The Official 356Talk Forum

I'm assuming to cover an above standard tunnel shift rod, and to incorporate the VW parking brake for hand-brake turns?

Hi and thanks for the posts, Scott and Tony.

Yes the original tunnel is still there and seems to be in fairly good shape. I assume the VW tunnel was put in because they forgot to put in the shift linkage when the floor panels were welded in. I'm concerned about finding the proper linkage myself. I plan on getting most of the structural and body panels from Restoration Design as they seem to be the source for most of these components. Any thoughts?

Also, I've found a tranny/transaxle from a '51 beetle which I understand is what the '51 Pre-A used. The engine is still up in the air as I have not seen anything anywhere and supposedly my car would correspond to a 2 piece 1300cc Normal case. Any ideas?

Hopefully we will get the front suspension and drivetrain out this weekend and get it in the rotisserie by the end of the month so it can go to blasting (glass, I think) and get a real idea of how it is under the paint and bondo.

I appreciate any comments and suggestions from all you 356 restoration gurus out there!

JavierTorres wrote:I assume the VW tunnel was put in because they forgot to put in the shift linkage when the floor panels were welded in. I'm concerned about finding the proper linkage myself. I plan on getting most of the structural and body panels from Restoration Design as they seem to be the source for most of these components. Any thoughts?

The shift linkage should slide in no problem even with the floor welded in (assuming the tunnel hasn't been modified). My guess would be that the p.o. decided it would be easier to use beetle linkage over the tunnel than to source out the correct parts. It looks like the original parking brake lever is still holding the steering tube on. Bonus! If the ebrake cable was left hiding beside the steering box, even better! Those can be difficult to come by.

I still think you have a beetle gas tank sticking through a hole cut in the tank tray.

I've had nothing but good experiences with Restoration Designs. They provided all the metal for my '52. No major issues.

Thanks Scott!

I'm not really sure what the origin of the gas tank is but is has a on/off valve that comes from a kerosene heater and a big screo on gas cap that says "DIESEL" on it! Go figure..

Will look for the EBrake cable and post pictures...hope it's still there!

10547 UPDATE

continuing with the disassembly and preparing for the rotisserie we pulled the tranny, front suspension and steering as well as headlight buckets.
When removing the steering column... We found the original color!!! Apparently it's Pasha Red

Good sleuthing Javier!

Good stuff. Are you planning to go with new metal for the nose, hood, and rear end?

Hey! its update time:

Final dissasembly done and doors, hood and decklid are off. Preparing the support points for the rotisserie and finding some crude previous repairs that make me think that the poor old girl must have sat directly on the gound for many years and rotted out parts of the lower chassis structural metal. Yes, Scott, I've got an ever growing list of metal parts that I will order from Restoration Design although I don't see that they have a rear clip for Pre-A available. Any thoughts on what is best to remove paint, bondo and rust? Ruled out sand as it is too abrasive but still have to decide wether to go with walnut grit or baking soda. Carefully cleaned up the VIN number a bit more and the Pasha Red is clearly visible! Thanks for checking back and please be on the lookout for Pre-A stuff as I'm pretty much empty now besides the dash and steering wheel bought from Mr. Okrasa earlier this year.

Cool photos Javier. That looks like the original hood to the car (and doors and rear deck). The split-window hood has a unique inner structure by the latch. It looks like the hinge mounting brackets have been extended. Common I think. There might be the last few 2-3 digits of the chassis number stamped on the hood hinge bracket, driver side. Same on the door inner frames where the winders attach and the rear deck rain shield.

It will be very useful in having all these original parts for reference and fittment as you replace the creative-but-not-original nose and tail sections with panels of the correct shape.

In addition to Restoration Design, Trevor's Hammer Works makes nose and tail sections for these early cars.

Thanks for sharing!

Looking great, I love those early cars.

Trevor's Hammer Works - incredible skills!

hi javier looks like a great project. you asked about clean up and paint removal. you might try paint stripper. jasco or aviation or one of others . it makes a mess but it is affective. you have to keep it under control. also your car looks so straight, why are you replacing metal? i could never see the tank. good luck . send more pictures.

Use aviation paint stripper, let it sit for a while, then knock it off with a 4" grinder with a 3m paint stripping disc. Super fast and the grinding disc will not damage the metal.

Javier! Any update on this project? Looks great! How are you doing with sourcing the parts? Keep the Faith! -TR

Hi!

Sorry for the long hyatus.... a lot has happened in almost three years!

After the disassembly, the shell was put.on a frame and sent for media blasting. The bondo festival and general carnage was disheartening! There were parts where the bondo was almost 1'' thick! Underneath, the crude metal patchwork and sloppy welding were awful. I was frankly distraught.

Following the good advice, I ordered a whole slew of new steel panels from Trevor Marshall and began to look for someone crazy enough to undergo the restauration process. In the meantime I continued to investigate into the history of the car and got the COA from the good people at Porsche as well as a write up in Christophorus. It turns out that my car was likely imported into Argentina in 1952 and brought to Chile to race by count von Döry where it was abandoned after engine failure. It is most likely the oldest Porsche in South America having been completed in April 1951, as per the COA.

The only real knowledgeable automobile restoration artisan with pre-A experience had recently passed away so I was SOL... His associates offered to look at the car and after a week came back with a $150,000 and 20+ month estimate. They insisted on doing all the metalworking in house so my order to Trevor would have to go to a sculptor or scrap.

Needless to say, I graciously thanked them and declined.

Back to the drawing board (again). On top of that, my wife had become ill and now requires weekly dialysis which obviously took preference over my project.

After almost a year, the order of new metal panels was finished and arrived breathing new life in my project! Also, a set of pre a seats with the correct "boomerang" recliners turned up in Colorado on thesamba.com so I hit the line of credit and purchased them along with original securit door windows.

Word was spreading about my crazy dream of participating in the 2021 Mille Miglia for the car's 70th birthday so a former F1 pit crew guy turned car restorer agreed to take on the gargantuan task delivering a far more modest/realistic quote and we closed the deal and on December 29th, 2017, the car was taken to the shop where it was parked between two XK120 FHC also in the restoration process.

Plenty of pictures updated weekly on my Instagram ( javtower ). I will upload pictures here ASAP.

Please, If you know of or have parts for an early split, please let me know!

Thanks!!

JavierTorres wrote:Plenty of pictures updated weekly on my Instagram ( javtower ). I will upload pictures here ASAP.

Thank you for posting your Instagram handle. Enjoyed seeing the pictures of your '51! Looking forward to following the progress!