Ideas for finding the right project car?

[Justin Cordesman]

I am looking for ideas on year/models/state of vehicle for a project 356. I will soon have space at my new house for a project car, and I'd like to put together a driver 356 that I can tinker with etc at my leisure and not be overly wedded to correctness and matching numbers etc. I'd actually be happy with a rusty flaking driver or roller that I can fiddle with to get up and running again and starting bombing around in a bit without having to execute hard parts searches or overly complicated metal replacement/welding. I'm not really interested in finding something that would be an unusually valuable car if restored since my welding skill is not up to the challenge of "correctness" and I want to do the work myself.

I've looked at photos of ones listed on eBay or other sites for the past few years since I originally looked at a very rough one and posted about it here in 2014, so I've started to get a feel for some of the common rust locations and where there are complicated overlapping metal sections to repair (a problem I had on the Lincoln that I got help with). I've poked through vendors like Stoddard to see what sheet metal/structural reproduction parts were available relative to some cars I've looked at, and coverage seems pretty good but not perfect.

I have previously done a restoration on a 1962 Lincoln Continental, which is way bigger and has far more complex electrical/vacuum/mechanical along with very poor reproduction parts availability, so in some ways a 356 looks more tractable - albeit with a high cost of entry and relatively expensive parts. In terms of skill, I've rebuilt a big block V8, a couple inline 6's, and a few rotaries. I am comfortable doing electrical work on almost anything, and I have done complete suspension and brake system rebuild or replacement on several cars. My welding skills are not great so whatever I get would be a victim of some practice on my part, and my paint/body skills are strictly rattle can/replacement sheet metal level.

So with that in mind, I wanted to solicit ideas here for what years etc to look for and what to avoid in a project instead of just rolling the dice.

[Dan Epperly]

I would say whatever you get, make sure it is as complete as possible. Finding and paying for missing pieces gets really expensive fast.
I restored a '63 B coupe that required a lot of front end work. The unibody construction is a pain, but on the pos side, they are small cars and so not a ton of long flat panels to deal with. I had a lot of fun doing it and ended up with a nice looking car but not so nice and expensive that I'm afraid to use it.

[ryan base]

hi Justin, welcome. what fun , getting a project. so you are studying the marketplace, these days, I would look in this classified, the samba classified, b a t and maybe a few others. what to look for is dependent on how much money you can put on the pass line, so to speak. if you look at the range of values, our first level seems to be the " b "s with plenty of original production numbers. probably " c "s next same factors but the disc brakes seem to count a little more. " a "s are more rare, more money and more money for correct parts. early pre a's, much more money. where the floor is, seems to be what a running driving b will bring. which in broad terms is 40k-50k. so if you find that fixer, that's what you can expect to unload it for when you can put it back on the road. the cheapest cabs running driving, close to 100k, speedsters 200k, and up it goes.
another issue is repair or restore. these days, because we're talking so much money, a lot of these cars get disassembled down to the tub, blasted and epoxyied, and every part is plated, painted and polished. every part an original part, no repop. or replace repop when you find it. and of course same color paint and matching interior. and don't forget the gaps. I understand the original doors were leaded in to the body and cut loose with the perfect dimension. so then that kind of car doesn't get driven as much, but sells for a premium.
so then you have to examine your goals. a place to stash equity and offer challenging shop activities, a sunday driver you keep forever and pass along to favored heir, have you seen a perfect car that stirs your heart and you just ache because you don't have one, or stepping stone to next thing. where is Lincoln? kept or sold?
my project was a roller c, now 15 years with me, sort of rough, mostly complete. a poor candidate for resto because of replaced fenders all around. I just wanted to repair and drive it. I've had to do way more still i've learned a lot
good luck to you, if you keep looking the right car should find you. it will call you when you see it and will convince you, you are the right guy!

[Justin Cordesman]

I had not heard of samba until I saw it mentioned here, so I will add that to my rotation. I've looked at BaT and it is usually cars that are well done or closer to finished than a project. Tracking down some trim etc for an otherwise gone-through car is not so interesting to me. eBay seems to have cars that are either done or incredible disasters held together with moonbeams and faith where IMHO you are buying a VIN and then opening your wallet to attach a whole new car onto an old title with fasteners made of money. I did see one on eBay a few months ago that was mostly complete and IIRC running, but with non-matching numbers engine, surface rust on the body with a flaking repaint, and the underside looked ok aside from some perforations of the rocker ends and what I guess is the battery box area that nearly always seems rusted out just behind the nose? That one appealed to me since the metal work was hard but not impossible (or so I imagine from dealing with perforations like that on the Lincoln and the fact you seem to be able to buy the rocker ends and that section behind the nose easily) and the rest of the thing was there. I sort of see some romance in getting something like that into driver condition and just not bothering with a repaint. I thought at the time that it might be fun to just shave down the loose flake edges and then prep and clear over the whole thing to halt the rust while keeping it beater-y and well worn.

