1957 356A T1 Coupe Project

[Jim Clement]

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skip.. no tailwind savant here.. I do love to ride a bike.. and always appreciate a tail wind though..
I see you have a Trevor nose.. once you have it on the car - check that the horn openings are level.. in my case they were not.. luckily my painter caught it before he painted it and we cut them out and rewelded them back in.. easy to do before you paint..
seeing your pictures, makes me feel good that some one else is following along on the same path as mine.. lost of work, and just keep on plugging away..
I see you have an assistant - good for you.
for me, I was the cutting out rust and making new pieces for my body guy to weld back in.. it was a lot of work, but turned out well in the end, and I learned a lot along the way.. sometimes making some errors..
one error was painting the interior with a high end black metal paint, only to discover that it was NOT compatible with etch primer.. back to the scrapper it was..

[Skip Stewart]

Thanks Jim,
I will check. I already found some other errors with this piece. I tried to get him to fix or refund, he refused. Wished I had bought the Porsche OEM part in retrospect. All of the other parts I bought from Trevor were perfect.
Thanks for the heads up!
Skip

[Stephen Masefield]

yet another '57 Coupe .100661
Same problem with my horn opening from same vendor... back in October of 2016 !!!
I brought the whole nose and cut it in half as only needed one side (halves were not available at that time) . As I had an original good side I measured couple of data points and transferred over. Cut out the opening and remounted angled down - and then infilled with a wedge - Not hard just a pita !

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"Cocked upwards"

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Getting true heights...

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Wedge inplace

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Ah - that's better !

[Jim Clement]

Oddly .. when I told Trevor about it - about two years ago, he told me there was no problem with them, and he had never had any other issues with anyone.. so I just fixed it. Once I saw the issue on the car , I could never let that go.. if I did .. I know I would see it every time I looked at the car..

That said, I have used some his other metal parts and they were good..
mostly I have used Restoration design stuff when it is available, it also has it's faults, but the price point is usually good..

[Jules Dielen]

great project pics everyone! I decided to keep my '57 'as found in yard' Just mechanical to make it safe.

[Skip Stewart]

Jules.. love it! I would have done the same thing if mine were in better shape.
Stephen... thanks for the info! I still have mine nose section as received. I'll check it more closely.. may try to get my money back after all..

Anyone have any info on the nose sections now being offered from Porsche?

[Todd R Hyatt]

Jules that my plan for now, just the mechanical.

Skip, sent you a DM on Facebook messenger.

[Jim Clement]

Jules / Skip
if you look at the horn openings - they are just above the bumper line and are near perfect.
When I was mocking up my car, prior to paint, this is how I noticed that the horn openings were not level.
Skip - this is a good way to do a double check, put the bumper on and eye it up..

[Jules Dielen]

Jules.. love it! I would have done the same thing if mine were in better shape.
Stephen... thanks for the info! I still have mine nose section as received. I'll check it more closely.. may try to get my money back after all..

Anyone have any info on the nose sections now being offered from Porsche?

Skip, Porsche does not produce anything for our cars, they merely buy from the same vendors and pass it on. They do vet their suppliers so you get the 'best available' reproduction part. That is why they call it 'verified quality' and none of the 356 or early 911 parts are labeled 'genuine Porsche' like the NOS stuff in the old packaging.

So just buy the best repro you can, and feel good because you saved some money by not buying the exact same part from Porsche at their price

[Skip Stewart]

Jules,
Suncoast has a nose section that they say is manufactured by Porsche and is a Genuine Porsche Part. Are you saying this isn't true? If they don't make this who does?
.. from their site:
"Primed front center part for Porsche 356 models, select the version. A Genuine Porsche Part! Due to popular demand, Porsche has began remanufacturing the front end panel for 356 models. The reproduction nose panel for all three model series of the Porsche 356 means that restoration to the original condition is now significantly simpler than the painstaking repairs using flat metal plates which, for many years, were the only option"

[Skip Stewart]

BTW... it's also $500 cheaper than Trevor's... If my horns holes are also off (I'll check on Monday) then I will go ahead and buy this one and let you guys know how it looks...
Skip

[Jules Dielen]

Jules,
Suncoast has a nose section that they say is manufactured by Porsche and is a Genuine Porsche Part. Are you saying this isn't true? If they don't make this who does?
.. from their site:
"Primed front center part for Porsche 356 models, select the version. A Genuine Porsche Part! Due to popular demand, Porsche has began remanufacturing the front end panel for 356 models. The reproduction nose panel for all three model series of the Porsche 356 means that restoration to the original condition is now significantly simpler than the painstaking repairs using flat metal plates which, for many years, were the only option"

If you have been to the plant recently, you will see they have no capacity to make their own part for our cars. It's all taylored to modern production cars, just in time delivery etc.

They buy parts from suppliers just like us. Only the sticker is 'genuine Porsche'.

If you want perfection, find a 'green' NOS nose section.

[Skip Stewart]

LOL.. Okay.. I guess technically they didn't make the original parts either...

[Michael Foster]

Surprised no one has mentioned Mike Dejong at restoration-design.com. His company is selling complete speedster kit. His company in Canada is stamping body parts including new A nose. Used on my 57 project. Metal man was impressed with quality and fit. Touted by Rod Emory too. This may be source for "new " Porsche nose.

Michael Foster

[Jim Clement]

Yes, I used his metal work pieces as well, good results, he did not have a nose at the time I was doing my car, otherwise would have bought from him.