365 Porsche

An impulse buy got a married couple into this 1963 Porsche 356 Coupe, “it just like the car my father owned when I was young” and “I remember how much fun it was when he let me drive the little car” she said. So when they saw this little red time machine they had to have it.

Right away they had engine troubles and numerous electrical issues and if you search the posts on this blog you will see an entry describing the overhaul of the engine. We installed a new wiring harness and got the car to work with great reliability. It was a total blast to drive with 86mm pistons and a lightened flywheel, overhauled brakes and rebuilt transmission.

They asked me what it would take to “freshen up” the car over the fall/winter 2007 and I spent some time looking over the car. The paint was checked all over the place and there were some minor “pimples” in the bottom of one door skin. The floors were replacement units but they were not installed by a professional but they also did not look terrible. Overall the car went down the road straight, doors closed well and except for a poor front hood gap, the body looked good. I gave them a price to do the car assuming it would need some rust and tuning of some gaps and we started working on the car.

Started digging should have been the word I used, the car was a “bondo-buggy” with areas on the car over 1/4″ thick! It turns out that the past body man was an expert at sculpting a car from body filler. This car had been hit in the front and rolled onto its side and the sheet metal work was a joke. There were numerous holes from stud type slide hammer work and terrible welds with no effort made to fill in all of the holes. The bottoms of the doors were mostly plastic.

I have spoken to a few shops and stumbled across an identical body that has just finished a complete restoration. The doors are properly “gapped”, edges are leaded and the bulk of the body is block sanded. All we have to do is decide on the color and spray the thing!

I will post photos soon.