The Official 356Talk Forum

Looks like it is really coming in to it, nice!

Must be tricky to haul it back and forth to CT.

BTW, good article in last issue. I always enjoy reading Barn Finding. The entire magazine was a great read as usual.

M Penta wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:13 pm Looks like it is really coming in to it, nice!

Must be tricky to haul it back and forth to CT.

BTW, good article in last issue. I always enjoy reading Barn Finding. The entire magazine was a great read as usual.

Thanks! And yes, the almost 4 hour ride to and from Wray's takes it's toll.

Bless your heart!!

Chuck

True piece of Unobtanium, the tail from 550A-0132.

Ok, time to start on the chassis. I've been saving this chassis for awhile. It must have been rolled early in it's life because there is very little rust. Someone cut out the front pan but I suspect by today's standard it probably wasn't very rusty. I plan to cut this at the back seat area and mate to the 550 frame, the frame was made in the 80's I think, so not original but it looks close enough. I loose fitted the front panels, everything is way way off, but you get the idea.
Hoping to make big progress next week, stay tuned.

So cool.

You must have way more spare time than me...and I'm retired!

Keep up the great work.

Emil Wojcik wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:50 pm You must have way more spare time than me...and I'm retired!

Keep up the great work.

I wish, it's taken 5 years to get this far.

That's a great project Adam. Thanks for sharing.

Ok, full steam ahead, all we are working on this week at Unobtanium HQ is the 550 project. Big progress today, sliced the 356 chassis in half and got the 550 frame in place. Next is mating the two. Big John kept asking me how we are going to do it and what have other people done. No good answers there...

Stay tuned.

Today was slower than I had hoped. I assumed I could use 356 spring plates to hold in the gearbox. But unknown to me, the 550 ones are longer, a lot longer. 29" in all. So we chopped up four to make two. It came together nicely, but it wasn't fast. Hoping to get the gearbox in tomorrow and start working on seaming up the two pieces. It's hard when you're going into the unknown.

Today was a slower pace of day. Stupid stuff like needing the correct mounts for the gearbox, both off the shelf and having to fab up mounts, made for slow work. Also worked on the front clip. The hood opening is going to need some tweeking to go from the C hood shape to the 550, but it's close enough to make it work. Hopefully we get the parts in first thing in the morning and can keep grinding.

Today was a productive day with times of frustration. You need special mounts to install the gearbox, I found them and had some overnighted but my UPS guy didn't drop them until 3PM. UPS red label used to be mean by 10 or noon at the latest, apparently big brown isn't what it used to be. Big John worked on the gearbox, getting it in place and fabing up new mounts for the back. I worked on the front of the car, cutting and fitting. All in all a good day, more tomorrow. Hoping to mate the two ends on Friday and have this be a roller.

One thing that was really cool today was a reminder that Porsche doesn't change things if they don't have to. Like when you can put a fender from a 85 911 on a 68 911, or how you can put an engine from a 64 356 into a 53 356. Some stuff just stays the same. I have the original front inner fenders for the 550 and tried fitting them. They literally fell right into place, a Porsche front beam is a Porsche front beam, doesn't matter if it's a 550 Spyder or a C Coupe, it was amazing!

Today flowed much better than yesterday. We got the gearbox in and got the wheels on. Vic will probably recognize the box, he built it.
We had enough day left to get a game plan for tomorrow on the mating of the two chassis pieces.
Hopefully on Saturday it will be one rolling chassis.

Stay tuned.

Did I put the ring gear in the correct location for a mid-engine car?