DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Well ive brought Herbie back home (named because of the 59 race no. by my kids and wife who love it) , she is in some desperate need of some love and a huge amount of cash to make her smile again, although there is a lot more good metal in the shell then i remembered, floor, sills etc all totally shot.

Was very impressed with Mick Paceys operation at Export 56, he is renovating alot of nice cars to a very high standard, so it is not an easy choice of just taking the car to Roger Brays after seeing what Mick can do, my only problem is that Export 56 is a good 3 hr drive where as Rogers is an hr away from where i live, decisions decisions.

I will keep ddkers up dated as to my decisions and progress over the next few months.

Would you guys try and keep the body as is and just totally renovate everything apart from the shell and try and keep the livery and patina as is, my only concerns is that the shell is rusting in all the wrong areas so it will be difficult to repair properly with out damaging the livery.

How long will the shell last for if i dont touch it?

Or just totally renovate whole car and maybe try and replicate the livery, i understand you can age the process and even get them hand painted to look 50 yrs old.

Look forward to some feedback

Stephen

are the restoration facilities in house at Export?

Take it to Roger.
It will be guaranteed to be superb (and expensive) whereas Export56 may just be expensive.

From what i saw at Export 56 it is all done in house he has a body shop at a different site where the work is done. and the various cars are kept in various states of restoration, i saw a speedster carrera in need of total restoration and a lovely 911 RS that had been totally renovated, lovely job, right up there in my opinion.

Hi
in my experience all the bones of a 356 can be replaced without disturbing the exterior too much the obvious exception being the outer door step/sill though in the past I have replaced just the step part which meant just some local paintwork , so don't jump into the deep end quite yet as its alot cheaper to buy and replace the inner stuff than sodding around with outer panels if you don't have to , and if the inner stuff is done well you can always come back and do the pretty stuff later. Lastly don't panic too much about the outer panels suddenly dissolving they won't they have taken fifty years to rust so far , they won't just dissapear overnight, so don't panic .
yours Bill.

Personally, Id do all the interior stuff and mechanical first- you can drive it to death that way, and worry about the patina later.

I would def try to keep as much as possible to the original paint work. Localise your repairs and look after the dodgy areas as much as poss until you can treat them to new metal. Carefull attention in the short term will work wonders in the long term- if you can stop it getting worse, you are fine !

After looking at the car the repairs needed on it,it will only be sensible to do the outer skin at the same time,other than the rotton floors,longs etc etc,its quite a straight car,never been in an accident.
Will make a great machine!!

I picked up my doors bonnet and deck lid from the media blasters yesterday and saw your car stripped to the shell on a dolly waiting to go into the booth.
whoever you decided on the resto isn't wasting any time. whats left of the floor has been cut out i presume so the blaster can get better acess. the shell is in a bad way much worse than i would of expected but then alot of 356's are. it looks like the project is definatly starting on the right foot though. good luck and keep us updated on the progress
cheers jason