DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

good work Nic

Just taken out gearbox after a lot of hastle on my own actually shifting it.

I couldnt get one of the hubs undone so have had to undo handbrake cables at the front and disconnect brake pipes at rear.

Started to dismantle one side and will do other as soon as I have got hub undone.

I have had to have my torque converter redrilled for the studs and also made a brace bar to hold hub in place.

Each piece I have taken off suspension I have used a wire brush on the angle grinder and then painted everything up.

All started off like this, as engine bay and engine had all had the works done thought as gearbox was leaking this should be next.

This is how it started out.


heres the mounts and starter before painting although have been cleaned up

and after

and exhaust with yet another coat of heat paint which I heattreated as it went on to at least give it a chance of lasting more than a week.

Box now looking a lot cleaner but had to do under car as couldnt get one hub off and couldnt get to front of handbrake at time


and arm


have dont hubs and main carrier as well but more pics to follow

Mental not to self.......be careful when you have half jack handle off as it become spring loaded then!!!!!

Ouch .

Great to see a thread with some sheet metal work: amazing the difference between the outside of the car, and the rust hidden under the previous repairs.

Top job, enjoyed looking through this .

eye eye looking good..

bad joke it's Carling's fault..

well done though looking good...........DOH !! done it again

Unfortunately the outside is not great although the interior of the car is absolutely fantastic

Its a car which has had some crap resto done to it in the past or should I say patches thrown on.

The paintwork is bubbling all over the place and the underside of the metal doesnt look like its ever been treated.

Once the box and engine are all back in and running i think hes going to run it for a while and then get it to paint.

I dread to think whats under the bubbles, hopefully bad prep but I dont hold out any hope.

trouble is the guys lost his job now and hes got to sell the E type and the merc convertible as well....hes decided to keep the 356 now

Been doing a bit more work last couple of weeks.

I went to remove gearbox but really struggled with the mounts etc as they are put in very tight. Manual also doesnt cover how to get it out so had to work this all out as I went along.

Also had real problem as one of the hubs wouldnt undo so i had to disconnect all the brakes pipes and just strip it down and clean it as much as I could under the car.

Finally found out where the handbrake cable connected at the front and got gearbox from underneath car.

Had the idea of using my torque converter on the hub but founbf the holes were 12mm and the studs were 14 so had it machined out as well as a brace bar made.

As each piece has been taken out i have cleaned it all up and painted it again.

Over next few evening I will finish stripping the right hand side kit and repaint it as well as strip gearbox down and re gasket it all up.

Whislt taking out gearbox i have also noticed another small hole and will sort this while I have good access.

Have had to put everything in de greaser as i go along due to the amount of crud which had built up on gearbox.

Here you can see the set up I have made to get the hub undone, however even this didnt work as hub nut seemed slightly smaller than the 36mm that converter was. Luckily I had the spanner and welded long bar which Scott had given me which worked a treat with the brace bar



next hub came off although this was a little tight and once again took a little persuasion.

Then came the centre plate

Heres a step by step pictoral reference of the hub dissasembley.

Just starting to cleam this side up ready for paint.

Heres the other bits painted up

Heres a few more pics from todays work. Now gearbox is all out from under the car I am able to finish the clean off. I finished removing allt he hub assembley from the remaining side and then released the Diff and drive.

Cleaned it all up and then finished cleaning up the box by removing each section at a time by removing each bolt cleaning and replacing. I have also replaced the main oil seal although this was slightly different to one in and one pictured in manual.

It had an A at end of code instead of B, hopefully this will be OK if not I will have to change it all again.





Note this is a VW unit although on DDk site they have said these will have been blueprinted!!