General update, 356 work, oil-burner, the borrowed 911

The Porsche 356 progress has gone pretty well so far, I'm gathering up the receipts and pictures to put together a bit more coherent picture, but here is a quick list of interesting items:
* completely stripped and re-coated the underside, engine compartment, trunk interior
* cut out and replaced all rusted areas, including floorpans, kiddie seats, battery tray, some engine compartment areas, and other small damage on the roof, doors, decklid
* reinforced area around bumper mounts to prevent sheetmetal damage in the event of a small bump
* stripped complete inside and outside, re-painted the inside, need to finish bodywork on the outside first
* waiting on last body panel (left front fender) to arrive
* aligning body panels, trunk, decklid, doors
* engine is rebuilt, spinning now, test fire in the coming weeks, SC grind on the cam, slightly oversized pistons, heads cleaned up

In other car-related news, we purchased a 1987 Mercedes 300TD with 250K miles, a nice seven-seater wagon in pretty good shape. The turbo diesel isn't fast, but it's fine, and the car handles great. We've driven it all over the Bay Area with no problems.

Last, over the summer we exchanged our Eurovan for a 1968 Porsche 911. It was a great car to zip around in for the summer, but I don't think I want to buy one anymore. Now we are back to the Eurovan, and the 356 should suffice for any Porsche-related desires.

July 09th 356 update

I’ve been a little slow lately due to the arrival of Anton Joelson Secor on July 02nd (Hi Anton!), but here is a quick update on the 356:

* crank is good, getting bearing surfaces machined a bit

* pistons (86mm) shot, need new set, bought from Sam

* case is good

* heads are good, cleaning up valve surfaces, getting new valves, keeping springs

* need to do something about the rear kiddie seats as Tam doesn’t want to make them and they are shot. Trevor’s Hammerworks?

* battery box is in

* undercoating is mostly removed

Style Kings car show

Super cool cars, totally not something I’d build …

Don’t fiddle with hot radiator hoses

More progress on the undercarriage, floorpans arrived, engine apart

More progress on the undercarriage has occurred, lots more elbow grease. We figure we have about 15-20 more days of scraping to go. We also split the case and examined everything. The crank looks ok, there is rust in the cylinder bore from water accumulation, the oil pump key is about to go, the cylinder heads look like they experienced a fair amount of detonation, and the compression was quite high. We’ll probably have to grind the crank a little, put in new cylinders, valves, and a few other bits and bobs. Also, it looks like the engine might have overheated, so we’re probably going to replace the oil cooler as well. More pictures here.

Removing the undercoating on the 356

Lots of elbow grease (and not all mine, thanks Tam) to remove the undercoating on the 356. It’s uncovering a few other repair spots, but overall we’re pretty happy with the starting state of the car body. Next up is to weld in the floorpans and battery box. Those parts are on order but haven’t arrived yet. We might also get around to splitting the case on the engine, but first we have to buy beer for the guys at EASY who provided me with a nice, used windshield.

The Porsche work has started

Over the last couple of days/evenings we’ve pulled the engine out of the 356 and taken it a bit apart. We then rolled the chassis over to a good body guy to help weld in the new pans to take care of the rust. After that, brakes, suspension, paint and exterior body, then we’re good to ride. I’ll try to source some cool wheels in the meantime and I also need a new windshield and quarter window.

Hopefully some more updates will happen soon as we work on it. I’d like to be driving it by the end of the summer if possible.