Making Winter Progress

I had hoped that once the heat of the summer passed I would have more energy to work in the garage. Alternatively, I have had more important priorities and the 356 has taken a back seat for some time. I've had a few hours here and there and as a result have maintained some essence of progress. Unfortunately, it does not look like we will be road worthy for the Gulf Coast Holiday in April. We still plan to attend and volunteer but will have no car to show. Now that I am off for the holidays, I plan to get more accomplished. I tried my hardest the past few days but an unusual freeze has set in. We even had 2" of snow on Christmas Eve. It's now back up in the 50s so progress will resume this week.




I have made a few good finds in my search for replacement parts. Tim in Spokane found my website and saw that I had a number of parts listed. He had a '58 coupe that he was parting out and gave me first requests at what I might need. I was able to pick up all my brakes including drums, backing plates, and hardware. Tim was even nice enough to bag all of the parts and label them as to which wheel they came from. I also picked up from Tim a dash cowl that I will use to repair my dash where it has rusted away under the front windshield from the sitting water. Jim at EASY was able to supply me with accelerator linkages, cable, and clutch cables. This has been a challenge. Since all of it was missing in my car, I really don't know what parts I needed. I think that I have it all at this point. For those just setting out, don't be surprised when something simple can cost a fortune. Remember the first rule of economics comes to mind - prices go up when buyers outnumber supply. It didn't take my MBA education to figure that one out.

My list of missing parts is slowly getting smaller.

In the down time, I have been blasting and painting some of the smaller components. I now have all of the front suspension cleaned and painted. As soon as the link pin seals and wheel bearing seals from Zim's come in, I'll put that assembly together. The steering box has now been rebuilt and installed as well as the tie rods with new tie rod joints from Stoddard.