WCSTA - 27 - Silver 1956 A Coupe T1

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John Jennings
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Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:26 am

WCSTA - 27 - Silver 1956 A Coupe T1

#1 Post by John Jennings »

This is my 1956 T1 Coupe which I've owned for around 3 years. I realised when I bought it that the 356 prices were getting out of reach and that I'd better hurry up and buy one whilst I still could....and this is as far as my budget would stretch at the time.
I don't have much history for the car except that it used to belong to a Registry member (does anyone recognise it?) and had been standing for many years in a barn (yes, really!).
On the face of it this certainly isn't the worst looking car here, there are no trees growing out of it and it's nearly complete, but then again virtually every part of it needs a generous helping of TLC to bring it back to life....new parts are a lot quicker! As you can see, underneath that 'freestyle' anti corrosion paint job the bottom of the car is pretty rotten, the body panels are all original I believe although getting a bit thin in places thanks to the tin worms. The tranny is the factory original but the original engine parted company with the car some time ago, I do have a correct year 60hp motor for it which will be going in after a thorough rebuild. On the positive side the car is nearly complete and hasn't been crashed so a restoration to factory original spec is on the cards. Nearly all the often missing parts are there including lights, Becker radio and something I've never seen before, a red vinyl sound deadening(?) clip-in liner to the engine compartment which matches the interior fabric. The plan is to start a complete restoration towards the end of this year when I get back home after spending the last few years working in the Middle East (rust isn't a problem here). As the car is so complete and original I'm leaning towards a factory spec restoration using as many of the original parts as possible rather than giving it the Outlaw treatment.

Enjoy the photos and if anyone out there recognises the car I'd love to hear about it's history.

John
Attachments
Left_door_inner.jpg
Dash_01.jpg
Front.jpg
Front_inner.jpg
Left_profile.jpg

John Jennings
356 Fan
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:26 am

Re: WCSTA - 27 - Silver 1956 A Coupe T1

#2 Post by John Jennings »

A few more
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Left_side_01.jpg
Gas_tank.jpg
Front_hood_hinge.jpg
Fittings.JPG
Engine_bay.jpg
Delivery_01.JPG

John Jennings
356 Fan
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:26 am

Re: WCSTA - 27 - Silver 1956 A Coupe T1

#3 Post by John Jennings »

And the last batch
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Trunk.jpg
Right_side.jpg
Rear.jpg
Radio.jpg

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wolfgang geisler
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Posts: 83
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 3:25 pm
Location: Augsburg / Germany

Re: WCSTA - 27 - Silver 1956 A Coupe T1

#4 Post by wolfgang geisler »

Hello John,
congrats to your fantastic original T1 coupe. I am Wolfgang from germany and I am proudly owning a silver 1956 T1 coupe (VIN56937) in silver since a few weeks, too. It´s very interesting to look at the pics of your car in order to check out the original specs. My car was restored in the 90´s when originality obviously wasn't that important. I am trying to bring my car back to original specs as far as possible so it would be very interesting for me to learn whether your car´s trim of the engine compartment is original to 1956´s cars. Do you know that?
Thks a lot for
your answer!
Wolfgang
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