HotRod "Coupster" 57976 coupe into full speedster

[JTR70]

mock-up Photo taken in '01 in a back room my fabricating mentor let me use to work on my two 356's. You can see the carrera coupe in the background were it would stay untouched for another 10 years.

Other then that Carrera coupe I'm trying to complete now, this one is my only other 356 build for me personally. I started this conversion in 2000 before finishing the metal work on my coupe. I know not too smart spreading my efforts so thin but I got very excited and wanted to get going on it. Like any 356 enthusiest I found myself eventually wanting a speedster. I did not want a stock speedster however. I wanted a car with all the original styling cues but a highly modified drivetrain and suspension. Cutting up a real speedster to create this car would be very foolish. A coupster was the perfect answer and once I found a supplier of reproduction speedster sheetmetal it was now a very viable option.


Very rough trial fitment of the rear skins. I had an original speedster decklid with Trevor's rear cowl and quarterpanel caps. I reused the original rear fenders and tail skin. Cut between the tail-lights which the Father did all those years ago. See the picture below. This actually worked-out since I was widening the rear anyway.

[JTR70]

Here is the car shortly after we got it home.

Here is a bit of history on the donor car. In 1979 my dad had his old Carrera coupe up and running with a 40HP VW motor. We went for a ride in it over the hill to Victorville CA. There was actually a Porsche Dealership there at the time. While parked on the street in front of the dealership it caught the eye of the sales mananger. He got to talking with my dad and told him an elderly Priest at the old mission had a coupe exactly like this one. He had been in inquiring about an engine rebuild for it. Laughing, the salesman explained how the priest had cut the back-end off right between the beehive tail lights just so he could remove the engine. He then said that the father was very elderly and in failing health so the car would probably be available for sale. He gave us the contact number and told my dad to go and have a look.


Here is the only paperwork that came with the car. A pink slip from 1963 and this old performance handbook loaded with written notes.

After setting a day to meet we took another trip in the old coupe out to the Mission in Lucerne Valley to see the car. It was just as described. It was in a tiny side garage/storage shed with a dismantled engine on the floor. All clean with its various parts in boxes, glass jars and cookie tins. Father Gallagher wasn't fairing much better then his old car; elderly, very frail and in declining health. He was a huge Porsche enthusiest and was very pleased to see our old coupe running and driving. He sat in it and looked it over carefully though it was not much to look at. Due to his failing health, at the end of our visit he decided to sell his 356 to my dad.


Lastly is the old reciept from 1979. $475.75 bought this complete car with minimal rust and basket-case 1964 SC engine included. This replaced the original motor at some point. What a deal! The father also signed his old perfomance manual over to my dad. It reads: "given to louis Rio by Fr. John Gallagher lucerne Valley 7/18/79" Almost exactly 33 years ago!


Here is the very SC motor that came with this car. It was rebuilt/restored in 2004 then sold to Alex Finigen help finance all the original speedster components I was buying.


Here is a clear shot of the old damage. The skin was there but the bulkhead wall and cross-member were lost. Angle iron cross-member here was my dads repair attempt. Dad's first question to Father Gallegher was why he had done this. He simply replied, "to get the engine out". My dad then explained the whole lifting of the backend high enough to clear, floor jack for the motor etc. I still remember him going "OH!" when the lightbulb went on in his head. Oh well, much better suited to saving souls then 356's.

[JTR70]

Here is the car under a chicken coope where it had been stored for 15 years. It was stripped media blasted then primered and painted black back in the 80's.

Once I had found a source for a speedster dash and rear cowl I needed a donor car. I knew exactly where to find it. I got on the phone and asked my Dad if I could now have his other and last 356. He asked what I wanted it for and I told him the whole plan. My dad is getting up in years and has never restored or completed one of his many project cars. He was real good at pulling them apart but soon would lose interest. He knew this car would eventually be mine anyway being his only child so I think he decided to let me have it a little early. At the end of our conversion he said, "yeah, go ahead and take it". Thanks Dad!!




These shots were taken the very evening my good friend and mentor Greg Parker and I went over to dig it out of the chicken coope. Just had to get a transaxle back in it to make it mobile again.




Out of the chicken coope and up on Greg's flatbed. My dear late friend pictured here. Rest in Peace my friend!

[JTR70]

Back at Greg's place in front of the backroom area he let me use. The roof is almost cut free here. You can see the front cowl cut and the rear sail panels.

