Things I Learned From Restoring My Porsche 356

Welcome to the Porsche Club Insider, your one stop for all things Porsche and PCA.

Here's your host, Vue Gwynne and the Insider crew.

I think we have to get an alternative opening that doesn't say Vue Gwynne.

I think.

Believe it or not, Vue's not here today.

Vue is at a town meeting with a partner of PCA, so he would love to have been here, being

a 256 owner, but he got a schedule mixed up and discovered that he would not be here for

the podcast.

So it's me and Damon filling in and shout out to Damon for recording this 12 hours after

we finished doing Tech Tactics Live last night, which was a return after a year and

a half.

This time Damon was at the controls.

He said Robert doing it, but after he left, we were in a kind of a lull and Damon bought

all new equipment, taught himself how to use it, which wasn't the easiest equipment to

hear.

I could hear a lot of phone calls with him in support because, you know, sometimes

things aren't made the way you think they're supposed to be made.

But anyway, I think he did a flawless job of doing this and the live show, there's

a lot of pressure on like the podcast here is recorded, so we can always go back

and edit, but the live, you are obviously live, so you can't make any mistakes or everyone

sees you.

So yeah, shout out to Damon.

He's a wayman in here after a long day yesterday at PCA.

So on this podcast, we have two guests, two PCA members from Chesapeake Region who are

both at Boardwalk Reunion with their truthy sixes and they both drove the truthy sixes

up to New Jersey and David had his freshly restored truthy six and after hearing the story

he told to about 10 different people, I thought, you know what?

It's a pretty good story and probably be nice to share it with our listeners and maybe

I get some lessons learned about restoring your car because Rob, I brought him one

because he has been talking for the past couple of years about either fixing the

problems he has with truthy six or doing a full restoration.

And I always joke that don't get your odometer fixed because if you have a broken odometer

and you have an old car, you send your odometer out and they're going to clean the odometer,

make it look pretty.

You're going to put it back in your dash and it's going to make the other gauges look

terrible.

So you're going to send them out and you're going to get those cleaned and now

you have all your dages look good, but your dash looks terrible.

So then you start working on the interior.

Long story short, you've looked at a full bare paint metal, bare metal recirations

all because you wanted to get your odometer fixed.

We called that the rabbit hole.

Yes.

So does Rob want to go down the rabbit hole or does he just want to get his

doors fixed and keep on living life with the unoriginal color on his car?

So it should be a good podcast for anyone listening.

Not just for truthy six owners, but anyone who's thinking about restoring

their car as well as as maybe doing some work to body work or something

to fix it up that, you know, may take you down the rabbit hole.

So we have David Ducart, Chesapeake region.

He was also the president of the Galwing group, which is the Mercedes Galwing,

which includes now the original with 54 to 56.

So that 56, you know, the 300 SL Galwings, the roadsters, which go into the 60s.

And then we've invited the SLS AMG, modern homage to the 300 SLS to join us as well.

Well, when they join, is there like a separate

that they keep the one end and the no, we try to we try to keep everyone big,

one big happy family for everybody.

That's what we try to do.

It's still a challenge, but we're working on it.

And we have Rob Warbark, who, who inherited it.

I was your dad so alive, though, your dad gave you history for these six.

So you've been a a a Porsche guy really your whole life, I guess.

Yeah, since the mid 70s, dad bought a 64 SC.

That was a super project car.

And I attempted to start doing the restoration on his own.

I remember my one of the earliest memories I have of me being involved

with the Porsches sitting on a paint bucket in the passenger seat of the car

looking at the road go by under my feet as we went down the street.

Because the car was gutted and he had the engine running.

And that was the most important thing.

But he quickly moved on from that, realized it was too much and bought

the current car, the 64 C that I have.

He bought that in 86.

So we've had that in the family for quite some time.

And it's been through a few iterations of engine rebuilds and everything,

but never, never fully restored.

So before we start getting exactly

what qualifies, you got to do restorations on your own cars.

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OK, now we'll get back to you guys' backgrounds.

So, David, tell us your, actually yours is longer.

So we're going to switch to Rob.

You brought a whole biography and notes and

what any podcast host would dream of as a dad for a guest.

So, Rob, you said that they told us how your dad got this car

and then multiple engine rebuilds and then you got it.

But are you a picture of it on the on the screen?

If you're watching on YouTube, it's actually a beautiful car.

And just like any true Porsche owner, you walk up to him

and they will start telling you what's wrong with the car

before you have a chance to even to walk around,

including the fact that it's not the original color.

And I always joke.

I'm like, I would have never known this stuff if somebody hadn't told me

because the car looks really good when you when you first see it.

Are you are you a mechanical person?

Do you work on your own cars?

