The Official 356Talk Forum

I have started work on the restoration of my 356b 1960 coupe and have asked a number of questions in the main discussion and received great support. I figure I am going to be at this for a while so maybe it would be best to start a thread in the projects section.

Let me rewind back a bit. I took possession of the coupe late last spring. Dragged it out of a barn after sitting after 20 years of neglect. The good news is that it is mostly original with all the parts – the bad news is the rust is everywhere. I knew there was some work done by the previous owner but during tear-down I’m starting to find some bad welding and repairs by an even earlier owner.

First step was to start to take off every part and piece so that when I started the metal work I would not need to reach for a wrench or tool other than the grinder and cutter.
I took detailed pictures of all the parts during disassembly – the final job was puling all of the wiring which was a real bear.

She looks good in the pic. Its amazing what you find when you start tearing them apart. Keep us updated!

looking forward to seeing your progress scott

With the parts removed it was time to get it up on a rotisserie. The car was mounted on the front torsion bar and rear transmission bolt mounts. It was based on plans posted here on the registry.
Once the car was on the rotisserie I then cut and welded cross bracing front and back inside the cabin to hold the shape for future metal removal.
With a bunch of parts in hand from Design restoration and having read the key 356 restoration books it was time to start to cut out metal for the inner longitudinal supports. The challenge has been to find good metal to start to get the car to shake hands with good old metal with new metal. There is a significant amount of rust. I debated about media blasting the car first but given the amount of metal to cut out I did not see the point early on. Living in Canada and enjoying a cold snowy winter I will media blast the car in the spring once it gets warmer.
So my recent post on the main discussion forum was ensuring the inner longitudinal is in the correct position and whether or not I should weld solid pipe and forgo the use of the sound baffles. The responses were clear – put back the baffles/mufflers. I managed to get two used inner baffles/mufflers from an old 914 that I cut down to fit.

You are coming out of the gate running Scott.
Just from the few pictures you've posted thus far, I can see where this will be a great restoration. Nice work!

Time for an update. After giving it a lot of thought I decided to remove the front clip. This was not an easy decision as it seems I am just getting deeper and deeper without any new metal installed for progress. In teh end it was teh right decision as I have really good access to a lot of trouble areas.

I Continue to work at putting together the centre longitudinal with the frame strut and the battery box side pieces. A complicated area with most of the bottom five inches a mess and cut away. The real problem is the inner wheel housing areas (area with large whole for steering linkage to pass through to the wheel) is damaged and badly rusted on the bottom. A tough shape and piece to visualize and shape.

I have fabricated a rough shape of this piece and have determined now is the time to remove the battery box side as it ties into the torsion bar support piece and the wheel housing area over laps this as well. Nervous about how is being cut away - don't want it to fold in on itself. Need to tie the firewall, frame struts, battery box side and inner/outer longitudinals all together to regain a ridge strong body.

I have now cut away the front inner nose section and will start to clear away old rusted metal and the area around the inner wheel area on the inside. Need a clean strong surface on the torsion bar support piece frame to weld edge of battery box side and the inner wheel well piece that will overlap each other.


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Scott You may have done this already but backup you photos in one of the on line photo sites. I didn't and regret it now that my computer crashed and they are all gone.

Scott, looks awesome!!!

After a busy summer its time to get back to work on the car. The passenger side needs the bottom half of the front inner pannel replaced that surrounds the torrsion bar tubes and opening for the steering linkage. A paper template was used to cut the metal piece and holes drilled before forming. Using an old brake drum which was a perfect shape for the hole opening it was hammered to shape.

looking good scott

your getting deeper into it! almost knee deep in 356 rust lol

Definitely knee deep in rust. Always nice to get some clean metal in but discouraging as you look a few inches away and see more red rusty metal.

I have been working on the driver’s side longitudinal. Have the inner longitudinal in place and welded where I am happy with it. Now working on the heating pipes and heater muffler. Front pipes are in place and welded to inner longitudinal. Now working on rear. The pipe extends through the panel that supports the torsion bar – a tight snug fit.

I tackled the rear heating pipe positioning and welding. It is a tricky alignment to line the pipe up through the inner longitudinal support for the pipe and then angled out and through the rear outer frame panel. Unfortunately I got ahead of myself and did not pre-cut the small hole on top of the pipe that takes air to pipe for the rear defrost. Will have cut the thin pipe short and try to drill and enlarge a hole on top of the pipe to receive the rear defrost pipe.

making some progress on rear suspension cover for torrsion bar.

more work on rear - used a pie plate to determine shape of new piece - easier to cut holes for torrison bar and heater tub and then trace to new part for more accurate cutting