Once I got it back to the shop I really had a chance to sit and study the shell. It was a nice solid practicaly rust-fee car. I sat on the door sill with my die-grinder in my hand going back and fourth as to weather I really wanted to cut-up this car. I was also a little worried that I may be getting in over my head as far as the fabrication skills required to complete such a huge task. I then remembered what great resources of metal fabrication knowledge and help I had in my friends Greg and Warren. I also had 3K worth of trevor Marshall's speedster sheetmetal on the way. With that now in mind I started cutting the roof. Looking back on it; I still made the right choice for me. 10 years later I still don't regret doing it.


Committed here!


The coupe dash face was removed ahead of the roof.

This "instant Speedster" cut would be the last of the easy, fun, no-brainer aspects of this conversion. To build this car right I would soon learn about all the prep, planning and replanning that would go into this project.


This new dash just snapped right over into place. I was so happy and excited when this shot was taken. Ignorance was truely bliss!


I now had my Speedster; or so I thought. What a long road I had ahead of me!

[DG58INNM]

Very Interesting Justin. I can't wait to see how you tackle the rear bulkhead/rear cowl (I see the Trevor rear cowl sitting in the car). Your "ignorance was truely bliss" comment leads me to anticipate a lot of metalwork mayhem!

DG

[JTR70]

Thanks David! Metal mayhem yes, but most of it due to changing my mind on things like suspension ,shocks etc. Even the rear cowl and substructer has changed since all of this. I'll be posting all of that shortly. Thanks for reading this post! Justin


My original plan (and this plan keeps on changing David; The mayhem)was to keep the chassis basically stock and perform all the usual time tested upgrades like C-disc's, 741 trans and top it all off with a punched-out type-4 with all the radical components I could buy. I bounced alot of these ideas around with my 356 restorer buddy here in town. He thought I was spending way too much money on speedster specific parts. His advice was to forget about all about that expensvie sheetmetal and to just get a kitcar body harvest the fiberglass dash and rear cowl area and just graft onto my steel coupe donor. Cap the coupe doors over, buy a fiberglass fairing and get a kitcar windshield frame then be done with it. This suggestion wasn't even a consideration. I had no interest in build a skunk-wagon. I wanted a full authentic steel conversion without exception. I had just wacked the roof off of a perfectly nice coupe. I was cutting no corners on its conversion; especially cutting them that deep! With that my hunt for original speedster parts began. This alone was an educating experience.

[JTR70]

Because my plans kept changing for this project alot of things I did were later very out of sequence and had to be redone. Like this dash install I began doing right out of the gate.


Slowly grafting the new dash into part of the existing cowl. This dash by the way has since been removed. Like I said out of sequence.


At this point it was taking shape, or so I thought.


Began mocking up the rear cowl. Looking sort of speedsterish.


Not very pretty from this angle though.

Shortly after these photo's my plans for this car changed dramatically. huge chassis, suspension, engine changes.

[JTR70]

While consulting back and fourth again with my 356 buddy here in town he did finally convince me to drop the type-4 power plant idea and go with a full 6-cylinder 911 engine. His argument was that the finished car would be more widely accepted being all Porsche rather than with a VW based power plant. The second and most important reason was that the type-4 I had in mind was going to be so highly modified that longevity and reliabilty were going to become a serious issue. A virtually stock 2.7 would produce the same HP I was after but with more torque and far greater reliablity. it could go all day long without beating itself to death unlike a highly modified engine would. It made perfect sense so I had my new direction. I did make one change though; If was going to put that extra weight back there I didn't want just a 2.7. I wanted the latest and greatest air-cooled six Porsche made;3.6 or at the very least a 3.2. With this added power and weight increase from this new engine choice I had three basic changes to make concerning the car. 1) I now wanted to run the newer and larger 915 or 930 gearbox. 2) had to now move to a complete 911 rear suspension. 3) this is an open car now with no triangulation support from the roof. This stock pressed sheetmetal frame wasn't going to cut it. The answer to the frame issue was a fully intergrated tube chassis/roll cage for the entire car to work off of. I was really excited about that prospect. I love the look of race cars and roll-cages. Since my friend greg built many race cars and frames I thought this was something we could tackle. After explaining everything I wanted to do he suggested the best guy in town to talk with about building the cage would be Warren Messick. Greg explained that Warren was a certified professional welder by trade with over 25 years experience building off-road race cars and chassis. He added that not only was everything he built correct from a technical standpoint but was also artwork. After dinner that evening we went by his shop. He had a full-on race truck and a class 10 chassis he was in the middle of building for two clients. Greg was right! I was blown away by his work! Everything just looked trick! He was my guy for sure! We worked out all the details but it would be several months before his frame jig became free for my car. In the mean time I did all the grunt work, cutting and preping the chassis for him. Here are a few pics. Thanks for reading all of this!! Justin


