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Restoration Journal of a 1958 Porsche 356A Cabriolet
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Lone Star 356
Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with Houston's Lone Star 356 club. We met at Scott's house where he displayed his recently completed C Cab restoration. It was exciting to see a completed resto. There were 6-7 other members in attendance which allowed me the chance to meet some local contacts. We spent a few hours discussing Scott's job and then I had the chance to bounce ideas off of the other members. I took with me my collection of photos and was able to get some great tips and suggestions from the guys. Everyone agreed that I had one of the most major resto projects that they had seen taken on by someone that was not a pro. I wasn't discouraged.
They did however help me make the decision not to do the sandblasting. The overwhelming opinion was that for a $1000 investment (cost of sandblasting and priming), I could spend less money on a better air compressor and the tools for the priming along with the materials. I would then wire brush the car and then apply the POR 15 on the interior and underside and primer the exterior. I would be money ahead and I wouldn't risk warping the body.
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Friday, January 16, 2004
Sparks Are Flying
Over the past couple of weeks I have been getting to know how to apply the tools that I have. What works and what doesn't.
The pneumatic shears and die grinder that I have don't seem to do the trick. My problem is that my little air compressor doesn't keep up. My neighbor saw me cutting some patches by hand and offered his electric "nibbler." While it makes a mess this thing is a champ. I liked it so much I ordered my own from Northern Tool and Equipment.
I found some cutting wheels for my die grinder. These wheels will cut our the bad spots in the body like a hot knife in butter. Between the grinder and the nibbler, I can go to town cutting out bad spots in the body and making new patches from my sheet of 18 ga.
Since my birthday is this month, my lovely bride bought for me a new lower rolling tool box. Finally I was able to take three tool boxes and get organized into this.
The welding is getting better. I've learned to lay the first bead of weld and then grind that down. If there are voids in the weld, go back over it with another bead. This is better than building up a massive bead that would inevitably have voids in it.
Here is some sample patching of the inner wall in the rear passenger area on the left.
I have also spent time patching the area around the hood, the inner fit of the convertible top and other random rotten areas.
I started the installation of the battery box floor and I'm not too happy about my job. I have had to reconstruct the lower 2" of the rear walls along with the lower 3" of the front. The rear walls were not too much of a problem but the front wall is difficult because of it's contour. I'm going to work on it more this weekend and if by Monday I am not pleased I'll order the replacement piece from Restoration Design.
eBay is dangerous. I've started my routine now of hunting for parts as they pop up. I've made my list of parts that I need and have bought only a few so far. I'm not planning to buy anything I don't plan to install in the next few months unless I just can't pass up the price. Check out my list and if you have parts you want to offer, let me know.
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Friday, January 02, 2004
Making Progress
The past few days have been spent in the passenger seat area cleaning up the bad metal in the interior fender. So far, on the right side, I have patched in 13 different patches. I have found that it is easier to make smaller patches and weld into the contour as opposed to making larger patches and beating the contour into the patch. I would post some before and after photos however my photos came out like crap. I really need a decent digital camera.
The battery box floor came in this week and I'll begin installing it tomorrow. The walls are in good shape but the ledges have been damaged from removal of the old floor by the previous owner.
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