1958 A Coupe finally out of storage

[Don Gale]

The fun begins -- at long last! "Ran great when parked" in 1979 but life got in the way. I finally have time to do it justice. I found my 912 Solex carbs I thought were misplaced, and a brand new set of NPR p/c's. The gas tank is bone dry and bright shiny steel inside with no rust. First task is to pull the Normal motor and put a freshly rebuilt 912 1720 in it, then sort the brake hydraulics and do a thorough inspection of all the gas lines and wire harnesses. If all goes well, I might have it running by Christmas and spend the winter doing body/paint and new upholstery. I'm psych'd, can't wait to get behind the wheel again.

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[Joris Koning]

Awesome Don, that should be a fun project

[tom page]

I love the custom wooden rack on back! Great project!

[George Krompecher]

Great project. Sunroof! and a quarter window on the driver side.

[Al Zim]

Look carefully at your wiring it is 63 years old AND in a garage that was probably not rat free. I would also suggest that you install the seat belt reinforcing brackets that we sell and the tie down loops that mount to the bottom of the shock incase the vehicle needs to be strapped to a trailer. Everyone has brake parts, Zim's has shoes that have the proper brake lining thickness.
Give us a call if you are looking for something unusual. 800.356.2964

[Doug McDonnell]

Those of us in non desert areas are jealous Don.

[David Jones]

Don, great to see it coming back to driving condition. I would comment on only one thing and this is somewhat dependent on how you intend to drive it. Being a 58 it would have originally come with the early stub axles which were replaced with stronger units for the 59 model year. Does it have those that have the wheel bearings held in by two nuts with locking tab or the later version with locking clamps? As I say for spirited driving you may be safer with the later version.

[Al Zim]

We are continually trying to purchase B and C front spindles "C" carriers (that hold ) the king pin and trailing arms. Unfortunately most of the sellers do not have the tools to ascertain if these parts are serviceable. Your shop should have the following P69, p70, and a VW259. If the new king pin is loose in the spindle that can be corrected but it ain't cheap.

[Don Gale]

David, thanks for the heads up. Just popped the grease caps off and they are the earlier double-nutted style with the lock tab. Lacking the proper tool, I used to tap the grease caps off with a round phillips screwdriver layed sideways between the cap bump and hub with a few alternate hammer taps. I since found that channel lock pliers wiggle them off easily. A strong magnet on the left side draws the speedo cable out to slip a cotter pin back in.

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I checked my log book and it has approx. 33k miles since the last full rebuild of the front king pins and carrier bushings and alignment. New front wheel bearings at that time also. I greased the front zerks and adjusted the carrier pins every 5k miles since then.

[Harlan Halsey]

Don,
I have been removing the front grease cap using the round bar-and-hammer method for decades. You avoid chewing up the cap that way. 33k miles is nothing in the life of a 356 front suspension maintained as you have.
While the B spindles are thicker and stronger, the A spindles are fine as long as you don't bend them by hitting things. I always Magnaflux all suspension parts when I first assemble them and then forget about it. In your case, with the car assembled, I would dye check the spindles if you haven't done it. Nothing you are going to do on the street will damage those spindles if they are OK to begin with.
I remember cars in your cars condition. Usually the next step was parting out, or the junk yard. Because it was cheaper to find one in much better condition, than to fix one up and not worth storing such a car. So it is interesting to see one where the degredation was arrested and the car stored until it has become feasible to fix it up. Good Luck.