The Lincoln lives in the garage back at my old house. It's an attractive 10 foot car but sort of fair weather only owing to a combination of incompetent work by the hot rod shop I punted to for paint etc after I did mechanical and electrical, and due to the fact that there are no reproductions for 1962 window opening weather stripping. That thing had about 8200 miles on it but hadn't been driven in at least 30 years when I bought it. I learned a lot of lessons about resurrecting a classic car in dealing with it, to include the unfortunately common experience of dealing with a shop that bit off more than it could chew, and discovering interesting things about its history while taking it apart.

[David Jones]

Justin, we know not where you are but if you are anywhere near New York you could go see what Adam of Unobtanium has in his yard and maybe find something to your liking. He has more than a few project cars that could fulfill your desires.

[Justin Cordesman]

I'm splitting time between DC and Houston, so it's about 7 hours from the place in DC to there - not completely unreasonable. I bought my Macan S in Albany just a few months ago, if only I'd know then, I could have gotten lucky and used it to trailer a 356 in one shot!

[Dan Epperly]

That's a great idea, if I lived near him I'd go that route, he for sure would have anything you need to complete it.

[Doug McDonnell]

This C: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-porsche-356c-15/ on BAT isn't getting any love. Some very funny work has been done underneath. But it is pretty complete and has a 912 engine in it which is my favorite for a non numbers matching car. But it could be a driver. I alway recommend buying the best body you can find though. The weird patching of the rear frame rails bothers me the most. That is one of the hardest areas to repair on a 356.

[Justin Cordesman]

I hadn't seen that one yet. The front end certainly looks like it has a crush repair that was sort of banged out and then closed up with the metal that was left. The patch in the center is obvious and looks mostly harmless to me structurally, but I also see welding/patches on the two frame rails in front just behind the sway bar brackets, with one maybe extending further back on the right side of the photo I'm looking at (#55/103). I have no basis by which to judge what the original welding looked like so I'm kind of looking at things that look like I did it and assuming the factory didn't. I'd be interested in knowing the relative complexity of cutting out that front battery box section and replacing it with new metal.

WRT the patches on the rear frame rails, which photo(s) are you looking at for that? Is it the area to the right of the shock in photo 65?

I see the heater valves and it looks like the cables are present and all that is really missing is the ducting from the shrouds?

[Vic Skirmants]

Check out my comments on BaT about that car. With all that repair underneath, you are guaranteed that the upper sheet metal was probably just as bad.

[Doug McDonnell]

Justin There are East Coast 356s that are not rust heaps but either they were never driven winter or came from Cali,Az or another dry climate. The C I mentioned has Euro heater parts. Usually but not always a sign of winter use. Which caused rust and multiple areas of rust repair previously on this car. And poorly done as Vic mentioned. You need to look at and have picked apart multiple 356s to get an idea of what you want to avoid.

[Justin Cordesman]

Yeah I saw your comment about the bondo and I figured the nose was probably a lot of bondo after the impact that crushed the battery box, and then more filler around the rest so level it, which probably affects panel alignment. Since I'm kind of looking for a beater to just have something to tinker with and get my feet wet on a 356, my tolerance of filler and mediocre bodywork is a bit high this time around. I just don't want to deal with complex structural repairs (cut out pan, weld in new pan, fine, cut out three overlapping sections and repair correctly, hard pass). I was wondering why the euro heater valves were significant other than being the wrong part, so it being a sign of winter use makes sense. What makes the valve obviously a euro one?

[Doug McDonnell]

Car has USA style flapper boxes but Euro Heater valves

[Jules Dielen]

the one above is scary to say the least. Someone got really creative with a large sheet of flat sheet metal.

I think this one fits the bill perfectly - a great beater to noodle around in and tinker on the weekend:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1952-porsche-356-2/

[Doug McDonnell]

New ad on Thesamba: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds ... id=2274323