I was somewhat anxious and a little excited to start assembly of the engine today. I took the better part of the morning cleaning, arranging, and even went so far as to create a playlist for the occasion. Jazz instrumentals seem appropriate. I started assembly, carefully following the guidance of The Maestro books and video. …
I was looking forward to starting my engine build this past weekend. I then thought it best to check everything leading up to assembly one last time. I’ve invested so much energy and money into this project, I can’t bear the thought of a KERBLAMMO because I made a silly mistake. I’m doing this by …
I don’t think I’m too far away from being able to send off the engine tin for powder coating. While powder coat is not historically accurate, it should be much more durable in the engine compartment than regular paint. I think if I get a close color match to original, it ultimately won’t detract from …
It looks like I have finally found a fourth original KPZ wheel with April 1960 date code. Luckily The Samba has a pretty active 356 classifieds section. It took me longer than I expected to piece a set together. I’ll stay on the lookout for another one to use as a spare, but not as …
Give me fire. Give me that which I desire. A small step forward over the weekend. I believe I successfully rebuilt our fuel-pump. Based on our engine number, it appears that the early style which was on the car is correct. Whew. Thanks to an extremely helpful article by Bruce Smith on cleaning Zinc alloy …
I’m assembling a batch of parts to go out for plating. There is a minimum order cost, so best to get it done in as few attempts as possible. Really need to get this done so we can move on with assembly of the engine. There is a lot of debate as to what original …
I guess it is possible that I’m a little obsessive. Perhaps in this case it’s a good thing. Trying to make sure we have all the appropriate fasteners procured before sending them off for plating Every bag contains like fasteners. Marked with the size, thread pitch, length, and across the flat (ATF) wrench size. It …
Made it back to California with the starter. Bosch model EED 0.5/6 L44 and date code is “9Q” which I think translates to Sept 1959. So the date isn’t completely out of bounds. However, looking at the DerWhites Bosch reference There’s no mention of this model starter for a 356. It appears the correct model …
While sorting through a small stash of 356 parts, I was very pleasantly surprised to find two headlamps that appear to be T5 correct. Given we only have two 356, and the T5 headlights are pretty unique, it can’t be coincidence that these are meant for our car. I’d been looking for months to find …
As I had started evaluating our engine electrical components, it appeared our engine was without a voltage regulator. Inspection of photos, and the firewall of the car, seemed to indicate it was missing. Much to my delight, we had two vintage regulators in our stash of parts. It was unclear which was correct for our …
