'63 356B T-6 Rebuild

[badsix]

wow nice job, nothing but pride when someone finishes a job like that. you just have to step back and say dam that's good!
Jay D.

[Phil Planck]

Great work and documentation John!
In addition,you have just convinced me never to attempt this

[John Pierce]

Thanks guys!! A sunroof installation is definitely not for the faint of heart

Everything is now in primer.



Headliner frame and reinforcement piece.



Inside of cover with sealing rail.



Outside of cover.



Looks pretty good



I'm glad that the hole I cut into a perfectly fine roof turned out so well.



Lots of new metal throughout the car. I now have to fit the hood, light buckets, fender supports, and miscellaneous nose parts.

Thanks for following.

[John Pierce]

Hi Group! I decided to take a break from metal repair as working in the garage during New Hampshire winters is not the most fun. I took on the daunting task of preparing, renewing, finding, purchasing all the small parts that make these cars run. I focused on the things in the trunk. It's amazing how many parts go into such things as the emergency brake system, wiper system, windshield washer, and fuel system. The car had been left outside for many years so things were just a bit rusty and pitted. In addition, the car had been disassembled and the parts stored in multiple boxes with new rhyme, reason, or markings.

The first thing to do was research the parts in the Porsche manuals then go through the boxes to locate what I could find......then peruse the Stoddard catalog and then purchase or make what I couldn't find. After that came hours and hours with the media blasting cabinet. The benefit was that I listened to a lot of great audiobooks while blowing glass beads.

This past weekend I cleaned out the garage as the temperature was finally above 50 F. I also burned some kerosene to get the garage into the 70's. Perfect to prime then top coat.









I'll post pix as I start putting things back together. The wiper motor assembly is pretty cool.

Thanks for following.

JP

[JTR70]

Hey John, Thanks for the update and so good to see some fresh progress. Definitely, these small side projects make for a great diversion away from that steady diet of rust repair. Look forward to seeing them in paint!
Justin

[356JAGER]

Beautifully done John. Having a sunroof I can attest to the difficulty of getting all the bits to come together in harmony. A tedious and time consuming task. Do you have a source for the short drive cable that goes between the
motor and the gearbox ?
Cheers,
Joel

[John Pierce]

Hi Joel,

The flexible shaft is NLA and comes in 2 different lengths: 150 x 6 mm and 130 x 6 mm. I've heard that Larry Markham, at Markham Motor Works in Burbank, CA, used to make a replacement sunroof flex shaft using a section of a truck speedo cable with the ends that would fit the sunroof motor and drive. I don't know if he still does. If you reach out to him, please let us know. Maybe Jack, Justin or Bruce may know if anyone is making these.










Cheers,

JP

[bbspdstr]

Many years ago a local-to-me guy had access to or had made those flex drive shafts for the later 356 sunroofs. I have a call into him now and verified his email is still unchanged and will post info when I get a return call.

BTW, I was unaware of the two lengths, as The Good Book (T-6 B of 1961) shows but one number: 644-624-121-51

Bruce

[bbspdstr]

No more drive cables. Here is the reply:

"Hi Bruce
I lost track of the supplier some years ago, but I have the drawing at home. I'll find it tonight and send it to you. Thanks.
Tobey"

So, without knowledge of the last entity that made "a few" successfully, I will call Brad (NLA) unless someone else has a connection.

I remember selling a couple of those many years ago and having to scrounge since, as those fail all too often.

BB

[John Pierce]

Bruce,

Thanks for looking into this. I was only able to scrounge up one. If that breaks then I'm in trouble. Maybe Brad can make a run.

JP

[356JAGER]

Gents,

Thanks for your replies.

I had a pair made by SS White Technologies of Piscataway, NJ. I used their
off the shelf units and had to guess at the stiffness of the cable. They work, but labor at it and I believe the issues are the fact that the connectors use set screws rather than the slip on with flat surface of the originals that allowed a range of movement that the set screws don't, and that my choice of a medium stiffness cable should have been less stiff. I had approached Stoddards people about this part and they seemed interested so I provided them the info I had gleaned up to that point but never heard more from them. About $ 200 for the pair. Providing them with an original to build to spec would be the best way to do this, making a larger run of them and having the correct connectors made. This would be more costly and would likely be a project for Brad, Stoddard or some other supplier. In the meantime, I may have another pair made in the softer flex material. BMW used to have a cable with the correct ends that was made of some sort of synthetic with braided cord, slightly shorter than the original but usable using the adjustments for the motor's position. I haven't been able to source these for some time.
Cheers,
Joel

[bbspdstr]

After looking in my tool drawer for quarter inch stuff I don't use often, I found this Hazet extension, essentially 6mm ....but adding a socket goes beyond the long measurement of the two, 150mm ...... but there's a start.

Meanwhile, this part will likely be found in a box of old 'stuff' at a swap meet or on eBay for a bunch of money. There were Golde optional manual variations with a folding crank handle with a black know that was in a formed white plastic cup in the center of the forward roof above the mirror where the "emergency" mechanism is. I like that solution best.

Bruce

[bbspdstr]

Allow me please to add that if you have an electric sunroof that works electrically, you must drive that 356 at least 2000miles/year. Jus' sayin'.....

Joel knows of what I speak.......
BB

[356JAGER]

Doing my best Bruce... Top of Mt. Diablo on a recent drive with 356 CAR.

[John Pierce]

Great looking car!