Very Nice! Congratulations.

The great news is that Shaun will be restoring my 1986 Yugo to this concours level next.

The car looks great. Your plating work is outstanding!
I had a WTF? moment when you told me they were painting it orange. That Terracotta color is great.
I think they made a mistake when they had you add that milky finish to the bumperettes. They don't look right next the bright polished aluminum on the bumper trim. Johnson's restoration guide does say, "bright aluminum replaces the chrome steel" of the pre-55 cars.

Stunning car.

Stunning car! Congrats! I was at the Lit Meet with 6 friends and enjoyed the shop tours again. I've been to all of them a few times now including Wilhoit, Callas, Car Parc, etc. The level of excellence and the money spent on this stuff is next level. I sometimes tune out knowing it all is well above my pay grade.

One of my buddy's has a very nice car collection. A Speedster, a B Roadster being restored, several significant 911's including an early S race car, a 356 C coupe that has roughly 40k in documented original miles, the list goes on. You'd never know he was wealthy. His daily is a Ford Edge.

One thing he struggles with is do you drive a freshly restored car or something with low original miles? If they were wrecked, they would never be the same. He can afford it but.....It can be paralyzing. Hopefully the owner of this Speedster has a ratty one he drives regularly.

Because our friend is OCD.

Known the guy 20+ years and half assed is not in his vocabulary.

This is a serious issue for me. It's worse when you've done the work yourself, at least for me. Writing a check is a lot easier than building a car. I still drive my Speedster, but I'm putting a dual master cylinder in it, updating the brake/turn signals so both lights light up on each side, and adding a 3rd brake light in the grille. Still, I cringe when I'm in traffic and see some idiot not paying attention. It's not so bad with my 911, but I've taken the 356s and the VW down to the last nut and bolt. It really hurts when they get bumped.

I don't know how they came to that conclusion. The research I did indicated that the bumperettes should be bright aluminum. The cloudy finish looks wrong next to the polished bumper trim.

Quick post, thank you everyone for the very kind words, I really appreciate it. Have to meet some deadlines today so more later.

Stunning, Shaun, absolutely stunning, well deserved, very well deserved

They might know something you don't?

That said, they do look very cloudy. How would you even judge such things? Very early Speedsters supposedly had bumperettes which were matte or cloudy. But how cloudy? Could you find a pristine bumperette? For a very very limited production car made seventy years ago? Inquiring minds want to know.

Like what?

"Supposedly" Based on what?
I've never heard anyone claim they were "matte" and only this restorer claims they had that milky looking finish. My Speedster, approximately the 1400th one built, was admittedly an 18 year old '56 model when I got it, but it had shiny bumperettes. I wonder what went on in the Porsche factory's thinking between October 1954 and November 1955 (when my car was built) that made them change.

I would like to know how they came to that conclusion also. Owning an early Speedster, it's not like I haven't looked into it. I have found no evidence that they would have given the bumperttes that milky look from the factory. It is easily achieved by exposing bright anodized aluminum to strong cleaners, but why would the factory do that?

Shaun -

Shared your pics with a few of my buddys who are into cars and guns....

We've all decided that you must move to Florida and get your FFL so we can have you start working on some of our stuff.... :D

I think it is nice that you have found such a rewarding hobby.

Well, the winner of Best Porsche Car at Amelia Island thought so, and the judges did not punish him for that. It seems. Either they don't know what the heck they are doing, or they know something you don't.

This was the....first....production.....Speedster. Perhaps its original bumperettes were not identical to Speedsters built later. Even a month later. I dunno. You and the owner of that car know WAY more than I do. I'm just guessing, but I think the car's owner was not.

The bumperette issue was discussed at length! It was easy to convince the shop that the hardware was cadmium plated vs. zinc having the plater run a spectroscopic analysis. Side note, while everyone thinks 911 hardware was cadmium plated, 99.9% of it was zinc. And for the few people who say none of it was ever cadmium plated because it had been outlawed in Germany in the early 60s, things like fan hubs through '69 were definitely yellow cadmium plated. But that's it and a few other minor things.

One person was dedicated to figuring out the bumpettes and he relied on old pictures as well as personal accounts of the earliest Speedsters.

For me it was just a challenge to get the right tone. Very fun project. Glad all the work paid off for the shop.

I think a more realistic solution is to clone myself Steve and send either him or me down for you all. :)

I recently did some Cerakote work for one of the Singer DLS designers personal car. Would love to do some work for you but definitely not getting an FFL. Now your 356, that I can do a ton of work on it for you.

Ooh, very nice!