54 356 light resto NZ

[buzz808]

g'day all
some of you may remember this car from some time back,now in NZ and to be fair not a lot has happened since its got here,due to very strict rules reguarding registration of new inports,the car goes through strict testing before being allowed on the road,which has showed up inevitable rust,which to be fair gives me an excuse to do some work on the car i have been putting off for far to long,and as usual i will probebly go way over the top,but i think its a car well worth doing,having owned it for over 8 years now,most of the time on the road,and over 30000miles done by me,its time to give it some tlc,and may be a few upgrades along the way,i will also be doing some searching of history on this car as i go(if anyone has any info about this car would love to here it)so a few photos to get started,and i hope to updated every few weeks
alex

[MikeB]

Err... Goes to prove one man's "light resto" is another man's Gor Blimey !!

Slightly more than a polish then

Look forward to seeing it progress

[cubist]

You're back!

Missed this coupe... how's it going out there Alex?

[buzz808]

sorry about that,been doing this sort of work most of my life,i suppose i see this work as pretty standard stuff for me,but i am sure there will be a few challenges along the way,as usual in a lot of restos the hardest bits are repairing previous bad repairs,as can be seen in the front clip,some very nasty repairs,as i dont intend on buying a new front clip,repair it will have to be,at least it is repairable
as for living down under ,still enjoying at the moment,i miss some of the bigger car shows you have in europe,not so much of that in NZ,but for work here,flat out on early porsche stuff so i am not complaining
thanks for asking cubist,
i do keep a eye on the ddk forum,i still think its possible the best early porsche forum in the world,loving the restoration threads,need more up dates from every one though,i will try to keep this thread up to date
speak real soon
alex

[Miggs]

bloody ell alex i didnt know you went down under

[buzz808]

hey miggs keep up,been out here nearly 3 years,hows life your end,apart from the shows up there ,it looks a bit tough in blighty looking at the news,anyway just a few pics to update,as its winter here trying to get some serious time on the car,even though its bloddy freezing at the moment,if anyones interested i could post a lot of workshop photos of projects going on down here,there seems to be a bit of a early race car look(r,rs,rsr,st backdate)thing going here at the moment,so running about 3-4 years behind blighty,so we are doing a bit of rsr and r stuff at the moment
anyway a few 356 update photos






now ready to put on the long,not been to bad realy no more than expected,not bad for a 56 year old car,keep you posted
alex

[buzz808]

managed to get a little time on the 356,progressing slowly,luckly no major damage for us in our little eartquake we had down here ,some not so lucky,still getting aftershocks,so car back on wheels instead of axel stands
just a few photos
alex

[Dakota]

Hi Alex
glad to hear your all right, but where has the front wing gone? Bill.

[buzz808]

hi bill
i ended up cutting most of the front off,not that it was that bad but it makes it a lot easier to access the inner front area,i think at some time the front has had a nudge and was badly repaired,from experience it a lot easier and quicker to cut the complete clip off,latest photos show just making panels realy,takes to long to get things sent down here,at least they are fairly straight forward panels to make
been making a little headway in tracking down history on this car,seems it was sent to New York in 54 and possible left USA in 56 back to Germany,where it spent most of it life until it came to blighty,and now to NZ,so its traveled a bit
also of interest is the colour,found an original Kardex with the car that showed the car to be Graphite metallic with yellow leatherette interior?
seems to be a correct combination but havent found another one yet with yellow interior,even the porsche factory who confirmed the details,cant find any samples or even photos of a yellow interior,i am lucky enough to have found a sample of the interior,hidden under to blue letherette in the car at the moment
thinking now to go back to original combination,better than the usual silver red interior combo
anyway i am rambling,a few update photos









alex

[buzz808]

not much happened for a while,been real busy trying to finish a rsr recreation,interesting project,but i had a spare day so thought i would sort out the pas door,for its age in amazing condition,just one small soft spot in the bottom corner and some repairs around bottom hinge area,plus some shallow dents which tapped and filed up real good,nice not to have to do complete door bottoms,so door sorted and in black epoxy primer,this is a stage that doesnt seen to be done in the uk but popular here,any filler work goes needed goes straight on to the epoxy primer as opposed on to bare metal,or you can leave it in this epoxy primer to you are ready for final body work,its a good process,so to photos
alex

[roy mawbey]

Alex,

You are doing some very nice work on the welding side and making your own repair panels. With yellow interior you could go the whole hog and go yellow outside to

[img][img]http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq15 ... 010016.jpg[/img][/img]

Roy

[buzz808]

hey roy
loving this car of yours,that was a brave move to paint in mat yellow but it works great,mine in yellow with yellow interior could be overload
i think it will go to the original colour graphite metalic but still with the outlaw treatment,and full retrim in the yellow leather if i can find a proper match
alex

[buzz808]

christmas a time of cheer and good will to all men,or i can get on with my car,made my choise and managed to get some time on it,panels all stripped now,and apart for a few lower door repairs were mint condition,will be in epoxy primer this week,thought i would spend a bit of time on the front,i had fitted a battery box some years ago so that was ok,the inner front panels had a bit of rust,but mostly just dents from a inpack sometime in its life,not bad but while its apart good access to straighten the dents with a bit of heat,had to make a new upper panel it was a bit to far gone,ready to weld in,next job to finish of fitting r/h sill
more updates soon i hope
have a good new year
alex

[roy mawbey]

Late reply Alex, but the yellow 356 is not my car, saw that one at Goodwood and it stood out in the crowd of many others! My "A" is Meissen blue with red interior that actually also stood out over here in 1959 as most cars were black!

Really like your work, I just love fabricating and welding although have not done much of it over the past 20 years ors so.

Always like looking at your photo's

cheers

Roy

[Dyno Soar]

Wow awesome job there... inspirational stuff.

Hopefully I'll get to sort my own car out and get it on the road.