58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[bbspdstr]

...I will also reach out the the only person I know of that is reproducing the correct version for 69-73 911 headliners, who is out of Europe, and ask if he has a source for 356 material or knows of any.....

This is the way things get done...'networking.' Thanks for offering to check!

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Car looks gorgeous.
Ref. headliners, my last job at GM was in mfg. engr. for seating. I remember visiting a leather supplier who perforated the leather. They had a "die" that was a large flat sheet of metal(could have been aluminum about 1/2" thick) with all of these pins in it. Assume this was for seat backs for breathing. Anyway, it was a fairly simple die that was loaded onto a large press and pressed down on the leather. If someone has a CNC drill to make the hole pattern correctly I can't see how hard this would be to do. I don't remember if there was a female die to receive the pins or whether it just pressed down on the leather laying over some thick Styrofoam.

Phil

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy! No, My father hasn't seen it yet but he's due for a visit I'm sure around Thanks Giving. Its not just you, people are paying a huge premium for original cars and bits.

Bruce, I've been searching the web for headliner suppliers and ran across this company called Prostitch which claims to offer an accurate 356 headliner using German vinyl. I've asked them for some high resolution photos and will share them if and when they get back with me. They are located in Australia; Neil, Jonesy, are you guys familiar with this outfit?

Thanks Phil! It would be almost tempting to recreate the die punch but I have to believe someone out there must offer a near enough copy of vinyl stock. Its just a matter of finding them.
Let us know what you find Mark!

10/30/15
Door Wedges/Receivers
Installing more small but fun stuff between blocking.


Looking to add things to the car that won't be premature and or in the way. Door wedge receivers seemed harmless enough. These are the originals to this car that I polished up some time ago with original spade screws with good chrome still on the heads. They still have a few nubs but that gives them character.

Like before anything that might trap moisture gets coated in grease. Overkill I know but I just feel better about it and it keeps the receivers from further electrolysis on the backsides.

In...

Fun and easy for a nice change.

Door wedge trivia

In my stash of old wedges I noticed two different thicknesses. At first I thought the thick ones might be pre-A. BTW:The new ones offered now are the thinner version.

On this assumption I put on the thinner one to start me off on this left side. Hard to tell from the photo but this wedge completely missed the shoulder of the receiver as its not tall enough to reach.

I had this decent thick OG wedge and installed it. Fit and engaged into the receiver like it was supposed to as there was no striker plate installed so I could feel and hear the rubber thud in there as it bottomed out in the receiver. Okay, so this car just takes a thicker wedge so they are not "pre-A only".

Comparable thick wedge mounted on the right door.

Nope, too thick. This was as far as I could get the door shut.

Installed this thin version OG wedge and it worked perfect.
Just wanted to point out this factory discrepancy. These are the original doors with the original striker posts with no past collision damage which means it left the factory like this. "Made by hand"
Thanks for looking! Justin

[JOP]

Justin, your Silwer Beauty is really gorgeous

I drew the diamond and the hexagon form on the headliner that was the original look. (Its how I find it to be the true headliner in the 356)

Today the headliners are more squared and alot more of holes.
I havent seen the old stuff in a while but will check around

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Attached below 2 photos of my original headlining. Its really quite interesting looking up close to it.

1). The holes are 1mm in diameter. Just straight punched.
2). The pitch between the holes ( from the centre of one hole to the centre of the other is 7mm.) The spacing is 6mm

3). The vinyl surface from a foot away looks smooth but it does not
feel to the finger tip smooth. So I checked with an 8x mag loop. The finish is not grained like the samples shown by others on this thread but its a complete mass of small dots. ( No defined lines like in a grain just round dots but the depressed dots sort of show as lined mark from one depression to another. Who would really look that close to see? The hole diameter and the spacing would show though if very different to original.

You might be able to enlarge the photo I show below to see this surface.

What is important is the stitching from one panel top the other. This
has a very fine stitch as you can see. As there are a number of panels you need a sample to copy I would think if you wanted to produce your own. Not an easy job at all!!!

Like wise I realise now the headlining material that goes down each side of the windscreen area is a separate piece. Those are still original on mine but where people have maybe held on to it for over 50 years its not pristine.






Roy

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

I just magnified the photo I took above to see the surface. I have come to conclusion the manufacturer was trying to replicate a grain by the dots. At a certain magnification the surface does look sort of grained like some of the photo's by Bruce and yourself and Jop's.

However, looking from the drivers seat up to the headliner surface you cannot see any grain at all! The surface just looks non smooth its that fine. If you can see a grain from the drivers seat then its too deep.

Strange but if you spark eroded on a die sinker with an electrode set to erode quickly, the surface finish produced can sort of replicate the finish on my vinyl headliner.

Roy

[tperazzo]

I have a CNC router that could do this, but it looks like SMC has already done it. If there's interest in making a tool perhaps we can do a kick starter style campaign here to get it done!
Thanks,
Tom
Paint is spectacular Justin!

Justin
Car looks gorgeous.
Ref. headliners, my last job at GM was in mfg. engr. for seating. I remember visiting a leather supplier who perforated the leather. They had a "die" that was a large flat sheet of metal(could have been aluminum about 1/2" thick) with all of these pins in it. Assume this was for seat backs for breathing. Anyway, it was a fairly simple die that was loaded onto a large press and pressed down on the leather. If someone has a CNC drill to make the hole pattern correctly I can't see how hard this would be to do. I don't remember if there was a female die to receive the pins or whether it just pressed down on the leather laying over some thick Styrofoam.