I am not. In fact, I just put the

an LED kit in the exterior lights of the car.

And I was very proud of that.

Consistency, a screwdriver.

And yeah, that's about it.

But no, I'm not very mechanical inclined.

But I have, you know, done some light work

and this guy's been teaching me to on some stuff

that I've been able to get done on my own.

But for the most part, I rely on the expertise of others.

So I think I think just owning an older car,

just my necessity, you kind of learn how I mean,

when I started doing track driving,

I wasn't very mechanically inclined,

but you learn by being on the track.

Yeah, you've got to learn to change brake pads or change rotors

or your days done.

And you can only rely on the helpful strangers for so long.

So, you know, I could do the basic stuff

at the track by myself really easy.

Engine rebuild at the track, not so much,

but, you know, the basic stuff to keep me going.

Yes. So,

yeah, so you're probably where a lot of people said that

they they want to have this car or they have a bit this car,

but they're probably looking for a shop

or someone else to do to work for them.

Yeah, yeah, the car, like I said,

went through a couple of engine rebuilds

and then it sat for about 15 years in a attached garage

to my dad's house.

And it took about a year to get it back on the road.

Did maybe a partial top end rebuild

and other odds and ends,

but it wasn't really anything close to a full restoration.

But we wanted to get it at least to be a driver

and corrected anything that, you know,

really needed to be done in order to get it to that point.

So and it's been on the road now for two years.

So now what's next?

I see driving everywhere.

So it's it's definitely a reliable car.

When we first met you,

you pointed out that the car was actually a repaint

and it wasn't repainted in the original color.

What was the original color?

The original color was sky blue,

which we learned is a three bucket paint.

So it's not too rare, but it you don't.

You wouldn't see a lot of them,

and I don't think in the 350 says I have.

I've only seen one or two by looking it up,

you know, online.

But the car, my dad purchased it from a dentist.

He's the third. My dad's the third owner.

It was silver when he purchased it.

And I believe the first owner raced the car.

And I think that was probably the impetus for painting it silver.

I'm guessing, but it at some point in its earlier life got changed.

So it's over faster.

I think so. I think so.

The color of the German or maybe the sky blue is not intimidating,

you know, and you wanted something a little bit more,

like you said, dramatic.

Yeah, but not like as I grew up.

The first one was was actually the first car he bought

was sky blue, but was silver as well, which is really weird.

But I'm torn with taking it back to blue

versus leaving it silver just because I've grown up with it being silver.

And that whole car is silver.

I mean, it's not like you open up.

I don't think your door jams are blue or anything.

They did a full, full paint job.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I just carry my, I guess my father's obviously still with us,

but he and he does not care which way we go.

But to me, I feel like if I do paint it blue, then I'll be looking like,

well, what happened to my dad's car?

It's not here anymore, but we'll see the verdict is still out.

But I think everybody in the club is telling me it has to go back to blue.

It has to go back to blue, but I always wonder about

because booze car wasn't black either.

It was I'm forgetting what color.

It's a pretty cool original color, too.

But I always wonder at what point did these colors become boring

and people wanted black or or silver or, you know, there was a

a car that was Irish green in the club for the longest time.

And he shows up and I thought he got a second 9 11 T.

I said, wow, Matt, I'm like, yeah, another one.

It's not the same car, but it was all virgin.

And I said, oh, you change the color.

Well, this is the original color.

It's Irish green wasn't the original color, which but I thought

at some point that means that probably someone got tired of all

virgin and painted Irish green.

Well, I think you have to remember that these were used cars

that people owned and drove.

And, you know, the early cars didn't have the rust protection that it did.

So rust might pop out.

And so that gave the person the opportunity if it wasn't in an accident

or something to go, oh, it's now my car and I might want to choose a different color

because they may have seen so many silvers or so many of the standard colors,

the non four or five bucket paint colors.

And so they they decided to do their own thing.

I've read that with the three fifty six.

You're almost given a pass for changing the color because

it was so common that as long as you do something from that period period,

correct, that you're you're OK, you know, obviously you put chroma flare.

You're going to get frowned upon at the at the meat.

But if it's a color from that era, it's OK.

Where I think with the nine elevens that changes and everyone wants

originality and what not.

But I always thought that was interesting that three fifty six

doesn't seem to be that much.

I don't know that's changed.

Well, I think it depends.

If you're going to like the PCA the parades and you're having your car

judged, they might want to know what it was and they might go from your card acts

and that might be for restoration, you know, they're going to be they're

really going to take a real strong look at what it was.

And the reality is, is that these cars, as I said, have gone through many

iterations of color changes and then maybe someone who's emotional to his

car can get to pick and choose a color that's important to him and or

his father.

