Seahawk 356 project:

[speeder]

Most here know the story of Paul, (Seahawk), buying the 356 that once belonged to the father of Scott, (YTKNUCKLER). For anyone who missed it, here is the original thread:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/513436-my-dads-356-found.html

I picked up the car for him here in CA. I'm doing some maintenance on it as time allows, in order to get it ready to drive x-country to Paul's place in Maryland. We are not sure yet which of us will drive it home but it will get there soon. Possibly a combination of the both of us. It's a great car and my first real experience with a 356, the original Porsche.

I've naturally gone completely OCD on the subject of these cars and have been quickly acquiring books and literature on them as well as lurking on the 356 registry board. I picked up a cool compendium of old road tests from Car and Driver and Sports Car Illustrated, ( a defunct magazine). It's fascinating to me to see what the auto press had to say at the time on these cars. One test of the *brand-new-at-the-time* 356A in about 1955 mentions that many Porsche people do not like the changes. Back then, most all of the owners were fanatic enthusiasts and their opinions were always noted in any articles. Yes folks, the PWDs of the time were complaining that Porsche had ruined the character of the car with the introduction of the 356A! It's hilarious. With every evolutionary, super-incremental model change, the purists screamed even though the changes were always engineering improvements by any even remotely objective standards.

Anywhoo..., as a lover of all air-cooled cars, (Porsche/VW/Corvair/Borgward/etc.), I'm completely tits over heels in love with this thing. It's unmistakably a Porsche and anyone who has owned an air-cooled 911 will immediately recognize the DNA. It also contains a lot of its original VW ancestry but by the time of this 356B T6, they had been essentially 100% Porsche for 10 years. IOW, no shared VW parts except for certain handles and knobs, etc. It's fun to drive and very economical-great MPG and extremely minimal maintenance if they are restored to new-ish mechanical condition. As for quality of construction and materials, let's just say that barring rust and accidents, these are easily 100 year cars. This particular one is 48 years young and just nicely broken-in for the most part.

I'm going to chronicle the work I'm doing on it in this thread, partly because of the inter-Pelican nature of the project and also because it's easier to post here than write long, picture-filled emails to Paul every other day.

Hopefully some will get vicarious pleasure from it, I'm getting real-world pleasure galore.

[speeder]

As with any older car that is not in perfect, concours-winning condition, there are good and bad things about this car. The good far outweighs the bad, though.

The good:

-Other than battery box, zero rust and as far as I (and others) can tell, no accidents. There may have been a minor front bump at some time, but if so, it was really small. The car is dead straight w/ perfect gaps throughout, just a diamond in the world of driver-quality 356s.

-Nothing has been done to it that kills its value or makes it a tough resto, if desired. This car deserves to be restored, IMO, but it can also be enjoyed as-is w/ mechanical refreshing.

-Engine and transaxle are strong but both need re-sealing for leaks. Clutch is good w/ a receipt for new replacement not too many miles ago.

-It has cool and rare factory options including oil pressure gauge and clock, (haven't seen a picture of another like it), also gas heater and auxiliary air blower. (In-op @ this time). The original Blaupunkt radio is cosmetically near perfect but only AM works. FM and SW are in-op now. It has a period aftermarket door mirror that looks great.

-Tires are good and brakes are recently replaced including wheel cylinders, w/ receipt. That would be an expensive job to do now, six new wheel cylinders @ ~$100 each plus shoes.

-All trim interior/exterior is present and mostly in great shape. Original steering wheel is perfect other than needing refinishing if picky. No cracks. Dash knobs are perfect after being cleaned and polished-up.

The bad: (or just not so good):

-Virtually no meaningful records with exception of the ones mentioned above. Engine was supposedly "gone through" by *who knows who/who knows when* and documentation is non-existent. Engines leaks a lot of oil. This is far from the end of the world but it needs to come out and be re-sealed completely. As mentioned above, it runs great.

-Heater is disconnected and in-op. This is a concern beyond merely comfort, all flaps and sheet metal+rubber engine seals must be in perfect repair on these engines as well as all thermostats, oil cooler, etc. for proper air cooling. This goes for all air-cooled engines. There is a thermostat set-up for engine compartment and carburetor heat that is completely in-op, causing warm air to be directed to top of engine at all times. I am sourcing the parts to rectify this presently. It's not fatal for driving around town in cool weather but going through the desert it would blow. (Pun intended).

-Suspension bushings are all tired, (possibly original)? All torsion bar/swing arm bushings will be replaced, steering box and front spindle will be adjusted for wear and car will get a new alignment. This will be an area where the improvement will be extremely satisfying, as it is on any car that needs it. Shocks are in OK condition but mismatched F/R and cheapo brand(s).

