A not so new guy, and miscellaneous ramblings

[JTR70]

Thanks David, very interesting past life. You and Mark(sufer71) have quite alot in common. Well, you could sell a 911 and keep all your 356's?
Justin

[roy mawbey]

David,

First of all I like your working area, really super. Maybe I would say this, but keep the 'A' if you can. I also ran for some years a 63 early 'C' as a daily runner so appreciated the discs and its good reliability. I had the 'A' alongside so could compare models on a daily basis.

The T2 just has something about it, probably because its so like the first 356 series certainly older in looks the the 'C' but really not so different to drive. My drums are fine that is essential as the discs were great on the 'C'.

The rounded front wings (fenders) and front nose I also prefer on the 'A' but I did like the larger rear window design area on the 'C'

Both are really nice cars though, hard decision for sure.

I live only a minute or so from the sea and surfing would be so easy for me if I could actually do it. Only tried once in Cornwall fell off the board more times than I care to remember.

My beach about 5 years ago with my grandson in the summer.



My beach in the winter.



Roy

[Bill Sampson]

Roy:

The sport would more properly be called paddling and falling. But, we call it surfing despite, even for the very best, much more time being spent paddling (not so much falling as I though). Your winter surf does not look particularly inviting. The best surf in California (and Hawaii for that matter) is in the winter since it takes storms to generate it.

David:

Wheeler will be on the bucket list for another summer but I understand the mountain does not plan to move. Rosemary WILL retire by the end of this year and we will visit you in NM where I definitely look forward to discussing my second amendment rights with you. A hint: Fusion DID exist in the time of the Founders did it not? I hear the sun was around. So . . . . . I can hardly wait.


Good to hear from both of you



Bill

[bbspdstr]

These threads make me want to start with....."Hi, my name is Bruce....and I've been addicted to old Porsches since I was a teenager......and I hope to never become clean and sober (or sane)."
(applause light goes on....NOW!)

David, I have been at the 356 'thing' only since '65, when a decent running Speedster was an average of $500.

I sold my last one, 84255, wrecked in a racing incident in '98, for "market price" but had to restore it for the new owner for what you see in my avatar and still netted enough to buy a '58 Coupe.

That was also a lower-keyed racer, so with the need for better mechanical units, I made a "C Speedster with a welded-on hardtop"
I had a customer with a Cabriolet that came with a hardtop. He thought he wanted to install a T-5 B mechanical sunroof in his hardtop, but instead traded that to me for some labor and I put that in my A's roof instead.

Now, and this is just to give you a perspective, I have the "best of both worlds" for one 356. The iconic early body style with the mechanicals of a C underneath; disc brakes, 741 trans and a detuned old race motor with about 120 HP. It was a 'color' I like, Stone gray, but it had originally a red interior...but I think green would go better in a more subtle way....IF I EVER FIND TIME TO WORK ON IT!!!!

My favorite saying for the car hobby is the universally appropriate: "It's amazing how long it takes to finish something you are not working on."

Great to share this kind of 'stuff' with other kindred spirits. I'll need to post some pictures of people and cars I knew when I lived in San Antonio...when you, David, were 6 years old. Where does the time go?

As we age, we tend to forget what we told to whom (and how many times), so a newer site such as Justin's often lets us get away with that. Let's drag the other old farts with interesting stories from 'over there' and let them tell us and us tell them our car-guy life stories...again!

[merbesfield]

My favorite saying for the car hobby is the universally appropriate: "It's amazing how long it takes to finish something you are not working on."

I love it. Also, for me, when you work on a car one day a week, it is amazing how long a project can take!

[Bill Sampson]

I figure, at one day per week if that, one out of two "sessions" consists of "learning" how to do it wrong, thus providing two more "sessions" - one to "fix" the "learning" session and one, with a little luck, to do it right.

Wrong Way Bill

[roy mawbey]

[bbspdstr]

HA, yes Roy..."memories."

Yesterday was our big "4th of July" celebration. (You over there just called it "Thursday.")

My wife and I attended a picnic at the home of a friend where if you enter through his garage you must find your way past two A Coupes and a Speedster. Another Speedster owner was present and two others of us were former Speedster owners (and the other man still owns a 904, I still own an A Coupe). Completing the group was another man who owns a nice T-6 Cabriolet.

