Barn Finds

[Swiftmotoring]

We have all heard the story about the "old guy with the Porsche out in the country"....I investigated these earlier this week....none are worth saving...escpecially the Target Practice 356...
Enjoy

[Peter Seow]

Most aint worth the money, other than just for parts. If any, you can save the mirror on the last car.

[5String43]

Yeah, but man, wouldja look at the size of the bullet holes in the back of that poor old 356!

[Winter]

sad. . .probably could save a few parts. what's the deal with the red one that's inside?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Winter

sad. . .probably could save a few parts. what's the deal with the red one that's inside?

Cool headlights.

[dhrcr911s]

all three are worth saving, for the right price..

[Bo_66]

I wich O lived in Pinehurst. NC.
All 356a & SWBs are worth saving. The red looks pretty good with intressting wheels.

[Bo_66]

I wich O lived in Pinehurst. NC.
All 356a & SWBs are worth saving. The red looks pretty good with intressting wheels.

[Swiftmotoring]

I would be willing to investigate further for anyone interested.....There are at least 20 VW's on the property.....I don't know much about VW's.....to include 2 early/mid 50's split window VW's....the owner also has original SCHAUB radios for the VW's....

[UrQuattro]

Yeah, seriously. My ex-race teammate when I was racing for Audi in NASA's USTCC when it was very first trying to get started... Well, his day job while I was spending day and night creating a sponsorship package for the factory rep that visited the Audi dealership I worked at was an INCREDIBLE self-taught engineer and fabricator.

We were living on his parents farm at that point, since I couldn't work and do what I needed to do to get the team launched. Anyway, this guy would get various versions of 356s. All variants - speedsters, a, b, c's. You get the drift.

Anyway, they were all stripped down to the bare metal, and the condition that he would get them in was after someone wrapped it around a pole, or decided that they didn't want to wear the brake pads in this particular instance to slow the car, so they used gravity to stop it by spinning in to a ditch.

I could not believe that ANYONE could bring these cars back, let alone this friend of mine.

But I'd watch him sometimes. He'd get the correct sheetmetal and using a really narrow (I think he said it was a 1/2") English wheel, would hand form the body for these cars.

He told me that on the 356s, that the curve which really defined them was the one that, if you were standing and looking at the front of the car, was the one where the metal wrapped over an under the lights, taking a nearly impossible set of compound curves of concave then convex back to concave and would make it all integrate to make the nose of the car where the front bonnett would close on and attach to.

He said it was one of, if not THE most difficult curve in automotive design to create. And this guy did it perfectly by hand with that English wheel.

By the time he was done with the metal, he would then prep it for paint. He would lead all of the gaps to exactly 3mm if I remember correctly.

He was also certified as a master painter by du pont and another manimufacturer that I can't remember.

By the time he was done, these things looked as good or (likely) better than new.

He didn't do anything but the bodywork and the paint. One of the cars that he did ended up winning the concourse d' elegance at pebble beach one year, a white coupe w/ plaidinterior if I am remembering correctly.

Anyway, it may cost a lot to restore these things, but what he did proved to me that if you wanted a car restored, it could be done.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Michael

[wwest]

The way the majority of bullet holes are placed on the 356 it might have been a moonshiners "shine"-running car. The Feds apparently knew EXACTLY where to aim to bring the 356 to a quick stop.

[Matt Monson]

You'd think if it were target practice the grill and the back window on the 356 would be shot up. I'm not convinced that car isn't worth saving...

[Swiftmotoring]

It looks to me like somebody unloaded 2 barrels of buckshot into the 356.....the old guy had no less than 6 finished VW engines on pallets, restored and ready to go....apparently he has a strong following with the sand rail crowd...he also had 2 356 motors with 5sp tansmissionsready to go.....unbeleiveably the pride and joy of his "collection" was a near perfect 1980 Rols Royce Silver Shadow....

[304065]

What are the VINs?

[lindy 911]

Those holes were not caused by buckshot. Looks to me like someone got very irritated with the little motor in that 356 and had had all he (she) could take. Looks like a rifle to me. By the looks of the other set of holes the A/C went out; only if it had A/C.

Lindy

[Jagshund]

356 doesn't look bad. Are the pans shot (no pun intended)?