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Restoration Journal of a 1958 Porsche 356A Cabriolet
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Top Has Arrived - It's Worthless!
We received the hard top this week only to find that it was damaged in shipment beyond repair. The rear support for the rear window was completely broken and the roof had a dent more than 2 feet in diameter. I get to start the fight with the shipping company, AAA Cooper, for a claim. Photos are here.
I also cleaned up the headlight buckets and repaired the rut holes. The holes were small enough that I could fill them in with the welder.
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Monday, February 23, 2004
Oh no, Bondo!
Big surprise this past week. We started cleaning the primer off of the trailing edge from the front fenders and found that the typical line of rust had been filled in with, you guessed it, Bondo. This was a surprise that I didn't expect. It appears on both the front and right sides. Looks like I'll be placing orders this week for replacement panels from Stoddards. Here is a shot of the passenger side.
I have received the longitudinals, rocker panels and all four fender braces last week from Parts Obsolete. I know it will be awhile before I get to where I can install them but got eager this evening and applied the POR15 to the interior areas. Trust me, this car won't rust when I am done. It will probably out live you and I. If it's not going to be painted, it gets coated with the POR15. Since the longitudinals and rockers were so bad when I got the car, it looks like I can't really go wrong in this area. Here is a shot of the parts before the coating. I took some photos of the after but it looks like a big black blob. They look much more impressive in person.
I have just about finished the battery box area. I started sealing it today with the 3M Seam Sealer and ran out before I finished. So far, it looks pretty good and I am glad that I bought the correct front wall to finish the entire box area.
One of the frustrating things on this project is waiting on parts. It seems like every few days I am getting a UPS shipment but none of them are for parts I want to work on next. I am now at a point that I need to install the gas tank floor that I ordered from Restoration Design. It was supposed to ship out at the end of January and I still don't have it. I spoke to Bill Frey, owner of the company and he told me last Friday that they were held up in customs and should be in his shop early this week. Hopefully I will have it soon and will be able to finish the trunk area.
From eBay this month, I have secured the following at pretty good prices - 2 good heater flapper boxes, right side window regulator, and oil filter canister. I have sold a few of the parts that came with the car that were not for the correct year along with a couple other items laying around. In doing so, I've been able to build up my Paypal account so I don't feel so guilty buying more. I am still amazed at some of the prices these parts can go for. Would you beleive a steering wheel sold for over $1200 this week!
Another interesting note. This website is getting 25-30 visits per day on the Restoration pages alone. The visits are suprisingly coming from all over the world. Feel free to drop me an email and tell me what you think.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Wiring Harness
I put Theresa to work this weekend (see evidence below). She helped me pull out the wiring harness from the front of the car. What a mess this is. I am trying not to cut any of the wiring so that I will have a good template in the event that I have a problem with the new one. It looks like the previous owner had cut all of the connections for the gauges, radio, and lights for easier removal. In order to reuse the old harness I would have more splices that I care for. I plan on ordering a new harness as the body work comes to a close in the next few months. I plan on ordering this from YnZ's Yesterday Parts. They come highly recommended from other I have spoken to who have replaced their harnesses. I did find one other company that said that they could get me one from Germany cheaper but they never called me back. Guess they didn't want my business.
I installed the battery box front wall this past week and finished the repairs to the battery box area. Now I need to clean it up and seal it with the seam sealant. I should be receiving the gas thank floor in the next few days. Once it's installed, I'll clean and POR15 the entire area - yeah, another completed task!
I'm getting good at the eBay thing - if there is such a thing. I bought a full set of B/C bumper guards a few weeks back for $19 - couldn't resist at that price. I turned around an resold them for $100.
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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
More Progress
Last weekend I made the trek to Martindale, TX and met with Bill Hamilton of Hamilton Classics. Bill has a great little shop and is a great resource for us newbies. I'm looking forward to calling on his services in the future.
Parts are finally starting to come in. Boy, eBay is addictive. I'm trying to pace myself on only pick up serious deals. The best so far is a hard top from Atlanta. I hope it looks as good as Pete says it is.
Other parts on their way include front closing panels, and gas tank floor from Restoration Design ,longintudinals and rockers from Parts Obsolete, and battery box front wall from Stoddard.
I have completed the passenger area repairs. There was some serious rust under the package shelf so I had to pull it up and clean under it. Once I finished, I coated it with POR15 and resealed the edges with 3M seam sealer. Once all of the repairs were made, I covered the entire area with POR15.
This is the area before I started patching. You will notice some gaping holes from the rust. This area was all wire brushed clean and the rotten areas were cut out and patched.
Here is how it looks before the POR15. Here you can see some of the patches before they were ground down. The package shelf has already been removed and the rusty area is what was below the shelf.
This is what it looks like after the POR15 has been applied.
Now that the passenger area is finished, the trunk area will be next with completion of the batter box area and a new gas tank floor.
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