(Meanwhile, our conveyances to this party were 2 new VWs, a Ford, an Audi, and a new BMW...well, gee, it wasn't an 'offical' 356 event)

Truly, it is an addiction! We all took turns telling stories heard before (or forgotten that they had been told before) (yes, I am sure of that even if forgetting who told what before)

We had NO IDEA what our spouses were talking about...but their half of the picnic seemed to go along just fine. OF course, they knew quite well what WE were talking about

We veered off into military service exploits or lack thereof, people and places (things) we'd known before (wait! isn't that a Beatles lyric?) and basically ate and drank our way through a similar setting such has become this thread.

I am constantly amazed at the connections made through the funny little cars we enjoy. They were just 'cool sports cars' when many of us became addicted, but for most it's the longest-lasting 'fad' we have encountered.

The ride is over all too soon and it's nice to know those on that ride have the same perspective....whether they got on at the beginning or more recently or the view is from on high or down low.

[roy mawbey]

Bruce,

Ah.. the 4th July, I hadn't forgotten, actually we just don't say much about it over here I do know the change in dates that now crop up over here where before TV's in every house, computers and the internet, these days were unknown to me except in history lessons when I was at school. Frankly, I had never heard of Halloween! or knew that much about the 4th July until much later in life. I have read about our exploits of course, but am so pleased it turned out the way it did as I have made many American friends!

Sounds like you had very nice day, and you are so correct its a fad that has been with me since the 60's and will be with us hopefully a while longer!

Roy

[bbspdstr]

Self-Moderating 101:

In re-reading many, many threads on this entire (blossoming) site this morning, one important point of (botched) etiquette became embarrassingly clear....David's introductory thread became 'hijacked' and I was a major factor! A big oops!

Speaking for myself, I wish to apologize...David, your writing, experience and participation are too valuable (and fun to read) to risk alienating, so if you even came close to noticing, please forgive my (well-intentioned but rude) interjection of spur-of-the-moment personal "ramblings" of my own.

(Shoulda started another thread, but hindsight is 20/20.)

-Bruce Baker

[DG58INNM]

Bruce,
Yup, I guess we are all addicts. But one could have worse habits (too many do!). I like these old stories from all. You know, your $500 speedsters from the '60s didn't change all that much through the '70s and even into the '80s. My '60 coupe cost me all of $600 in 1980. For that, it came with a VW motor, 4 bald tires, and a hole under the drivers floor mat that you could watch the passing asphalt through. It was hard to tell where the faded silver stopped and the grey primer patches started. The tan interior was actually red when you peeled a piece of vinyl back from where it had been protected from the Texas sun. But it was just a hoot to drive. And it only cost $600! What the heck happened over the last 20 years?

There was a pretty decent speedster on the lot of the garage I worked at. A '57 for sale at $8500. It had come came out of Denver, and I went up there and drove it back, in a January blizzard no less. Had to run with the drivers side curtain removed because I had to constantly reach out and keep a hole scraped clear at the left side of the windshield. Plowed right through the snow though withe no hesitation. I don't know what happened to that car though.

I'm really envious of your racing experiences. That was something I always thought I would do. Dreamed about it my entire life. But it has just never worked out. Always close, on the periphery, but in the end always the wrong place at the wrong time. I've never lived anywhere there was much of a racing culture or facility nearby. Now I realize my reflexes are slower and my vision not what it once was. Oh well! I try and make it to one vintage event a year just to enjoy the sights and sounds and smells. Always just a spectator but I really enjoy them.

Post those San Antonio pics please. I have been around San Antonio many times (worked on a project at KAF. My '68 targa lived there from about '71 on, winding up in Austin sometime in the '80s I presume it was brought back from Germany by an Air Force guy. I remember going there to Hemisfair in '68 and seeing Olmec heads and all kinds of fantastic things not car related. And the Alamo, of course!

Off to the Zia 356 breakfast this morning.

Take care,
DG

[DG58INNM]

My favorite saying for the car hobby is the universally appropriate: "It's amazing how long it takes to finish something you are not working on."

I love it. Also, for me, when you work on a car one day a week, it is amazing how long a project can take!

Mark, a very good saying. But I think in my case its more like 1 day a month! Or half a day, depending on how many honey-do's the wife has scheduled.

DG

[DG58INNM]

Bruce,
No need to apologize. I was just enjoying reading your "hijack" (I didn't see it that way) and replying while you were writing. Actually I think it is interesting where these threads go, all the twists and turns they take. Much like real face-to-face conversations, though I'm afraid those may rapidly be on the way to being a lost art.

So hijack away!

DG

[Erik H]

'Remember the Alamo" Thought you might like this shot I took of my Dad in 1974 on a cross country trip when I was 15 years old.

[DG58INNM]

Thanks Eric. I do like it. A shot guaranteed the warm the heart of any native born son of the Republic of Texas!
DG