A Porsche Story....

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Chapter 1.

I love the Porsche 356. Absolutely a timeless design and a car almost everyone recognizes, like the VW beetle. I wanted one of these cars almost as long as I can remember. Nine years ago, I had the opportunity to purchase a 1959 sunroof coupe, a “rust free” California car, that was offered for sale in the local auto trader. To make a long story short, the seller and I could not finalize a deal, and the deal went sour.  

Fast forward to Sept 2004, and was looking at the collector car trader online before I left work one night. Among a sea of ads for 356-speedster replicas, one ad caught my eye. It was an ad for a 1955 Porsche 356 pre A. This designation refers to the fact that later 356s were labeled 356A, 356B and lastly 356C. Pre A cars are extremely rare and desirable. They make up a very small percentage of the total # of 356s built from 1949-65. I would normally send the seller a quick email asking for some more photos, as there was only one scanned photo of a not very good picture to begin with.  No email address was provided, and I was already late, but I decided to call him anyway. He described the car to me at length, explaining all he knew about the car. It sounded good, really good. He asked me for my address to send me some more pictures. I started to give him my Email address, but was quickly stopped when he told me his computer was “broken” and he would need my postal address. No problem, he sent the pictures express, this was a Thursday night, and so they arrived on Monday morning.  

The car looked god in the 4 photos he sent, and he was upfront about all the problems with the car, and it looked just as he had represented it on the phone. I call him back right away. I said I would buy it from him. He had received several calls that weekend with callers offering more money than he was asking in the add he had placed, and that they would pick it up immediately, but the had told them he was waiting to hear from me, as I was the first person who phoned. After this he told me that he “Didn’t want to negotiate on the price” I took this to mean the asking price is final. This was not the case, he offered me the car for $2000 less than he was asking, as he wanted me to have the car. Wow!!! This deal was the polar opposite of the first 356 I had dreams of restoring… 

I told him I could not pick up the car for several weeks, as I had to work, and he was in New Mexico; about a 30-hour drive from Calgary! He said not to worry about it, and he would hold the car for me. Naturally I offered to send him a deposit, which he promptly refused, he said “My word is good” and the car was mine. We were in contact for the next few weeks, and got to know each other over the phone, we both had a good laugh when we figured out our age difference was almost 40 years! 

Finally the day came the day came when Burt, a good friend, and I packed up our trusty Eurovan and started the trek to New Mexico to tow this little gem home. We completed the drive, only stopping for gas and food, we arrived the following night and Al insisted we stop by to see the car. Under the dim light from the open garage door and a shop light on an extension cord, he unveiled the car that I had waited all that time to see. It was awesome! Sure it had been poorly restored, but it was a 1955 Porsche, complete with the famous “bent” front windshield unique to the pre A series.  It was late, so we covered the car up for the night and began to leave. Al insisted that we could spent the night there as he and his wife had a spare room and we would not have any luck finding a hotel in New Mexico due to the fact that there was an International hot air balloon festival in town that weekend. We accepted, as the idea of driving to find a hotel after just completing a 20-hour drive straight sounded like less fun. Al and his wife Estelle stayed up with us and made us a snack as we sat at the kitchen table and got to know one another.  

The next morning we got up and looked through the boxes of parts that came with the car, including lots of new parts Al had purchased but not yet installed on the car. I also took the car for my  first drive, although short due to the lack of lights, mirrors, and a lot of other parts.  It needed a tune up, but it ran, and had brakes amazing for a project car.  We spent the remainder of the day with Al and Estelle, on a guided tour of New Mexico.  The next morning we started our long journey home with the car in tow with a bracket I had previously made for this purpose before we left.

Ken and Al (happy he found a good home for his Porsche) Ken and Burt looking
over the car		 Ken and Burt having some
fun in Old New Mexico		 Al and Estelle, our new adopted grandparents :) The balloon festival
Towing on the way home Interior The car at home in the shop On the dyno in the shop Underneith

Chapter 2.  Oct 18th 2004,

The plan…….

Although the car is in very good shape and it was restored, it was done rather poorly. The paint is a real 10 footer, and has already had an attempt at polishing it out, unsuccessful. The car also has a fair amount of bondo in it, covering dents and dings, but thankfully not hiding any rust. The floor pan is in almost perfect shape only needing some small repair by the pedal assembly, again not from rust, but some sort of tear to get at the pedals (?).

So it will receive a proper restoration this winter, a repaint (the color is in debate, but it will be a 55 Porsche color for sure) and the correct parts. At the moment I’m leaning toward the metallic grey as this would go well with the prexisting-very nicely done red interior. Fro the moment though, I decided to put the car together, get everything working, and drive it for a little while, at least until the snow starts to fly.

