My '54 Coupe, that we call "Curb Appeal"

[mr. warehouse]

Once I was home from the show, I pushed the car into my shop and there it sat until June 18th 2009 -

I pulled the bumper off today to see what *exactly* I did damage-wise when I hit the curb.

[mr. warehouse]

July 16th 2009 -

I had some free time today so I pulled the 356 apart not knowing what to expect.

The engine came out no problem, then the smell of burnt clutch filled the shop. Guess I'll have to replace that after bogging 3rd all weekend at the Classic....

Tranny out, nose cone off, and the shifting issue was easy to find.






I pulled apart my spare trans and stole the hockey stick from it. Now I'm waiting on a new nose cone seal, and while doing that I'm putting this "solid" front mount back together so I don't have this issue again.







I was told I wouldn't need it. Since then I have been told by multiple people that an SC engine bumped up to 1720cc running IDA's is most likely putting out over 100hp and that rubber donut can't do the job alone.

Oops.....

[mr. warehouse]

The following day July 17th I took the engine back to the local engine tuner. He told me he'd sort out the popping, stiff linkage, and make it an all around nicer to drive car.

This is what I dropped off to him....





While it wasn't a show quality engine, it was clean and tidy.

8 months, not a typo, this joker still has my engine.
I'd heard from a couple people that it was sitting outside under plastic in the rain, and every time I asked the guy about it he said "next Thursday" so I got fed up and made a drive to his shop and picked it up. My fault for not ding something sooner, time got away from me.

Needless to say, when I picked it up I was not happy this is what I found...























The best (worst) part of it is he charged me $500 and then told me it still needed smaller venturis a different distributor and some linkage work.
On top of that even after seeing before and after pics of it he still claims he never had it outside and it's in the same condition now as it was when I brought it to him.

So, for the record, don't EVER take anything to Rick Eichler in Sonoma. He'll waste your time, money and charge you for it when it's all said and done.

With that sour taste in my mouth this car is on the way back burner for a while longer.....

[mr. warehouse]

I was having problems with the local trans re-builder. I found that he wasn't very well versed in split case Porsche transmissions.So I gathered my parts from him and sent them to Rancho along with a couple other 519's I had gathered during my "build up" process. They got me handled quick with no issues. (I now stick with them 100% for ALL my trans work)

I had a plan in mind, but I wasn't sure exactly sure what it was. So I put one of the 519's back in the car with no fluid and T3 VW hubs drilled for 5x130 Porsche pattern so I could roll the car around if needed.

At this point I also made a set of extended spring plates to help with the massive toe-in I had with the car sitting so low.

Other than that I was in a holding pattern with the car.

[mr. warehouse]

Dec 2009 -

Bought some cool stuff for the 356 in the last month. most of it should be picked up this weekend.
Coolest thing, the bench front seat. It's even black and matches what's in there now, so no upholstery work to do.




Each side still reclines individually



but can be slid forward and back from one side or the other.







new "bench seat" sliders with ball bearings for smooth operation

[mr. warehouse]

[mr. warehouse]

I had a plan so I had Rancho install one of their new ERCO Bus nose cones on the trans, and give me a spare to probably destroy during mock up....

Here's where it needs to fit.



Using the same mount I use to put a tunnel trans into an early bus I got started.





The mount hit the brake tee here...



So I cut it away, decent fit now.



The nose cone was hitting the hole in the body...

So I hacked it off.

Before



After



The nose cone was then hitting the body a bit, but a little "massaging" with a hammer and it's fine now.



Hockey stick lines up perfectly!







There was some other clearancing I had to do to the nose cone to clear the mount to body nut, but nothing to bad.

I'll swap the modified nose cone with the one on the transmission, clean up my cuts to the brake tee mount as well as the mods to the nose cone and get it all bolted in over the next few weeks as I find time.

Reverse lock out is my biggest concern at this point, and really it doesn't bother me that much.

[mr. warehouse]

From January through April I had a lot going on, not much of which was related to the 356.

Some where along the line I traded the 1720cc engine to a guy with a '54 racecer with a VW engine that he wanted to switch back to a Porsche engine. I wish I had found that deal before buying the 2332cc deal. Oh well. I took a bunch of pictures of his engine compartment and installed engine to use when doing the install of the 2332cc into my 356.






The VW engine had been set up by the guys at VW Paradise (now Paradise Motorsports) and had a pretty sweet exhaust, so I kept that for the 356 and the rest of the engine went into on of my VW buses.

[mr. warehouse]

April 2010 -

So, the BIG question was, "Will a long stroke 2332cc engine fit"

[mr. warehouse]

The answer is yes!













I don't remember my sump being that low before...



I might need to re-adjust the spring plates.

Notice the monster header from the 2276cc I traded out of the '54 racecar.

[mr. warehouse]

With the trial fitting done I'm going to adjust the suspension up a bit (I obviously didn't get the spring plates right after I lengthened and notched them) then it's on to sorting the oil cooler / filter placement as well as a breather box of some sort and running a new fuel system.

Fitting up the shroud and other sheet metal will be after that.

Then it's all coming back out some I can detail / paint / wrap it before final assembly and smokey burnouts!

[mr. warehouse]

April 14th 2009 -

I put the spring plates back in the right spot today, and got the "stance" back.







It's hard to see, but I have about 2" - 3" clearance on the sump. I may swap it out to a thin line ad re-route the head drains, etc. later one, but for now I know it fits and rolls.

[mr. warehouse]

That last bit with the engines may have been a bit confusing.
What it boiled down to was I bought what was basically a VW drag racing engine for the 356.

Once I had it I decided to sell the Porsche engine. I ended up trading it for an engine that was pretty much *exactly* what I wanted for my 356, but I put it into one of my buses instead and stuck with the drag engine for the 356.

[JTR70]

Greg, Thanks for sharing your story and all the fantastic build details of these amazing looking car, the photos are great! "curb Appeal" is the perfect name as it has that in spades! I thought the exact same thing about your buddies car back in '88. Thanks again! Justin

[mr. warehouse]

Greg, Thanks for sharing your story and all the fantastic build details of these amazing looking car, the photos are great!

Thanks for the kind words. I'll post more as I find time. I was hoping I could cut and paste from the original forum I posted the build in, but that's not the case, so it's taking some time.

"curb Appeal" is the perfect name as it has that in spades!

The name actually came along after I stuck it into the curb that first Thursday night. The next day after we pushed / drove it across the street to the cruise someone pointed out how *really* bad the front bumper looked. My reply was "Now it has curb appeal" and as nicknames usually happen, it's stuck.

I thought the exact same thing about your buddies car back in '88. Thanks again! Justin

Paulie was definitely ahead of the times with that one for sure.