This series of posts will follow the complete restoration of a very cool 1964 Porsche 356C.  The owner of Classic Investments of Englewood, Colorado assigned The Metal Surgeon to undertake the automotive restoration of this Porsche 356C Cabriolet for a client in Chicago.  This Porsche 356 had sat in a barn in the Colorado ski resort town of Winter Park, and hadn’t been driven for some 20 years.

This is the first in a series of posts on the automotive restoration of this 1964 Porsche 356C.  Part Two explains the fender reconstruction process, Part Three covered the front end reconstruction, Part Four described the rebuild of the right-hand front fender and wheel arch, and Part Five covers the difficult restoration of the right-hand rear quarter . Part Six demonstrated how off-the-shelf panels were used to make quick work of the restoration of the engine bay. Part Seven jumped ahead and showed the leading work completed to perfect the gapping at the doors, trunk, and hood.  Part Eight explained how a hand made piece was used to reconstruct the right-hand rear fender of the Porsche.

Now onto how this Porsche looked before any restoration started.  Next we’ll show you a series of photos of the reconstruction of the ‘B’ post, then the inner fender area, and how the wheel well area was rebuilt.

Photos of Porsche 356C before restoration

 

 

 

 

The car was completely original, as it came from the factory, and we matched numbers prior to media blasting.  The shell of the Porsche 356 revealed a whole new story on return from the blasters.  Considering the car had spent its life in the same family, it had suffered a number of crude metal repairs as well as rust decay.

Photos of Porsche 356C after blasting

 

The project began for The Metal Surgeon in the fourth week of September 2011.  Here are a few photos below starting with removing and replacing ‘B’ post panels, left hand ‘rocker’ , and jacking point with new Stoddard replacement panel pressings.

Photos showing ‘B’ post reconstruction on Porsche 356C

 

 

 

 

Photos of jacking point restoration on Porsche

 

 

Onto left hand inner fender panel reconstruction followed by insertion of a Stoddard pressed replacement panel

Inner fender photos

 

 

 

Moving around to the front of the 1964 Porsche 356C, you can see the front needs replacing, especially the right-hand side.  Notice from the photos below, I marked and measured reference points before cutting out the original panel to aid positioning of the new panel.  Peering into the spare tire well there is abundance of damage, maybe from jacking the vehicle up or road debris.  Since this area of the car is important as far as aesthetics and also to the judge’s eye at car shows.  Again, Stoddard provided the after market replacement pressed panels to save on cost.  The front outer sheet metal came in two halves and inner tire well panels in four sections.  After removing the original sheet metal, the new sheet metal was dry fitted ready and then was ready for TIG welding.  Pictures below tell the story:

 

Photos showing wheel well rebuild on Porsche 356C

 

All the work performed above took 75.5 hours.

This is the first in a series of posts on the automotive restoration of this 1964 Porsche 356C.  Part Two explains the fender reconstruction process, Part Three covered the front end reconstruction, Part Four described the rebuild of the right-hand front fender and wheel arch, and Part Five covers the difficult restoration of the right-hand rear quarter . Part Six demonstrated how off-the-shelf panels were used to make quick work of the restoration of the engine bay. Part Seven jumped ahead and showed the leading work completed to perfect the gapping at the doors, trunk, and hood.  Part Eight explained how a hand made piece was used to reconstruct the right-hand rear fender of the Porsche.

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