Tonight I rebuilt the wheel cylinders. That was a lot of fun, not. Really it was super easy, I spent more time looking for the parts that flew out of my hands and shop across the shop than I did rebuilding. Not really, but it sure is frustrating crawling around on your hands and knees looking for that #$% part that you have to have, which decided to go flying. Once I did the first one, the rest were easy. I hope they don't leak. I used Stainless Steel pistons and honed the insides. Took a lot of care to be very surgically clean while reassembling them.

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Not too much progress on the 356. I have been working on the Land Cruiser trying to get the body on the frame to free up shop space. I was able to locate an original Grounding Strap thanks to the efforts of Albert Tiedemann, Jr. A scholar and a gentleman. He went out of his way to find an original strap at Hershey and send it to me. Thanks for helping a Porsche brother with his car. It is actions and people like this that make this hobby such a great one. I hope to roll the car out on Tuesday and media blast the front inner fenders. I have will be trying a need media called New Age Blast Media. It is recycled glass and is supposed to be very good stuff. And much healthier than silica sand. Also, very reasonably priced. I will report my experiences with it.

http://newageblastmedia.com/

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I do have a question related to throttle linkage. In the picture you can see that the throttle shaft has a good bit of play, left to right. Is this suppose to be like this or is there a part missing. Remember, my engine is a 69 912 and the transmission is a 716, I think. I also have procured some misc. sheet metal repair panels. Thanks for the help.

PS, ignore the “drive by wire”, that was done by PO for a quick fix just to move the car.

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You have an A bellcrank on a 741 throttle shaft. Either shorten the shaft, add a bunch of washers, or find a good A shaft; good luck with that!

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Sounds like it will be easier to manufacture a spacer of some sort. Thanks Vic

PS, Vic do you do 911 transmissions?

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Well I finally got the time, weather, stars in alignment etc. to get the front inner fenders blasted. No big surprises. I made one small patch, which I knew about. It ended up being about a 1.5”x1.5” square. Took all of about 30 minutes. Sand blasting revealed mostly clean metal with a few pits, which I will fix. Next up is shooting some Epoxy primer ASAP and then assemble the front end. I also blasted the outside of the battery box so I can see better what I have to do to fix it. I need some help with this one. My pan does not match the pan ordered from RD. It is clearly different and looks like others I have seen. My pan does not have a rib going down the middle bottom and also have a round metal stamping. I checked with RD and Zims and they both say this is the only pan they sell for the A. I have sent pics and was told that my pan must have been replaced. I can with near 100% confidence say that this battery pan has never been out of the car. For one thing the previous owner I bought the car from owned it for over 20 years and I know he did not do anything with it. Second, due to all the undercoating on it, it was all the same as the original undercoating, which is what saved much of this car. Third and most importantly, the spot welds are all dead on factory. Zero evidence of cuts, welds, any telltale signs of earlier repairs. There are plenty of repairs on the door bottoms and front fender edges from the much earlier owner. All of which were done with old fashioned brazing. So I am sure that if this had been repaired previously, it would not have been done with such high quality that I would not be able to detect its being replaced. It looks factory to me. So that leads to the big question, what the heck do I have? Also, no sign of there ever being a tow hook on the front pan. I guess I could take the replacement panel I have and rework the bottom to be flat, remove the rib, but I really want to know what I have before I cut into it. Very little of my pan is rusted so I am trying to do my repair with as little replacement as is required. Thanks for the help.

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I forgot to post pics of the head light buckets, which I also blasted.

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No tow hook until 1958.

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hey Mark, Your car is looking great! your battery box floor is 100% original right down to the drain hat. Checkout page 4 on my project thread. I had to do the same repair. The replacement floor you have is incorrect and is for a T2 car. Keep going! Justin

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Thanks guys. I knew it was original. I guess I will fab my own piece.

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Well my 356 has something to smile about. I got the front inner fenders finished and in Epoxy primer. A few pics. There really is no substitute for sand blasting. A horrible mess and not much fun to do, but the results speak for themselves. I am happy to have it behind me. Once this dries I will coat with chassis black or something similar and then undercoat. I have been chatting with Steve Harrison about using a tar based undercoat like the factory did. My left brain says go with what the factory did, but my right side, the anal one, says to use Wurth. I see how these cars get "over" restored. It is soooo hard to cover over all the pretty work with undercoat, let alone tar, but that is what the factory did. I might just paint it black and reassemble it, waiting to do undercoating when I do the entire pan. I have a couple of holes to patch on the pan and then it will need to be undercoated along with the rear inner fenders. Or maybe not.

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Started preping the battery pan for new sheet metal. I had ordered the A pan from RD, but found out after it arrived that my car has the early pan, which does not have the rib pressed into the center of the bottom. I then ordered just the rib to and figured that I would fabricate the pan myself ala Justin Rio. Unfortunately, the rib is also different so I am not sure what I will do now. I guess I will look at some of the other suppliers to see if theirs are any different from RD's. If after seeing the pics below anyone has any ideas about who might make one that matches my pan let me know. I will also have to fabricate the drain hat ala Justin Rio as well. That should not be too difficult. I still have to metal work the front pan to get it perfect, but it is getting there. All in all, the battery pan had very little rust. I decided to leave the factory grounding point bc the metal all around it was fine and I want things to look as close to factory as possible. Having to replace the ground point would have been tough as it looks like it was brazed or soldered on. There is a lot of lead around it. It looks like there is a broken brass screw in the threads. Does anyone know what this would have been? Thanks

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I have a few other misc. questions. I talked to the PO and my car is 6V. Here is a pic. of the alt. A few weeks ago we were debating about what alt I had so here is a pic.



I am also missing one of the carb pre-heat tubes and little mounting tab if anyone has one. I see them for sale on Samba so not to concerned, but if someone has one let me know.



And last question for the night. Does anyone know what these little lines are coming off the bottom of my carbs are? They have screws in them to plug the opening. What/how should I deal with this?

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At the risk of pointing out the obvious and being a stickler for proper nomenclature, but Mark you don't nor did any 356 come with an alt (alternator, AC current with diode rectifier to DC), rather a generator (DC current) !

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Looking great Mark! Your photos brought me right back to what I went through on my car. You have my sympathies! I think your splitting hairs on the cross-brace. Its a touch rounder then the original but once its all done with undercoating and the car is back in service no one is going to fault you for it. Its the same brace I used on my car I'm pretty sure. Certainly your call however. Keep the pictures coming! Its fun being the observer this time around. Justin

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