Here was my inital rear suspension choice; this cut-out but complete long wheel base alloy 911 SC suspension unit. Greg owned and opperated a Towing/ police impound yard. This hacked out unit along with a 915 trans was part of an auto theft bust several years prior. It eventually became his and he in turn gave it to me for this project. What I really liked about using long wheel base versus early short 911 wheel base suspension was not just the alloy arms but in using this set up I could mount the new torsion housing further forward to get the original wheel base specs back in turn giving me about 2 1/2 inches extra to move the engine forward into the car.

With the new plan set on suspension and cagework I started cutting and removing the seat pan and firewall are in preperation for Warren. I left the torsion housing in for referrence.


After about 4 months Warren had a space for it on his Frame Jig. Loading it up here and Greg sinching it down.


Rear skin (for wheel base referrance) and 911 suspension loaded up front.


Delivered out in front of Warrens shop and ready to be placed on the jig.

[JTR70]

Between Warrens full time job, other racecar builds and his off-road race schedule on some weekends my little project took a little over a year to complete. I had other things to attend to as well like the longitudinals on my coupe. I wanted it to turn out the best that it could so I did not hound Warren. I let him knock it out at his own pace and was very grateful anytime there was some progress. The next couple of pictures were taken about 2 months in. By this time he had the new 911 torsion housing in place and the hoop for the roll-bar fabricated and tacked in. The car would go no further for about 4 more months. Oh well he was worth the wait!


In Warrens shop on his frame jig. Torsion housing installed at this point. Roll-bar hoop fabricated. I had barrowed a friends speedster windshield frame to establish the height of the hoop so it complimented the WS frame. Looks lame if its too tall.Rear skins tacked back on to establish the wheel base again.

the old coupe doors were also mounted to ensure clearance for the roll-cage side bars to come.

Inside shot of the hoop/torsion area. One of my first speedster part purchases was this repro alloy GT seat.

[stp356]

Cut the back end off the car to get the engine out. Wow. Guess the guy had never heard of "technical documentation," shop manuals and the like. This is quite an undertaking. Checked the date of posting and so this is a somewhat ongoing conversion. Glad you're not cutting corners.

[JTR70]

Hi Steve, Yeah, it was an unbelievable story right from the start. After telling to my old friend craig about it he shared a similarly funny story concerning a mechanic who was in the middle of his first engine removal on a 356. He was complaining how hard he had worked taking the motor all the way down inside the engine bay until it was small enough to fit through the engine lid opening up top with a cherry picker. He was an amercian car mechanic so his brain was stuck on engine removal of a chevy. He just Could not think outside that box; at least he did not cut the rear end out though I'm sure he was tempeted.
This car is on hold until I get the coupe completed. No, I've tried not cutting any corners. At this point I do have alot more I can post about this project will try and update more. Starting tonight, Thanks again! Justin

Here are a couple more shots of the inside. Warren had the 915 trans and a bare 911 engine block mocked up as well. The motor and trans at this point were a couple of inches further forward then stock. The lower trans mount was modified to allow it to sit right up next to the torsion tube. This gave us yet a couple inches more to work with out back at the engine. This modification now meant that the axles were now going to run a slightly rearward angle but only by a few degrees. The next part of the cage construction would be the forward down tubes to triangulate the A&B pillars. I'll post all that soon. Thanks again for reading this. Justin


Motor and trans were mocked up in the car. Cooling fan housing was also on to check for height restrictions with the decklid opening. I wanted the engine to sit on the high side so I could lower the car without a clearance problem.


Trans in new more forward position to create more room for the engine. Forward construction of the cage was to come next.

[JTR70]

The next phase of the cage build was all forward to regain all that structural rigidity that was lost when the roof was cut-off. I drew out my basic plan of what I wanted the cage to look like then Warren corrected a few mistakes and went to work bringing it to life. One of the main goals he said was to have this new cage and the old frame tie in together as often as possible. The longitudinals were cut out and the old heater tubing was removed to make way for the lower cage runner tube that would go in its place. The door bars and dash hoop would all pass through the threshold sheet metal and tie directly into it. All this construction was done in 4130 Chromoly by the way. Could have used mild steel to save a buck but I wanted the best. Thanks for looking! Justin

Here is my original sketch from 12 years ago that I gave to Warren when we dropped the car off. Just a basic one dimensional idea of what I wanted. Warren expertly brought it to life for me.


