The 356 has been sleeping for quite some time now. Yes, it has been about a year since anything was done on the car, and almost that long since my last entry. Looking at my previous post in April of last year, I had high hopes to keep the project rolling through the summer. However, as I finished my MBA and began to look for full-time employment, the 356 became, unsurprisingly, a second (or third, more realistically) priority.
But it kept nagging me from the back of my head. "Pay attention to me! Fix me, you've come this far already!" Well finally I decided enough time had passed. Dee is a great guy, a great friend, and a good bodyman, but the reality had set in that he had no intention of getting to the 356 any time soon. My search for alternate bodymen to finish the tub began.
As I hinted, I have finished my MBA and I am now working full time as an investment banker at a small boutique investment bank in Research Triangle Park. The new job has kept me quite busy so many of my outside hobbies and interests have taken a back seat. However, once I decided to restart the project, I started doing additional research in the evenings after work. I decided I'd start in the Triangle and widen my search as required. Pretty soon I decided it would be worthwhile to check out a shop in downtown Raleigh called TransporterWerks. While the name indicates that their first love is VW buses and similar vehicles, they have done a growing collection of 914 and 356 restorations. When I visited, they had a number of projects going on, including a nice looking restoration of a mid-50s dark gray coupe. I had a good conversation with the owner, Sean Frasier, as well, which was important. He estimated that they could start working on the car fairly soon, and would work on it constantly until finished, which is all I can ask for at this point. I thought it over for a couple of days and then called him back to arrange delivery.
This morning I had the car flat-bedded from MillerSport to TransporterWerks. Dee was more than happy to see the car leave, because now I would stop nagging him about it. When it got to the shop, Sean and I spent about half an hour discussing what work has already been done, and evaluating where the car stands now. The problem areas are the ones which I have had the most trouble with: the nose, the passenger rear door/lockpost area, the way the trunk lid fits where the patch was put on the rear. But I'm opening my wallet at this point and getting it fixed. I'll take the car back (hopefully before another year has passed) painted and ready for assembly, and complete the rest of the project in my garage on my own time.
In other car news, I've spent the last two weekends getting my 1987 911 motor ready to get dropped out for a resealing treatment. The oil leaks have gotten too extreme, the heat stinks when you turn it on from oil dripping on the heat exchangers, and the puddles under the car after parking it anywhere are getting too noticeable. I'm happy to do some mechanical wrenching, it has been too long. The main issue I had getting ready for the 911 engine drop was undoing the oil line that leads to the oil cooler in the front fender; the nut on the fitting was so tight that even with two very long wrenches (one to turn, the other to counter-hold) I couldn't loosen it. I degreased th hell out of it and used lots of penetrant, but still no go. Eventually I had to resort to grinding a "slot" in the nut with a die grinder and then using an air chisel as an impact wrench. It worked, I think the line may still be usable as well, but it sure was frustrating.
I expect Sean will evaluate how to proceed on the 356 at the beginning of the coming week, and then we will talk. No promises this time, but I hope to have another entry explaining the plan of attack soon.
