinals done as well. From there on out it will be a piece of cake, and should be nice and square.

I agree with Tom P on your choice of a TIG. A very neat way to weld. However, I also suggest an oxyacetylene torch. There are places on a 356 that it is just the right tool to use. But more importantly, it will help you to master the TIG if you start out learning the gas torch.

Good luck, and welcome to the fascinating Project Forum,
David Gensler

Thanks David for the welcome and advice on the oxy torch, I appreciate it. I think it was your thread that had so much useful information regarding welding, I remember reading over all that welding info from people who had actually done it and thought man I gotta try.

My car still has what I would call the inner longs/frame rails. For Xmas my wife got me the bottom/outer ones from Zims:
http://www.allzim.com/acatalog/Longitud ... 6_All.html
http://www.allzim.com/acatalog/Longitud ... 6_All.html

And for those that are wondering, yes I gave my wife a few suggestions on what I wanted for X-mas

This has been a REALLY big week for me and the car. I dropped it off to be media blasted last Thursday before going to the GNRS in Pomona on Friday. If any of you are into hot rods, it is a show not to be missed.

Here are some pics of the the car prior to blasting. Fair warning here... if you do not like scary pictures scroll past these next few very fast. This is also the part where I scratch my head while at the blaster's shop and think what the hell am I doing.

Fast forward past the weekend and the blaster calls Monday and says the car is ready to be picked up. Here are some pics of me dropping it off at Steve's shop. You never really know what is underneath until it is blasted and I have to say that I am very happy with the overall condition. I was thinking about how when the car is all rusty and covered with old paint it has such character and personality. Honestly I was sad to see that go, but on the other hand when a car is blasted the bleeding has stopped so to speak and now the surgery can be begin to bring the car back to life.

Here's two pics of the car on the frame table/chassis jig. I think there is hope for this car yet!