Forward cage/structural tubing in. You can see the "new" heater tube replacement intersecting into the torsion housing here. Several small filler plates being added here as well to begin tying old and new together as often as possible.

I cannot tell you how happy and excited I was the night I took these shots! Warren was making my dream come true!

Doors were mounted to double check for good clearance.

These door bars pass right through the old threshold panels and into that "new" lower heater tube replacement for superior strength. You can see the underdash tube runner that the front cage will eventually tie into. With this area basically complete the back half of the old chassis was cut off to make way for the rest of the cage work. Will post that soon. Thanks again! Justin

[JTR70]

My next visit found the back half of the original chassis removed in anticipation for the rest of the cage.

Stock frame runners removed here.

The rest of the fire wall/trans mounts were cut out next to make way for the tubing which would eventually form the hoop that would mount and carry that mocked-up 911 engine block like it would normally be mounted in a 911.

[JTR70]

With the car out of my posession I turned to rounding up some original speedster parts. A really nice major find at the time (Oct.2002) was this beautiful matching pair of speedster doors. I found on the registry classifieds. A guy by the name of Phil Wimbish had them up for sale for 1,200.00. I could not get a hold of him quick enough to close the deal. Appearently he was thinking of a similar conversion (coupe to Speedster) but had purchased a boat instead. I was thrilled to be getting authentic doors instead of using capped coupe doors. My scavanger hunt and parts education was just beginning!


My new doors the day they showed up. This was a matching #'s pair from the same car in cherry rust free condition. Had the typical 4 different paint jobs in the jambs but both cleaned up very nice!


Stripped both doors down to metal with paint stripper. Also had welded the holes for the sidespears shut.


Both doors clean and headed for primer and paint. You can see my coupe there upside down as usual. I had just finished the longitudinals.

[JTR70]

Once original speedster doors were in the done column I turned my attention to acquiring the "crown jewels" of this speedster conversion. An original windshield frame and top bows of course. To finally get exactly what I wanted would take me 8 years. It was quite the hunt and a hard-knock education in rarity and parts availability. While Warren was building the roll-bar My local 356 restorer/friend had a spare W/S frame hanging in his rafters which he loaned me so Warren could get the hoop height to W/S frame height relation that i wanted. I later approached him on selling it to me since he did not have a car to go with it. He just could not let it go. Sensing how frustrated I was with him at the end of our visit he contacted a long time parts vendor friend of his in CA. he called me the next day and said he had located an original upperW/S frame with posts for 1,500.00 and a set of top bows for 2,500.00. "So drop by the house bring me green and we'll get them here. His evil hoarding ways were forgiven. His buddy said he had both a low and high bow set available. Our conversation soon turned to low Versus high and which would look best, After a few comparison pictures we both agreed that the Lowbow was by far the coolest and really brought forward that sleek chopped top look. I handed him the money and said tell your buddy I'll take the lowbow. HOW NIEVE I WAS! I would soon learn that my W/S frame was missing the hardest piece to come by; the lower base channel. My friend had actually found one shortly after this purchase for 700.00 but passed on it thinking it was too expensive. We would both soon learn what a rare smoking deal that was. Even his spare frame that he would not sell was missing this piece. Again I would learn that there were lots of uppers missing the base frame. I would later have to purchase a complete W/S frame to make this happen.
Then there was my "Lowbow"; we would later find out that it was infact a high bow and that a true first gen. lowbow frame that I wanted was a very rare and limited production version frame that was phased out in early '55. During this hunt it became appearant that alot of early speedsters were now missing thier original lowbow frames. A highbow swap for more headroom was popular and alot of these frames went MIA. the wierd thing was during my early years of hunting I never saw one come up for sale. Anyway more on this painful experience later. Thanks for reading this! Justin


There it is My first attempt at a speedster windshield frame and a set of original Low bows. Would soon learn that the W/S frame was missing the hardest part to come by; its base and would later learn that this frame was infact a high bow version. Just like the next three frames I bought all claiming to be low but were in fact high. All honest mistakes and easily repeatable until I learned what to look for.