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Restoration Journal of a 1958 Porsche 356A Cabriolet
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Cleaning the Little Things
The past few weeks have been spent cleaning and painting small parts. Not much real progress. I installed a new reverse switch on the shifter mechanism along with all of the shifter linkages. Another tip for everyone, when you disassemble the "monkey motion," match mark everything so that you know where the shifter shaft should be aligned. I spent well over an hour trying to get things set right. I think I'm close but won't really know until we get on the road.
I have spent a considerable amount of time researching painting processes and visiting with a couple paint shops. I want to choose a paint shop prior to starting the body work. I want to make sure that the primers that I use to prep the body are by the same manufacturer that the paint shop will use. I'm not hung up on paint manufacturer so long as it's a good brand name such as PPG, Dupont, or BASF.
I've ordered the replacement panels for the lower door area and door bottoms and plan to spend next week on the doors and the final metal work on the body. I was hoping that I might actually start some filler work but with the heat already rolling in I may not be working as fast as I would like.
I've ordered the balance of the hardware to finish the brakes from California Import Parts. While I did install the original drum brakes, I will be installing a dual master cylinder. This will be a '71-'79 VW Super Beetle master cylinder (vw pn 113.611.051.BH) with a remote mounted fluid reservoir. All of the other brake lines and hoses are replaced with new as well. This will give us a little more reassurance while driving. In the event that one of the brake lines leaks or a wheel cylinder blows, I'll still have a working circuit.
While in San Diego on business last week, I stopped by Autos International. I would really like to install all leather in the car as original but I still have a little sticker shock. Everyone says that Autos makes the best and their work is top notch. Still a little time before we cross that bridge.
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Sunday, May 08, 2005
New Dash Installed
The rusted out dash was replaced this weekend. I chose to replace all of the material from the horizontal split line inside the car under the dash pad forward to the hood. The area under the windshield was terribly rotten so bad that the vent ducts had fallen out. Repairing this damage would take more time and work than what I spent to find a donor dash.
The donor came from the '59 coupe where I got the brakes and looked to be in pretty good shape. I cleaned it up and found about 5 layers of paint, most of which peeled up easily. For the balance, I sprayed it up with aircraft paint remover and scraped it off. I then buffed it down to the shiny metal.
The old dash was split at the interior dash line and then along the seam where the dash meets the hood. I cut off the vertical material of the old dash at the hood seal and left the matching material on the donor. The tough parts was cutting the old dash front to back. After making a rough cut on both the donor dash and the original, the process involved making small incremental cuts and fitting the new to the old. Once I was close, I tacked the donor to the car at the interior dash line and then at the hood end. With a thin cutting wheel I cut the overlapping material leaving me with a 1/16" gap. This was a good gap distance to seal weld the donor to the car. It took time and patience but at the end of the night I think it looks pretty good. In all, about a 5 hour process.
All the photos can be found here.
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