The Official 356Talk Forum

I like the lift smart mark

So here is another amazing local barn find I am picking up! Found this T5B just a couple of towns over under similar circumstances to that of the C. It is way out on a dirt road in the barn of an amazing 84yo woman. It was her Husbands car and now belongs to her Son. It has been off the road since 83, stored in barn since 1990. Rough shape and plenty of rust. It'll be a long term project for sure, but I look forward to getting it home and stripping out the interior to see what I am up against (hopefully not a parts car). Amazingly, the engine turns over by hand and the oil looks clean. Plenty of Bondo and was repainted green, originally Aetna blue it appears. The interior, which is not in terrible shape was also repainted or dyed, just a horrible tan color over the original red upholstery and head liner. It has some Cerello fogs in decent shape, and also some Bosch's down below in rough shape. The Cerello's are definitley going on the C.
I am picking it up next weekend, lets just say it was an incredibly good deal, no way I could pass it up. The guy just wants it to go to someone who appreciates it and will try to fix it. A neighbor bought a 70 VW camper from the same property about 10yrs ago and has since had it restored to concourse condition. He decided he would be in over his head after we looked at this car and suggested I buy it, so I did!

Taking the C for its annual trip down to Limerock Historics. Changed oil, points/plugs, check timing/lubed advance, dialed in carbs. Did not get around to valve adjust, ran out of time last night. Car is running fantastic. Leaving tomorrow early AM with my 11 yo son, keeping it simple again this year and just bringing some sleeping bags and a small tent. This year however I will be going home via a stop in Eastern CT, so much of it will be highway on return trip. All 5hrs of the drive down is back roads, most of which rt 7/rt22. Anyone going? Always surprised how there is so little talk about this great event..

Great time today at LRP, with an amazing group of cars as usual. I did 8 laps around the track with a random assortment of cars. Had a stingray in front of me and lotus behind. We slowed down to allow plenty of space and then really got after it. I felt a bit guilty for beating the crap out of the car but she took it in stride.

I did discover one problem last night right as I was ready to turn in - one of the Weber carb adaptors was loose and I had to remove the carb to tighten. Was a pain but did not take too long to fix. Glad I caught it. Had to retune a bit but got it close enough.

We made the trip out to Eastern CT tonight and it was nice back road tour. Tomorrow I am picking up a K5 Blazer with plow in decent shape. Excited to finally see it in person.

Sold the van since I need something I can hop in year round, tow boat, plow, etc. Van will be missed, but the Blazer should be a great replacement when I am done with it.

Hi Everyone,

Long time no post. I finally got the 356 out of storage last week. Busy times here and so much road construction I almost left in in storage for the full season. been driving it all week, tomorrow my wife and I are going on a long back road tour to Maine.

I did have to remove the R carb to tighten up adaptor, but other then that it is good to go. I have been storing the car in the basement of the animal hospital where my wife works, probably will be back in there again next week.
Nice to be driving it again!

My wife and I went on some outstanding foliage tours way up North. Took some very remote roads up near Canadian border, including a very steep dirt road up to a trail head. I thought i was crazy to drive this car up there but at the top i was surprised to see a really nice 70 Javellin and an old Jaguar up there too.

Been driving the heck out of this car and it has never run better. Only small issue I had to fix was a loose carb adaptor, which required removing carb in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I had all the tools I needed and some gasket compound. I hope to drive it a lot over the next couple of weeks before it goes back in storage.

Winter around the corner so I had to get back on the new plow truck project; an 81 Blazer that I got carried away with and replaced floor, rockers, body mounts, 2 cab supports, etc etc. It was fine for plow duty as it was, but now it'll be extra nice and I plan to use it year round. the rest of the body work and paint job will probably need to wait until next year.

What a nice project thread Mark, guess you are a "true motorhead"!?

I started the stone gray '56 in 2011 as well and you beat me by 4 years, I have to work faster.. The blue colour is great on the 356.

