58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[bbspdstr]

About the link pin kits: even my local VW parts guy won't sell the Chinese kits. He will lower his standards to Brazilian, but prefers to sell the German kits. The only difference from VW to 356 seems to be the bushing material. I'd save the money on the bronze kits due now to how little driving is done with the majority of the 356s nowadays.
-Bruce

[356JAGER]

Bruce,
Seems like a small price to pay to have the better material in place regardless of the amount of driving if you're going to the trouble of doing the replacement
Cheers,
Joel

[Jack Staggs]

Actually, those Brazilian VW ones are pretty good. I've installed dozens of sets of them over the years, many on daily driver cars with some exceeding 10k miles per year with long term ownership. I have yet to revisit that area on these cars after I developed my own method of shimming (I don't use the factory measurements, as it does not take in to consideration deviation due to wear, etc). In fact, I don't even measure them at all. Of course it helps that we lube the knuckles EVERY time a car comes in for a oil change/valve adj... A MUST!).

[Bill Sargent]

Justin,

The front suspension and oil lines are looking very good. When you fit the front drums for good check for clearance between the drum and backing plate vent screen - I had the solder a little thick in places and it would rub on the inner edge of the drum. Are you going to paint the front trailing arms? In the photos they look unpainted.

You will like the GT brakes. I had my 59A on the track at Rennsport for the parade laps. Cars got strung out and I had a good run at the main straight, reaching about 85 before having to slow quickly for traffic that was over the crest of the hill. The GT brake set up worked very well, as did the new to me motor - it dynoed at 138 rear wheel hp. At some point I will go to Vic's rear camber set up and the Willhoit front sway bar.

[JTR70]

No, shouldn't be a problem Bill.(Sampson)
I learned that little trick from my old mentor in the 90's they had a class 9 off-road race car that his brother used to compete with and during race prep they installed this new exhaust header/system on it and between runs he'd spray it down with WD40 and said he was prepping it like an old skillet to keep it from flash rusting.

Phil, I started with penetrating oil but ended up using some old used crankcase oil. Got the bolts nice and warm then gave them a quick dunk. two maybe three cycles until I was happy with the coverage.

Good to know guys. So it goes:
1) German (of course)
2) Brazilian
3)Chinese
Piston and Cylinder sets seem to follow the same pattern too.

Thanks a lot Bill! So great to see you driving and enjoying your car after all that work, congratulations on that BTW.
Thanks for the warning on the drum clearance. I'll need to get a full set of bearings in them first before I can say for sure but they seem like they might clear. The arms will stay in the black oxide finish they came in. There is a razor thin coat of clear on them now to hold down any more flash rusting.
Thanks again!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Used oil I have. Will give it a try.
Thanks Justin.
Phil

[S.J.Szabo]

Mr.Rio:

Love your front suspension setup. "We don't need no stinkin' boxed arms!"

I wouldn't morn the loss of a speedo, tho. Most wheel/tire combos that approach a 25" dia. come down to around 20mph/1K rpm, so simple math tells the tale without the need of GPS.

The bonus is that you have an extra hole in the dash for useful instruments. I started with an oil temp/press gauge out of an early 911/912. This freed up the temp slot in the stock combo, into which I adapted an inexpensive voltmeter (while by nature I prefer an ammeter, the heavy gauge wiring is a bit of a pain). Of course, I admit that the graphics of the cheap and quick solution do not blend in so well, there are options available (either of the N/S speedo shops springs to mind).

While I've posted it before, here's a shot to spark the old imagination...

[JTR70]

Thank you SJ glad you like the set up! Another combo gauge is a great idea and I like what you have done there. BTW: as a T1 how do grab 1st and 3rd gear with that CD player mounted there?
Thanks again! Justin
2/12/16

Getting back on seat shell repairs.

I'd like to have my shells redone before the years out so began the repairs again to get them ready to send off to the upholsterer.

Though I have a lot of holes yet to weld shut from the previous owners repair attempt I thought I'd start making the steel reinforcement panels now. After some close study I believe this shell was never fitted with them originally which is probably the reason it was so cracked to shit as compared to my other shell which was outfitted with them. Someone pop-riveted their own versions out of alloy hence all those holes but I'll be copying what was originally done.

I'll be copying the original plates from this shell. This one is by far in better shape with cracking found only at the centers of the top and bottom edge. BTW: I'll be adding small steel reinforcement to these areas as well before I'm done.

paper template and basic section in steel being mounted up.


Synched down with screws where the eventual copper rivets will go. A little torch heat and the shell itself became the perfect hammer form.