It only took a few late nights at the shop to make the car drivable, at least for now, so I could drive it and see what it would need. The car is a blast to drive,  unlike any VW I’ve driven before. It is very solid, and has a cool “little racecar” feeling to it. I had to replace the rear axle boots as they started to leak almost right away after I started driving it. They did not have holes in them, but rather they had hardened up (maybe from the New Mexico heat) to the point that they would no longer flex.

One day at the shop we had to do some repair to the dyno, and had to test it afterwards, Seeing as how the Porsche was available, we decided to give it a shot. From a motor that is factory rated at 55hp you would expect the reading from the dyno at the wheels to be around 40-45hp especially on an older motor. So what did the little coupe make for power? 62.8 HP and an amazing 80ft/lbs of torque!!!! Wow!! The only indication that the motor had been modified is a small brass tag on the fanshroud stating that it is equipped with a Eskedirian (sp?) Racing cam. This was truly amazing power!
     
What Dale & I drove to work today. Ready to go

Chapter 3 Dec. 17, 2004

 Some interesting things happened the last few weeks. I took a quick trip to Germany for the Essen motor show, and had a visit with some friends. I also had a an unbelievable tour of Porsche in Zuffenhausen.  First day was a factory tour, and a look through the museum, then the next day a tour of the exclusive and classic centre, lunch in the guest casino (restaurant) and some fun in the museum.

During my stay there the "birth certificate" that I had ordered from Porsche cars north America arrived and had some very interesting information. The car was originally Graphite metallic grey (#5403) and not red as was previously thought. It was equipped with a beige leatherette interior with corduroy inserts. I was so happy when I found this out! This is the best possible color combination. While touring the Classic centre, my friend Natalie (who works in the museum) asked Alexander who runs that department if he could mix a paint sample for me while I was there. A few days later I picked up two metal cards sprayed with the color and the words "Graphitgrau 5403" written on the back. How cool is that? A big thank you to Natalie for all of the tours and to Alexander for taking the time to have those made for me. It seems that Porsche actually still cares about cars they produce 50 years ago!
Certificate of authenticity
from Porsche		 Color sample from Porsche Germany A restored 55 in graphite grey (not mine) Porsche #1....of course ( I have about 150 more photos if anyone is interested...) The engine of #1
Kenny in the first Carrera GT (Thanks Wolfgang!) A shipment of 997's leaving Zuffenhausen The Abarth's 4 cam engine. An abarth coupe
     
An early speedster being restored at the classic centre (body is upside down...) A rare sight, a couple of 959's....

Chapter 4 Feb. 11, 2005

A lot has happened since the last update. I drove the car home in January and started to dismantle it. It took about 3 days to strip out all the interior, running gear, glass, and everything to get it down to a bare shell. My friend Jon and I took a quick weekend trip to California to attend the Pomona swap meet, and look for some parts. He and I are both serious car nuts with at least 2 or 3 projects on the go at any one time, so we always need a lot of parts. We both love swap meets, we get to look at junk and lots of it! After I was back in Calgary,  my neighbor Paul came over with his brother and a friend to help me load the empty shell into the back of my 59' VW single cab to drive it over to my shop to really get working on it. Always an interesting drive across town with a car loaded on the back of a truck, lot of strange looks. This time it happened to be a night, and strangely enough I passed another 356 enthusiast in town, who promptly phoned me the next morning to inform me what a bastard I was for getting my car painted so quickly. It was quite dark and he must have assumed it was on the way home from the body shop and panted the original color, as we had discussed a couple of weeks earlier. I corrected him and set his mind at ease, that I was no further along on my project than he was on his, a 59 coupe. After getting the car safely to the shop, I put it on a hoist, and built a rotisserie for it. This was a fairly easy task, as I had written down the dimensions of the one  at Porsche Germany, this made life a lot easier. The important dimension is the imaginary "center" of the car, so that as you turn it over, it will not be top heavy, and rotate smoothly, with only one person operating it.   At this point a friend of mine, Jim Stephan is helping with some of the more difficult metal work (hood and door gaps) as he used to run a Porsche restoration shop for many years, and is now living in Calgary. He has been very excited with the progress we've made on the car, and were hoping to have the metal work completed in the next few weeks, so we can ship it off to the body shop for primer and paint. I'm working as much as possible on this car to have it ready for the 356 registry west coast holiday which is in Kananaskis this year, about a 45 minute drive from here,  http://www.356holiday2005.com/ . Jim has been a big help, and really knows his 356's!  Another friend Jim Zilavec, took the doors, hod, decklid and dash to his work, Calgary Powder coating, to dip them for me and remove the paint. Upon there return, the were virtually rust free, and looking pretty good. Thanks Jim!! I have been busy removing the paint from the rest of the body, and the bodywork that was lurking underneath the bondo (almost over the whole car) was a bit scary.
 
