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Restoration Journal of a 1958 Porsche 356A Cabriolet
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Carpet Installation
We purchased a carpet installation kit from Autobahn Interiors of San Diego, CA. After speaking with a couple other 356ers who had installed their kit and further conversations with Tony, I was convinced of their quality. We went with an oatmeal German sqareweave with tan binding.
The kit was well cut and we had plenty of excess material for custom fitting. Tony was very helpful during the installation and was quick to answer any questions we might have had. We found that we had a missing piece and Tony was quick to send the replacement with no trouble. I would highly recommend this company should you want to install your own carpet.
Not too many tricks to suggest. Read the registry tech references and you will be ready to do it yourself. This is a 2-man project so be sure to have a good helper as I did.
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
500 Miles
Wow, has it really been that long since an update? So far, we have put 500 miles on Annie just driving around the county. We hope to venture further soon. Between a new job and a baby on the way there has not been much time.
We did install carpet and light relays so I'll post that in the coming days.
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Sunday, January 13, 2008
Fresh Air
Just to rub it in, it's January and 65 degrees here in in Houston without a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day for a drive.
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Locked Myself Out of the Trunk
I started working on the trunk lock and latch mechanism. Since the paint job I have been satisfied with just the emergency latch holding the hood in place. I was in and out of the trunk often so it only made sense to go the easy route. Now that I was beyond all the trunk work it was time to install the lock mechanism.
The old latch assembly was pretty well beat up. I did the best I could to rebuild and straighten it before installing the lock post (with the spring on it) for the first time. With everything installed, it all appeared to be aligned before I closed the hood for the first time. Upon closing, it all sounded okay. When I pulled the latch handle; I heard nothing. I could feel the tension of the spring so I knew I didn't break the cable. Then the gut sinking feeling came over me - how the heck would I get this trunk open again?
After an hour of trying the emergency release hole, I was exhausted. I had to reach the latch with my hands and the only way to do this was to remove the tie rod covers - from the outside. I jacked the car up and decided that I could drill out the lower two screws on each cover. I could not reach the top two with my drill. Once the lower screws were out I could bend the covers up enough to reach my arms into the trunk.
Reaching the latch was not easy (especially with my short arms and big gut in the way). Eventually I was able to unscrew the lock post from the outside reaching in. Once I had the hood open again I found that the lock post was bent. I don't know why I didn't see this at the beginning.
I bought a new post from Stoddard and tried again. This time, I left the tie rod and steering box cover off just in case I locked the trunk closed again. Everything fit and worked well on the vary first try.
A couple tips I would suggest for this in the future.
1. Keep the tie rod and steering box access covers off when working on the latch mechanism
2. Cut slots into the screws with my drimmel tool at the opposite end of the head so that if I needed to take the covers off from the outside I could do so with a screw driver.
3. Before you ever need it (if you are not concourse concerned) open up the emergency access hole to about 1/2" and put a cover or plug in it. The original hole was not big enough to work with.
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