Phil

[merbesfield]

Here is the link to the thread I started on early911sregistry.org regarding the search for headliner material for my 65. It is not the same pattern as the 356, the the challenge for originality is similar. The search continues.

[merbesfield]

Here is a pic of the headliner that is correct for my 73 911. It looks very similar to what is shown above for Roy's 356. What do you guys think? The seller of this is Andrea and his company name is NOSGRUPPE.COM. He is out of Italy. Here is his email and web site. I will reach out to him through PM on the registry.

Nosgruppe@gmail.com
NOSGRUPPE.COM

Link to the thread on ESR: http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums/showthread.php?104030-73-S-headliner-again&highlight=Headliner

And the picture of his Headliner.

[bbspdstr]

(on headliner vinyl)
Let us know what you find Mark!
....and you, Justin, with the Aussie info. I know we are both going to find the source to be either 3K, 6K or 8K miles away...or in our back yards.

10/30/15
Door Wedges/Receivers
Installing more small but fun stuff between blocking.

Installed this thin version OG wedge and it worked perfect.
Just wanted to point out this factory discrepancy. These are the original doors with the original striker posts with no past collision damage which means it left the factory like this. "Made by hand"
Thanks for looking! Justin

FYI, I have had to make repro wedges thicker with black rubber sheet. I have seen original aluminum receivers in slightly different shapes, early to late and therefore had to reshape the repro or use the piece of coal the originals had become..."Why does it always take so long and cost so much....?" I welcome an alternative and then offer to toast that thought with a glass of the house whine, House of Reutter, Karmann, Drauz, etc.

-Bruce

[Jack Staggs]

Justin, I salute you for finding original door striker plates. The repros look a little different than OG. Did you know that there are 3 different striker plates for high strikers? The difference is in the height of the opening for the latch. I noticed that you have at least one different plate in your photos. Be sure that you are using the correct plate for your latches.
Bruce, I have found, just as you, that the replacement rubber wedges are all over the place in regards to thickness, and screw hole orientation. As if that is not enough of a problem, the replacement aluminum receivers, while appearing to be similar to OG, do not fit. I'd swear that the OG ones were hand fitted, as no two seem to be the exact same shape, car to car, and side to side. In your own customers words, "Why does this cost so much?".

[Trevor]

From this thread, courtesy of Brad Ripley.

http://forum.porsche356registry.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40229&p=251280#p251280

[JTR70]

Thank you Jack! I was aware that there were two different high striker plates but not three; Thanks Trevor. I understood that the Pre-A large Brass flippers used the striker without the tiny hump in the middle. Then when the later smaller steel flippers came out they utilized the one with the lump.

These are the originals from this car and have the lumps (Black arrows)

My replacements have the "Uvula" for steel version flippers.

Agree, the repops are easy to spot. One being the miter marks in the plastic where the details where milled out versus the OG which were molded with these details. Also you can see in this photo a repop has made its way into my stash. The red arrow indicates an embossment detail lacking that all the OG's have highlighted in green. Also too, the plastic itself just does not seem to be of the quality and durability of the originals.

Headliner:
Thank you Per! Any help on this hunt appreciated.

Thank you too Tom! A fantastic offer, might end up being our last resort if we come up empty. Thanks!

Great photos Roy and thank you for taking the time to shoot these and providing those measurement details, Appreciated! Yes, the A and b pillars were wrapped separately and could use a detailed shot of those too if you get a chance.

Thanks again Mark! This sample looks pretty good.

Bruce, what is your opinion of this sample Mark provided? Is this close enough to be "legal" for a show car/ A-car?

It looks very close to Roy's OG save for the holes being punched cleaner than stock.
Thanks again you guys, this is all fantastic and very promising!

10/31/15
Adding the door striker hardware really got me going to find more parts I could add without interfering with the general assembly and polish.


I've had these boxes in my closet for several years now and it was actually time to bring them down to the shop. Through these years I've taken them out probably a 100X to either to add parts or send something off to Victor Miles as I could afford it, etc. It became a running joke with my girlfriend as she'd either laugh or roll her eyes at me as I was caught yet again looking through those "boxes of junk". I told her, Junk?? If there is a fire in this house these are the first things I'm going after to save.

Began around the glove box first.

The box lock has always been missing from this car. As my parts scrounging continued these last years I found this really nice one with good chrome and its original Huff key.

Not being original to this car it of course didn't catch or engage on the first try. It eventually dawned on me to take a few MM's off of this outer casing which would let the lock body to sit deeper and allow it to hook the lip of the box opening. It turned the trick after that material not covered by the tape was removed.

The lid liner was also long gone but this one eventually came my way. I believe this is correct for a T1. If not please let me know. I noticed this one has the additional 2 lower indentations from the rubber buffers telling me its originally out of a T2 car. T1's only have the two upper buffers. So again if this one is wrong for this car let me know.

The grab handle is from this car and is the only piece of chrome I didn't have to replate. Another extremely fun and rewarding diversion from sanding duties.

BTW: The shape of the bottom end of this handle really put me in mind of a venomous snake being milked. I left the screws in for a fang effect.
Thanks for looking! Justin

[Jack Staggs]

IIRC, T1 did not use a glove box door liner, just the same paint as the dash.

[Jack Staggs]

Justin, the correct headliner material, like the lower pic, has a more "pin point " type texture, while the upper pic has a texture like from the hyde of a nauga, like VW. I hate that . Thomas Pocius,
http://www.manta.com/c/mmygzl8/thomas-auto-trim
was using a material for Ferrari(?) a while back that looked good. Give him a call. He's very helpful, and his work is wonderful.
Here is some pics.
http://www.italiancarparts.com/interior/vinyl_samples.JPG