To make the wrap around the edge cleanly and accurately meant I'd have to do it in sections. Besides no way could I hammer on that poor old alloy hard enough to do it as one piece.
Finishing out the edge sections next.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[Discseven]

Justin... I arrived at your post via a thread in Pelican. What a great story! So I registered to compliment you. I'm also a big visual fan so for you to dig for photos, scan them, post and do captions... I know this is a time consuming but rewarding process. I have not yet accomplished a start to finish read here as I have a commitment to attend but I'm definitely returning for a full read. This is EPIC! Bravo on the work and taking the time to photo-document your journey and post. Altogether very impressive.

[JTR70]

WOW, Thank you Karl! That is very nice of you to say and I really appreciate you joining us here just to let me know that. I couldn't find that thread on Pelican but please thank whom ever that was for the mention. I'm also honored that you find this thread remotely interesting enough to sift through it page by page. Warning though, it will most likely get very boring and detailed for you. The details BTW where intended to help others with their cars but it was also a record for myself so I'd remember just how much work it was to get it finished. Even now I've forgotten a lot of it until I look back on a random page and think "oh, yeah" I remember screwing that up for about the fourth time and how much more work I created for myself.
Anyway, Karl, Thank you very much once again, your post made all the effort I've put into this all the more worth while.
Justin

[JTR70]

7/18/16
PPP
Piss Poor Progress.

Between the coupster and the engine tin work on the motor I haven't been left with a whole lot of time to get anything done of consequence on the rest of the car. I did manage to get the original knobs in clear coat which allowed me to finish up the ashtray. I guess that's something.

I'd prefer just to polish these but a few are so rotted from many years of severe UV exposure and desert heat that I had to get them encased in a protective coating to preserve them.

Like this deck lid pull. It survived 3 decades of direct sunlight through the back window but the "sunny side" was so scaly and deep that there was no way of sanding and polishing past the damage. About 7 coats of clear fixed it right up.

Ash tray knob finish allowed for final assembly.

Not much but it was nice to get another vacant hole in that dash filled.

So lucky to have found that original delete plate. Perfect color match with the car's original knobs.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Bill Sampson]

Justin:

Great work as always. Want to do a little work on some horribly deteriorated radio grill pieces on a 48 Merc? The car was in Michigan at some time before I had it but I'm informed that the sun appears there sometimes too.

Your work is truly remarkable.

Bill

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Bill, I really appreciate the compliment. I try to do the best that I can with what little I've got. Sure, email me if you need some help on those. Thanks again! Justin

7/19/16

New Koni Steering dampener

Stepped up and ordered the "classic koni"

Its pictured with the Original (or what I believe to be the original) dampener from this car. Though the lengths are correct (as I know the BOGE's are too short) I was surprised to find the body a little bigger in diameter.

After removing some rust I realized its not a Koni at all. It stamped "stablus" with a few part numbers and that large circle. Maybe this skinny unit is correct for early T1 cars equipped with a VW type 1 steering box like this car? This "new Koni" is probably right for T2 on up equipped with a ZF box? It would make sense as I've found most new catalog items for 356A are geared toward the T2. Maybe Jack, Bruce or someone "in the Know" might shed some light here? Anyway, since I've upgraded to a ZF I'll mount the new koni.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JTR70]

8/9/16

Dual circuit Master cylinder

I'm opting for the redundant safety of these units so I took delivery of brand new one today.

The original and correct ATE unit will go into the box with all the rest of the stock correct parts I have for this car.

Arrived from Rusty Tubs this afternoon. Drum brake version for type 1 VW. They do offer this unit with a mounted tank but life will be so much nicer with it easily accessible in the trunk.

Pretty much a direct bolt-on but the flange holes had to be drilled out to accept the studs on a 356 unit versus bolts for the VW it was intended for. Bruce Baker recommended that I stick with a stock 19mm bore as the larger units require additional pressure to get the pedal down.

Once drilled it fit perfectly.

Time to test fit it in the car.

Sticks out quite a bit farther than the old one but no clearance issues so far.

The real work of plumbing the hard lines and mounting the remote reservoir in the trunk will be next. I'll begin dedicated thread on this conversion shortly.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Don C]

Justin,
May I suggest using a mechanical brake light switch rather than the hydraulic one. People riding behind me said my lights weren't coming on unless I really stomped on the pedal. On the "R" site a lot of people commented on the same thing and a mechanical switch mounted to the pedal cluster solved the problem. I even went so far as removing and plugging the hydraulic switch from the master cylinder. Seems like it takes quite a bit of pressure to activate that switch. http://forum.porsche356registry.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37532