-As mentioned above, the body is beautiful and straight but the pan, while rust-free, has a ton of damage from either being improperly lifted or maybe some off-road excursions at some point(?) A lot of it can be carefully pounded-out from the inside, if not to perfect, at least a lot better that it is.

-Gauges need repair. Clock in-op, speedo waaay off, gas gauge no-worky, oil pressure inaccurate, etc., etc.

[speeder]

Or any other car, for that matter. There must have been 20 lbs. of dirt and old chassis grease on the front suspension/torsion tubes alone.

I'm particular about clean chassis and engine compartments. It makes leak detection possible and was necessary before attacking the brake line and fluid change job I was about to perform.


As previously mentioned, the brake mechanicals are fairly new and in great shape but the lines are old and the fluid was very old and dirty. Not the worst I've ever seen but I've seen a lot. With old rubber brake lines, they can look fine on the outside but be swollen and constricted on the inside. Same with metal lines, they can have gunk or sludge from filthy fluid inside while looking ok outside. In extreme cases, fluid pressure is limited to one or more wheels.

Here is how I attack this. First, I syphon-out the old fluid from reservoir w/ a turkey baster and then open a bleeder or two and tap the pedal to expel those lines. We are going to replace all 4 rubber lines, so system will be essentially drained.

I remove the old brake lines, including front metal lines. All of the metal lines and junction fittings will be flushed w/ Brakecleen and blown-out w/ compressed air. Both to clean them and check for restrictions. The junction fittings are notorious for trapped sludge in old cars, IME.

[YTNUKLR]

Too cool!

That car has had a pretty blessed life, all-in-all. I think it sat on a showroom floor til 1967 at Jack McAfee Porsche (log books with mileage around 180 miles in 1967). Then an anal-retentive owned it in the 70s and painted it, then my dad, who definitely took good care of it, and now you and Paul. I love it! It's not a museum piece but just a good car that has given and should continue to give lots of enjoyment.

Cheers Denis (& Paul)! Looking forward to watching the progress...

[speeder]

Old fluid out:



Like I said, not the dirtiest ever but pretty bad:



This is where the power-washing of under carriage comes into play. You do not want to introduce any dirt or other foreign matter into the brake hydraulic system. I got it pretty clean before starting this job:



When removing or installing brake lines, it is absolutely essential not to twist the metal lines. (Or the new rubber lines, when installing). The correct way to loosen or tighten brake lines is with two wrenches, using the *scissors method*.



Brake hoses are date stamped, the ones on the car were about 12-13 years old. Time to change.



New lines:



Rubber brake lines always have a stripe on them to help you make sure not to twist them on installation:



Have to go beddy-bye, I'll continue this when time allows.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by YTNUKLR

Too cool!

That car has had a pretty blessed life, all-in-all. I think it sat on a showroom floor til 1967 at Jack McAfee Porsche (log books with mileage around 180 miles in 1967). Then an anal-retentive owned it in the 70s and painted it, then my dad, who definitely took good care of it, and now you and Paul. I love it! It's not a museum piece but just a good car that has given and should continue to give lots of enjoyment.

Cheers Denis (& Paul)!

It has cool aftermarket Empi chrome wheels on it that are date-stamped 4/67. They are also stamped 5-1/2x15. These cars came with 4.5 rims. More on that and other stuff tomorrow. Nite-nite!

[Joeaksa]

Brings back memories of a "A" model I helped import back to Germany. Owner just emailed me last month that the car is doing great and that he loved it.

[MattKellett]

Great thread Denis, looking forward to your updates.

I need to get my ass in gear and recommission my Jag for the road - it's been too long and the old girl is sulking in the garage.

[herr_oberst]

subscribing.

[Seahawk]

Me, too

Denis and I met a few years ago and became friends...when I approached him about this effort we decided the best way to make this work would be to do the mechanicals in California before the drive across in late summer.

I thought about bringing the car back on a trailer but quickly disabused myself of that notion.

For those of you that know Denis, his work his simply great. The car could not be in better hands.

[Rick Lee]

Subscribing. Very cool.

[speeder]

Thanks guys. I just really want to share my little Porsche maintenance story here in the fashion that we used to do on the 911 board back in the day. (Maybe they still do)? I haven't been there much in many years since I sold my last air-cooled 911. I will probably link this thread there since it does not have 911 content and I basically live over here now.

