356 Manual Repair

[Stephen Masefield]

Prices of real "unused", pristine Porsche manuals seem to go forever up, but for us less 'ble$$ed' folks there are luckily a few used and battered copies available, and with some TLC can extend their useful life and now almost look good too !

The red binding seems to be a common failure point on the cover seams. Duct tape is often used to effect a repair but it makes a horrible mess after short time...the alternative product I found is red linen tape. Officially called Filmoplast T Red 1M - Book Spine Repair Tape, Self-adhesive bookbinding cloth

Its on ebay at :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191005056770?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

No affiliation - no connection - just passing on ideas...The color is not a perfect match and being color bind I may not realize just how off it is, but it has to be better than duct tape ! I cut the tape in half so as not to obscure the edge title (still does a little on the front cover) , no point in wasting tape and that way one order will do one book inside and out.

Down the outside...

Inside, I put extra around the screw and barrel mounts...

So when its too cold to work or drive the car - get book binding !

[Larry Coreth]

Good idea !

Also I like having a copy of Bill Romano's CD or Charlie White's hard copy of the manual for every day info referral, saves much wear & tear on those scarce originals !

[Thomas McWhorter]

That is a fantastic idea. Have you had any luck with locating the "screw and barrel" mounts? I have an ok-ish B manual that is missing the screw fasteners that hold it together. For the time being I am using metal shower curtain rings. It is some kind of goofy looking, but working otherwise.

[James Davies]

You can find those screw and barrel mounts at an art supply store that carries book binding supplies. Hull's here in New Haven, CT has them, though I don't know if they're the right size. I'm sure you can find the right size online. Aluminum binding screws.

https://www.screwpost.com/index.php?cPa ... f1e4716c8d

[Thomas McWhorter]

James,
Thanks for the lead on the screw mounts for the manuals. They look like they will work.

[Thomas McWhorter]

Stephen,
I was inspired by your post. While it was raining and cold down here, I decided to focus my attention on my A workshop manual that was in three pieces(front cover, back cover and contents). I re-built the spine on it using some fairly stiff cardboard from a Trader Joe's Holiday cookie box. From there I fabbed the inner spine with the two "wings" that the barrel mounts go through to secure all of the pages together. I covered it in the red cloth tape that you used, which is a pretty good match to the original stuff. I got a little manic with the outer book covers and steamed the covers a little so that I could peel back the paper and tuck the book binding cloth beneath it. Total factory look!