Hi Trond, sorry for the very late reply here... I remember your project and need to check in and see how it has progressed. As I recall you were doing everything to a very high standard.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your cars. I have been too busy to play with cars lately, but the 356 will be out of storage this week and hopefully it will be another season of just hop in and drive (more or less). I want to drive it out to the Maine coast later this Month. No real plan, just bringing a tent and maybe my wife if she's up for roughing it. A few maintenance items I will need to do are lube tach and speedo cables, change oils, valve adjust (skipped this last year), check/adjust link pins, etc.

I finally am getting ready to inspect/rebuild the original engine. I want it back in that car and plan to leave it pretty much stock. The 912/? mystery engine in the car now still runs fine, I'll probably try to sell it to fund the original engine rebuild.

In other news I picked up another barn find - this time a 1972 914 off the road since 91 due to transmission stuck in 1st gear (it comes with another transmission). I have always liked these cars, even when nobody else seemed to. I know many still do not care for them but I like them more then ever. This will be my hotrod eventually.. The body is quite good and not much rust, even hell hole is good. It came with all the trim, bumpers etc. It was stored up on logs with nice original interior removed. It was definitely not the most practical purchase for me right now but the price was right and I had to have it.

u did a heck of good job
on that C Mark NICE

Thanks!

Car has been out of storage for a couple of weeks. I ended up doing quite a bit of maintenance since last year I pretty much just hopped in and drove it.
I noticed the Master Cyl was leaking brake fluid into pedal area. I replaced it with a new one and flushed brake fluid.

I also noticed that the fuel filter cup on petcock was gouged/dented from the tie rod hitting it. It must have made contact under hard steering at full suspension compression, anyone ever had this happen?

I replaced the fuel cup and fuel filter and it has since been fine. Other maintenance included the usual oil change for engine and trans, carb balancing and some slight tweaking, valve adjust (all were fine except slightly tight #3 intake), lubed speedo and tach cables, greased suspension and checked/adjusted wheel bearings.

I did not have a chance to do ignition tune up, but was forced to find time last night on my way home from work as it started to randomly stumble/miss here and there. The rotor was pretty worn and the points were not in great shape. I installed a new rotor and replaced points on the side of the road. It runs fine again, but the rotor I installed looks a bit different and does not fit quite as well. Also, the new rotor has 1.2K ohm resistance as opposed to the 5+K resistance of the one I removed. It seems to have made a difference at higher RPMs in that it pulls a little better up high. I hope I do not cause too much interference on peoples AM radio's!


Anyway, I will go a step further on the ignition tune up when time permits. I want to set dwell, check timing again and double check specs of the original 6V coil.

My son has his permit and regularly drives the 356 with me. He says it feels slow after driving my WRX, but it is still way more fun. He also likes the loud glasspack, which I am very tired of..

Hope you got the 356 back on the road again, regarding ignition, I am very happy with the 123ignition in my '56. My "summer driver", the '63 coupe is unfortunately stuck on the lift with starter motor issues.

Love the 914, good luck with it and I wish I had time to work on mine. Having invested in more Neway tooling I kind of look forward to rebuild the heads this winter, hope to replace or patch driver side door striker as well but thats all for 2021.

Hi everyone,

Been working on some other projects so have not been around here much. I'll be helping my 16yo with his 83GTI project (fun to be back to Rabbits after so many years!), and my 13YO loves 914's so he will get the yellow one. Both need tons of work, and will only see the road if they are heavily involved. I just don't have it in me to go it alone.. We're also restoring a couple of old dirt bikes and fixing the modern stuff and it just never seems to end..

Not much to report with the 356. The car has been running well and was driven often this season . Will go into storage in a couple of weeks.
Some of the further trips include the annual trip to Limerock historics, Maine and Mt Washington hill climb. We drove it to the top of Mt Washington and it did well up and down. Its been a great car and I love it more then ever.

Hi Trond, I have been thinking about the 6V version, but don't really mind the points for now. I did need to go through the ignition system early this season and it has been problem free since. Its easy enough to live with so just leaving it stock.


,

Nice photos Mark!

Thanks Don

Long time no post... I have some other projects going so have not been here in a while. Other then the fog lights have not done much to this car since last season.
I let my 17 yo son take it to the prom with his girlfriend. They drove it much more then we agreed to but it came back safe and sound around 1:30AM. They had a great time and really enjoyed the car.