The Official 356Talk Forum

Just purchased my first 356. I am not sure of her true condition yet as I need to to start on tearing down and journaling. At least she is complete with the exception of what rust has taken away.

Congratulations, and welcome!

Great find, that will keep you busy this winter. Welcome and KTF

A perfect start, let me know if you need any help with pics or if you need to take a measurement, I'm not far away in NY, and normally have a bunch of B's about.

I have her almost fully disassembled and on a dolly/frame jig that I have supporting the front and rear torsion tubes and standoffs mounted to front sway bar mount area and rear hoop mounts. She is so rotted rear torsion inner and outer frame which would be ok considering all the after market parts but the rear crossmember is badly rotted as well. I am at a stand still and stuck trying to decide how to proceed. While she is a 356, she is not numbers matching and no sunroof unless you count the big rot hole as one. I have built several hot rods or customs from leass but this has me struggling a bit. I am not afraid of seeing this through but really not sure what to do about the crossmember. I can’t justify the cost of aftermarket crossmember. Even if I focus up front first, I will eventually have to deal with crossmember. Any advice or guidance appreciated. I have thought of just locating another shell or at least back half. I have also considered just fabricating my own crossmember which may be an option as this will be more of an outlaw/custom as that is just in my blood. Thanks for the opportunity to posture my dilema. I look forward to hearing from some of the group.

Tristen - Give Adam a call if you haven't already. He's seen a lot of cars in this sort of state and can probably give you some good advice re. moving forward. His place probably isn't too far from you.

Hi Tristen,

How married do you want to get to this project? That was a question posed to me once about taking on a 356 that needed metal work.

I haven't had the need to replace a full cross member, but I have done a partial replacement of the rear cross member (58 Cabriolet) and I can tell you it is very involved with many layers coming together, forming the chassis/frame of the 356.

In terms of specifics on your 356, the whole rear cross member needs to be replaced. Just looking at those 2 pics, I can see that the metal is super thin and super rusty, as are the surrounding areas like the engine compartment and the rear firewall. Yes, cross members are expensive, around $2.5K~3K so you could try making your own, if you want to invest the time into making dimple dies and have access to a press. You'll also need a brake to put the flanges on and then you'll have to plug weld the sheet metal to the inner bracing that lives inside the cross member. It'd also be nice to have a bead roller to put the curved bend in the cross member (where the rainbow is), but you could probably tip the flange by just hammer and dolly if push came to shove.

Are you scared or inspired? or both?

try to find a crumpled parts car/ empty body or maybe a relatively rust free half car (other coast probably) so you can use what you need. This looks like a labor of love for sure. Not that a B normal with the wrong engine does not deserve to be resurrected, but unless you can do all of it yourself and you are starting with a fresh drum of sheet metal this looks like a pricey adventure that makes no financial sense.

Was there a roof on the barn it was in??

The good news is with a car like this is there is nowhere to go but up. You don't have to worry about being super correct, just weld it up!

while i always enjoy Adam's positive spin on things, you do need 2 solid pieces of metal to weld something up. Preferably one of those pieces should be part of the car. Judging from the few pictures here, there may not be much of that left you can see many holes in places there should not be holes. You could fabricate a good brace (door hinges to b-pillar and something across?) if you can find enough solid metal to attach it to, then cough up $1000 and have it media blasted so you have a blank slate and know what you actually have there to work with but you may end up with a cowl, some door tops and a few pieces of fenders once blasted.

I guess it also depends on what you want the result to be. It may just be too far gone for a decent driver.

Jules Dielen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:15 am while i always enjoy Adam's positive spin on things, you do need 2 solid pieces of metal to weld something up. Preferably one of those pieces should be part of the car. Judging from the few pictures here, there may not be much of that left you can see many holes in places there should not be holes. You could fabricate a good brace (door hinges to b-pillar and something across?) if you can find enough solid metal to attach it to, then cough up $1000 and have it media blasted so you have a blank slate and know what you actually have there to work with.

I guess it also depends on what you want the result to be. It may just be too far gone for a decent driver.

I once went to look at a car that needed "new floors" but was described as otherwise pretty solid. When I got there I asked if I should weld the new floors to the dash, because that was the first piece of decent metal I saw, or the roof, that would have worked too...

Thank you for all the response. I have started to put together my own rear crossmember as I do have access to decent tools. A fellow 356 enthusiast from OZ milled me up the threaded bungs for the crossmember. I have the sheetmetal dimpled and will carry on as time permits. The car does need to go to the blaster. It is all secured to a dolly that I fabricated and I also set up a jig to help keep reference points. Stay tuned. I am no metal smith and this is not a restoration. Should end up as a pretty cool custom hot rod 356. My step dad Paul is going to help with hopping up the motor. He has a beautiful 62 sunroof coupe and this isn't his first rodeo.

good Luck Tristen! Please keep us posted on the progress!!