A couple of days ago I went over to Team Stuttgart and told Dusty I had bought the 356. In his typical laid-back style, he said "good for you," and that was about that. I started quizzing him about why the car was at his shop in the first place, and he said that it was there for a new fuel pump and wheel bearing. He seemed in no hurry to complete either job, especially seeing as he hadn't even had the trunk open yet to jump the battery and get the car moving. I let him know that I had talked to the P.O. and knew that he had already paid for these repairs. Dusty isn't having the easiest time right now, to put it mildly, and I'm not sure he would have been exactly honest about the payment situation there if I hadn't called him on it.
He suggested we try opening the hood, which we did. Most undelicatlely, with a screwdriver. OK, well nothing was really permanently bent by this action, and since the front-end already needs repair work…but it definitely set the tone for future work with Dusty. I'm not going to be relying on him for any restoration-level work. After the hood was open we jumped the car and got it to catch, but it died when we took the jumper cables from the donor car off. Battery was so dead it couldn't even keep the plugs firing. We dug around in his workshop for another 6 volt battery and came up with one, that needed charging. I gave him 20 bucks for it. Then I went out and bought a battery charger at Sears, and a metric wrench set (which I know I'll be needing), and I hooked up the "new" battery overnight to charge. In the morning, the charger was in its "error" mode, and the battery hadn't charged. I went to Dusty and pointed this out, not mentioning that I had paid him already for the dead battery. I'll just be applying that to his tab with me for the nose damage.
I went on the Internet again (hurrah) and found that most people who wanted a good, non-leaky 6 volt battery for their 356s were using Optima batteries. My battery tray already has such extensive rust that it needs much replacement metal, but I figured for the future, why worry about that again? I went and got one in Raleigh at Batteries Plus. $106 and change…ouch. Probably the most expensive battery I have ever bought next to a laptop battery.
In the battery went, and the car started right up after pumping the gas pedal a few times. All the dash lights work, most gauges and lights appeared to work except perhaps the oil temperature gauge (not sure I warmed the car up enough for it to register) and the odometer. The clock did work, and I've read that those are often dead.
I pulled away from Team Stuttgart for a little test drive. First impressions:
* Man, this shifter is wobbly. Lots of free play.
* The clutch has to be let almost all the way out to take up. It also isn't aligned in the same plane as the brake and gas pedal. Is that right?
* The engine does feel peppy for 75 HP.
* Man, these brakes suck! Definitely something wrong here. Could just need to be bled and get the lines replaced, but it feels fairly unsafe in its current condition
* Suspension feels "old," but that was to be expected. Doesn't pull to one side or anything horrible like that.
* Gasoline fumes are too strong in the passenger compartment for comfort. No wonder it is at the shop getting a new fuel pump. Something is leaking somewhere.
Anyway, I didn't stress the car out too much knowing its current condition. I drove it home (about 1 mile) and Katy took a spin. She came back to the house with a big smile and told me that she was excited for me to do this project, and that it was going to be a lot of fun. A good sign. We shut off the engine for awhile and talked and inspected things over a bit more, and then I went to start it again. It wasn't as easy to start hot. I had to crank it over a few times with the gas pedal planted on the floor before it finally caught and ran. Revved the engine a bit and then let off, it settled down to a nice low idle. I drove it back to Team Stuttgart and parked it.
So there we have the beginning of this saga. Where things will go I really have no idea. I'll ride Dusty to get the work done that he owes me this week, and then carefully drive it over to the body shop in Mebane who he has found to do the nose repair work as a personal favor. They are called Amick Motors, and they are a Ford dealer. I already gave them a call to check out their credentials, because I'd rather they not repair it at all then repair it very badly. As I said, I'm not aiming for concours-level with the coupe but I want things to be solid and straight. They have actually restored quite a few 356s and early 911s, so that made me feel better. I'll drive it over there and talk about how to proceed with beginning the restoration. I'm not sure whether I should just immediately strip the car and have it sandblasted to find all the rust, or do some underbody repair where the damage is most obvious and then get it sandblasted. Either way there is a lot of work to do.
