Getting Uncle Bill in his 1964 356c again
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:54 pm
My first post and a picture of the first identifiable part of the car i hope to get back on the road.
Last year it was tagged was 91....i believe the last time it was driven was late 80s...80K miles
Little background..
my wife's uncle was in the army stationed in the UK. He bought this in 1964, new. Drove it for a short while in the UK then shipped it back to the states. He knew i liked Porsches , I have a 928, and told me he had a 356c in his garage.
Being in the Army, he said he couldnt afford the several hundred dollar upgrade to the SC at the time!! .Her uncle is a little bit of a hoarder(understatement)... he has LOTS of stuff. The only glimpse i ever got of the car was about 1 square foot of the front bumper headlight area (The top picture, taken a few years ago..)…it was piled under so much stuff. The good news is, it has been covered all the time though in a fairly good garage.. Bad news...Her uncle said he had it running last in the late 80s..1990 ..plate tags are 91. He said he was doing some valve work/adjustments etc and dropped a valve into a cylinder???????..push rod perhaps…etc. ?? Being a flat 4 i was trying to figure out how that happened or if that is even the issue??. It was running before he worked on it, put it that way.... and that is the story he told me.... He told me when he tried to move the motor by hand 20+ years ago, it stopped and he left it like that...it has never been started or turned over since then…never seen the light of day or water…. gas was drained and it has sat.
he is now in his mid 80s and declining slowly mentally and physically. Last year I told him, “lets get that old 356 out and on the road for you”..
fast fwd a year and several months.
to our shock he actually cleaned out the garage enough to get to the car, inflated the 2nd set of tires ever to be put on the car and rolled it , with the aid of his hired help, into a new shipping container he purchased. You have to understand, this was a huge step for him. My wife and I were shocked he did it. He called me later and said he moved the car and that i could come see it. I went over with my 21yr old son who has become a Porsche fan.(this was fall of 21..date of the pics below)
this was the first time the cover had been off the car since it was “left”. He never drove it in the snow and rarely in the rain. A quick look around it and i was blown away. Appears to be absolutely solid.?? It exceeded my expectations of what I was going to see. Full tool kit..spare..documents… the missing steering wheel emblem is in the drivers map pocket!
he did say he had it repainted in the early 70s as the original signal red paint was fading badly, almost to an orange color he said.. At that time he had the Porsche script removed from the trunk lid…he said it would gather dirt and his rags would catch on it.( he still has the pieces.....somewhere?) Holes were filled before it was resprayed. That is the only body work it has had.
ive hit quite a few great you tube videos on these cars…restorations, maintenance etc to get my self up to speed. Now i have found this place!! I am pretty mechanically handy (lots of experience with my 928) and am preparing to tackle this in the upcoming Spring and Summer, knowing full well there are going to be gremlins and issues pop up. Only draw back is going to be working in the container and not having all the tools etc i have at home in Vegas....and the car is in the midwest.
I dont want to rush it but my goal is to have him drive it again. it wont be "perfect" when that happens....just road worthy.
1st objective is to fix or determine exactly what happened with this valve..or push rod and get a rotating engine. ? Change all the fluids..add gas..leak check….and refresh the ignition sytem..brake sytem and put on the new tires he has. Hes pretty excited and went an bought new tires!! Hopefully, with gas and spark and a "few other things" we get a road worthy car again.
all tips, words of wisdom, and links are appreciate.
below are the pics as we uncovered it. Its awesome. This thread will be complete when i can post a video of him driving it.
.
Last year it was tagged was 91....i believe the last time it was driven was late 80s...80K miles
Little background..
my wife's uncle was in the army stationed in the UK. He bought this in 1964, new. Drove it for a short while in the UK then shipped it back to the states. He knew i liked Porsches , I have a 928, and told me he had a 356c in his garage.
Being in the Army, he said he couldnt afford the several hundred dollar upgrade to the SC at the time!! .Her uncle is a little bit of a hoarder(understatement)... he has LOTS of stuff. The only glimpse i ever got of the car was about 1 square foot of the front bumper headlight area (The top picture, taken a few years ago..)…it was piled under so much stuff. The good news is, it has been covered all the time though in a fairly good garage.. Bad news...Her uncle said he had it running last in the late 80s..1990 ..plate tags are 91. He said he was doing some valve work/adjustments etc and dropped a valve into a cylinder???????..push rod perhaps…etc. ?? Being a flat 4 i was trying to figure out how that happened or if that is even the issue??. It was running before he worked on it, put it that way.... and that is the story he told me.... He told me when he tried to move the motor by hand 20+ years ago, it stopped and he left it like that...it has never been started or turned over since then…never seen the light of day or water…. gas was drained and it has sat.he is now in his mid 80s and declining slowly mentally and physically. Last year I told him, “lets get that old 356 out and on the road for you”..
fast fwd a year and several months.
to our shock he actually cleaned out the garage enough to get to the car, inflated the 2nd set of tires ever to be put on the car and rolled it , with the aid of his hired help, into a new shipping container he purchased. You have to understand, this was a huge step for him. My wife and I were shocked he did it. He called me later and said he moved the car and that i could come see it. I went over with my 21yr old son who has become a Porsche fan.(this was fall of 21..date of the pics below)
this was the first time the cover had been off the car since it was “left”. He never drove it in the snow and rarely in the rain. A quick look around it and i was blown away. Appears to be absolutely solid.?? It exceeded my expectations of what I was going to see. Full tool kit..spare..documents… the missing steering wheel emblem is in the drivers map pocket!
he did say he had it repainted in the early 70s as the original signal red paint was fading badly, almost to an orange color he said.. At that time he had the Porsche script removed from the trunk lid…he said it would gather dirt and his rags would catch on it.( he still has the pieces.....somewhere?) Holes were filled before it was resprayed. That is the only body work it has had.
ive hit quite a few great you tube videos on these cars…restorations, maintenance etc to get my self up to speed. Now i have found this place!! I am pretty mechanically handy (lots of experience with my 928) and am preparing to tackle this in the upcoming Spring and Summer, knowing full well there are going to be gremlins and issues pop up. Only draw back is going to be working in the container and not having all the tools etc i have at home in Vegas....and the car is in the midwest.
I dont want to rush it but my goal is to have him drive it again. it wont be "perfect" when that happens....just road worthy.
1st objective is to fix or determine exactly what happened with this valve..or push rod and get a rotating engine. ? Change all the fluids..add gas..leak check….and refresh the ignition sytem..brake sytem and put on the new tires he has. Hes pretty excited and went an bought new tires!! Hopefully, with gas and spark and a "few other things" we get a road worthy car again.
all tips, words of wisdom, and links are appreciate.
below are the pics as we uncovered it. Its awesome. This thread will be complete when i can post a video of him driving it.
.