Back to the job at hand:

Here is a shot of one of the junction boxes that I referred to. This is where sludge can hide and really screw-up brake proportioning:


I removed the front metal lines, (easy), and disconnected all of the rear connection points to flush them. These are the implements used:



Here is a shot of the front lines, before I removed them. This shows their orientation and the simplicity of the system:



I apologise that some of the pictures are not in perfect chronological order to the job but they were all taken during the same operation. I'm just grabbing them as I think of things.

[speeder]

If anyone viewing this has really sharp 356 eyes, they will notice in the first shot of last post that some pandejo installed that transmission mount "buffer thing" backwards. Yes folks, he put the left one in correctly and the right one inverted. Unless this is some trick thing to do on these cars, (in which case I'll have egg on face), it's pretty amazing. It's almost like he could not remember which way they went and split the difference:


Getting back to the fluid project, this is basically one of the first things that I do to any older vehicle I acquire or work on. The reservoir is usually very dirty unless fluid was changed religiously. (Very rare). This one was dirty but not anywhere near the worst I've seen. I recently did this job on a 1960s Mercedes for a friend, wish I had a picture of that reservoir. Holy schit. Sometimes, a brand new ATE res is available for a reasonable cost and I just replace it if it's horrible. It seems like every car lately has a $200 res, so I've been cleaning them a lot. If they come off easily, I clean them with simple green and scalding hot H2O+ a little scrub brush, then rinse w/ distilled water and dry completely using a heat gun. That part is very important, you must be absolutely certain not to leave a hidden droplet of H2O inside.

On this car, I could not determine how the res came off the MC, so I cleaned it w/ Brakecleen and a tooth brush, upside down over a pan so as not to get any dirt into the MC. It came out well.
Before:


During:



After:




Don't forget the cap and screen, make sure to (carefully) remove the rubber gasket and get everything spic and span:

[speeder]

One of the most beautiful features on these cars is the solid alloy, finned brake drums. I'd go as far as to say, one of the most beautiful features on any car ever made. They were made by Fuchs and were forged, they are known for lasting forever. ********/NLA actually has a limited number of these left, NOS, @ $1350 ea.

Luckily, they are in perfect shape in our case. It is a common myth that drum brakes were insufficient in their time for really stopping a car. Bullschit in this case. They were very advanced with dual leading shoes in front wheels, (each shoe had its own one-way wheel cylinder), plenty of friction area and decent but not great cooling. In racing situations, you would have to loosen the adjuster wheels severely to compensate for the heat expansion of the shoes. You would start your race or track session with the pedal going almost to the floor and it would gradually rise up as things got heated.

Once again, Porsche people needed some real convincing that the new disc brakes introduced on the 356C model were as good as Porsche drum brakes.

The only issue is that after 48 years of dirt, grease and exposure to the elements, they don't look pimping anymore:

[speeder]

Old drum:


The problem is that the outer part of these is slightly porous and really absorbs brake dust and general schmutz from the atmosphere, then gets cooked for decades. I'm imagining that most detail shops would not know how to get these looking new again. Hell, I couldn't figure it out until I remembered the same challenge on my 911SC case when I rebuilt that engine in '02. At the time, I figured out a method that left the experts scratching their heads wondering HTF I got my porous alloy cases cleaner than they were when they were made.

Anyhow, Voila!



Another before shot, just for emphasis. I could tell you guys how I did this but I'd have to kill you all afterwards and that's a lot of traveling.

[speeder]

OK, I used *etching type* mag wheel cleaner that they sell at every FLAPS in the land. It's the one that warns you not to use it on chrome/clear coat/paint/anodised or basically any type of finish other than raw alloy. It's basically acid in a spray bottle. You simply spray it on, scrub w/ stiff bristle brush and then rinse. (Quickly). It will etch your driveway and anything else it touches, so precautionary measure must be taken and lots of rinsing.

[Joeaksa]

Ok Denis,

Kill me. Tell me how you did that as I need to do it to a aircraft engine I am about ready to overhaul!!!

BTW, here is what Paul will look like shortly...

Yes, it is a old 356.

[speeder]

Joe, see post above.

[speeder]

My absolute favorite look in terms of wheels on these cars is the factory painted silver rims over clean alloy drums w/o hub caps. It makes the wheel look like one solid piece. Sort of like this here:

[speeder]

Here's a fuzzy shot of one clean and one dirty drum on the car:


I got so side-tracked on the drums that I almost forgot the last shot of the project, filling the newly cleaned system w/ fresh ATE super blue using a looong, perfectly clean funnel. Then bleed the entire system and away you go!