The floors with the carpet removed... As good as it gets for a 50 year old car!! Car in the garage, almost all stripped down. Pomona swap meet Jan 16th, nice 912 for sale. Jonny inspecting a 356A for sale. Nice early 356A.
Pomona Pomona I loved this truck!! so much potential... Euro oval for sale. Another nice early A.
Moving the shell from my house to the shop, on the truck. Thanks Paul! Safe in the shop. The start of the rotisserie. The first turn. It works!!
 
Me looking rather smug about my new toy... Upside down, it rotates fully, without touching the floor. The underside of the battery tray, rusty, fixed previously with a layer of fiberglass inside...not so good. Edge of battery tray, nicely dented.  
This is adhesive in the trunk. The texture matches the backside of German square-weave carpet, meaning that the trunk side were carpeted and not upholstered as they were in some later 55's. (yes I'm a nut hwo thinks about this kind of thing) Jim Stepan working his magic on the body. Some of the pieces that Jim Z will dip... Some of the bondo coming off...yikes!! Same parts 24 hours later, thanks Jim!!
Most of the paint removed. The floors with the sound deadening removed, looking good. Nose. Good photo of the rotisserie. In progress.
  Some of the bondo... Undercoating removed... Headlight bucket removed to get access to some of the poor body work... Ouch...bad repair.
     
Now naked, missing an eye and tilted to one side...she can't be very happy.        

Chapter 5 March 28th 2005,

One thing I think I have not yet explained about this restoration was my reason why.  The car looks not too bad in the first photos right? Well.... The car was definitely a race car at some point in it's life. The unfortunate thing is it was not raced by somebody famous (at least not to my knowledge) and the racing took it's tool an the poor machine. All of the fender wells were cut and bent outward at one point and then covered in fiberglass to make fender flares, presumably to fit wider tires. This was repaired (sort of) before I got the car. New pieces of metal were welded in, but no real attempt was made to make them the same shape as the car. So if you felt the body about 2-3" in from the lip of the fender it was very "thick", in some places almost 1/2".....of body filler. All thought this looked fine, it was not going to last. OK so there was that....and the driver who raced it could have probably used a little more practice, as it was hit a one point in 3 out of the 4 corners. As I later found out this lead to the frame being bent. We did not notice this until it was ion the rotisserie with some careful measurements. Not a big deal, it was towed the next day over to the best frame shop in Calgary, and 12 hours later it was as straight as the day it left Zuffenhausen.  Ok so that brings you up to speed on the reason why I'm restoring this little gem.

This car as it turns out is the 4th car made in 1954 as a 1955 model. So, to my knowledge, and with some searching it appears to be the oldest known "Continental" Coupe. This was a designation given to coupes and cabriolets destined for North America for the 1955 model year only. This
model had gold scripts on the side bearing this name (Even thought the front and rear were aluminum ?!) Porsche was asked by Ford to discontinue the use of this name as they owned the rights to use it and were planning on releasing a car bearing the name. 1955 was also the first year for Porsche to use a purpose made 3 piece aluminum engine case, rather than a modified VW unit. This car's engine matches what the factory documentation shows, and would make it one of the first few engine of this type produced. Not only that but the doors, hood, deck lid, and dashboard are all numbers (stamped in the sheet metal) matching original for the car. Not too bad for an old race car!

The last few weeks have consisted almost entirely of metal repair. Aside from the frame straightening, the battery tray was replaced, along with those nasty looking sides from the photos earlier. Some repair was made to the longitudinals and the replacement of one jack spur with a correct unit from Trevor Marshall at www.356panles.com . The repair was properly done around the right headlight (the previously butchered one) and all of the gaps for the doors and hood were redone. This may not show in the photos, but this was a tremendous amount of work. The dash was also repaired as someone had cut the already large radio opening even larger at one point (imagine if you could talk to the previous owners and ask them what exactly they were thinking that day....)
The car being towed to the frame shop At the frame shop Longitudinal repairs More surgury  
The rear end coming together     Battery Tray Work Almost done
Welding Welding Hammering Grinding An example of some almost finished metal work on a rear fender
The door gap The shape coming together Using the uni-spotter on the rear fender Spraying the "Black" etch primer that Glasurit sent... does it look black to you? The inside primed
A proud Jim on his last day helping me. Thanks Jim! That right front corner looking a lot better The underside etch primed Metal work done  
Starting the undercoating In progress ... Done Very close to the original texture, very thick, as it was Engine Bay
       
Wrapped up and sent off to the body shop. It looked like rain out so we used the rotisserie to wrap the car in plastic as to not get wet.
I have quite a funny video of this we'll load up soon.		   continue here .... page 2