I think that's the joy of having these cars and making them your own.

Sure. So your background is a little bit more.

I know you're a little bit more car related.

Well, yeah, I had my first ride in a Porsche three fifty six when my sister

was dating a guy and he had a slate gray red three fifty six.

I remember going up Greenspring Valley Road and that really set something

in place for me as an eight year old.

I bought my first car when I was fifteen and a half because I really

wanted to date girls and didn't know how else to do it.

I didn't want to be in my mother's car.

So I bought a car that had a bad clutch.

Next thing I know I'm working on the car.

I had no idea what I was doing.

There was a box of parts left over afterwards.

The car still ran.

It was British, so I don't think it needed them all anyway.

And then when I kept fiddling with cars, I actually started my own business

and I had another fellow who was a very truly a mechanic.

He was really, really good, a good German mechanic.

And he and I ran a shop for about three years.

So I had that experience working on all flavors of cars.

From Alfa Romeo's to British to whatever.

Love working on the British cars because they broke down so much.

That was a good page.

Then I moved out to California and I was the lead mechanic in the third

largest Alfa Romeo dealership in the country for a while.

That was really a great thing to do.

And then I realized I was never going to make any money as a mechanic.

So that's when I got out of that business and just started to

go back to school and try to enter a different world.

But I've always tinkered with cars.

I've always had cars.

It's always been a fascination.

Is there a say that you went into the finance world?

Eventually, to me, it always strikes me as like

the commercial most interesting man alive that you go from being a mechanic to

that was my that was my eighth career.

So I had built houses, sold houses, you know, I had back in the day,

you did whatever you could to get a keep, keep it going.

So I finally saw that finance was maybe a way to to finance my my fun life.

And so it was actually helped out quite a bit.

So have you obviously you were in the British cars and Porsche?

As long as I've known you, I think you've always had Porsches.

So I bought my first Porsche back in 82 or 83.

And that was a 71911 target.

There is a picture of it up there.

So I took that car from a rust bucket

to that level of restoration.

And it was a total what I'll call it, nut and bolt restoration.

So I touched everything on that car.

The only thing I didn't do on that car was the paint and I did everything else.

That's what I'll use the word because we're using this term today.

Restoration, that's a restoration.

I don't know that I'm restoring cars as much as shops like CPR or

whoever the big shops are who are actually restoring cars.

I think I revitalize them is to kind of utilize that term.

But correct. Yeah, I've had Porsches.

I've had I think 14 Porsches in in my 67 cars that I've owned.

So I'm I'm a Porsche branded guy.

And the reason you're president of the Gullwing Group

is not because I have a Mercedes, but it's because my wife does.

I married well, as I think you've tried to help me out

when I was dating this young lady who said, don't do something.

Don't mess it up. I think it was the terminology that you did.

So yes, I married a 300 SL and a beautiful woman to boot.

And that's the reason I'm the president.

But being president of the Chesapeake region back in the in the 2000,

16s or so, that helped me out to do that.

So it's really fun to do it.

Yeah, it's

and I when I met you, I didn't had no idea that you had the background

of being an off-road mechanic.

And that when I could hear finance, you know, taking more

of this guy could never have had a path that would have been an answer.

Yeah, exactly.

That was really fascinating when you told me that.

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And I was actually on there trying to make up a travel kit.

Because when we went down to a luster cult, I blindly I took some tools,

but I realized I don't really have a whole lot of spare parts.

So I never, you know, I only take the car to cars and coffee or tours.

It's within that triple A 200 mile radius.

And and so when I didn't think I was taking a car to a loft,

I didn't really plan that far ahead.

And then the night before I find out that it's fixed and I can take it.

I started going through all the auto Atlanta and some other sites

thinking I should too late, but I really should have like a travel kit.

I don't know if you have one, you know, like I thought the distributor

cap points, a spark plug and then the ignition wire.

It's just something that if you break down that belt, you know, the other points.

If you have points, if you have those parts, fan belts, they're very, very important.

They have, especially on the air cooled cars, because if you're down,

you might find it in an APO, but I doubt it.

So yeah, or at least if you're in the side of the road and you got the tools,

you can hopefully at least get it fixed or you can limp to been there.

Done that in the middle of Texas.

So I lost points in a car.

So get it completely.

Have a travel kit.

And that was the problem with my car was the points were bad, but the mechanic

and the Gennady and myself are both looking at it without our reading glasses.

And we didn't notice that the actual contacts of the points were gone on one side.

And so not, I had a bigger gap than I thought.

So the reason we're here for the podcast is to hear about what you learn

from restoring your three, five, six, and I'm sure everyone, like I said,

who's listening, who has to have a car that they're thinking about restoring

and want to buy a car to restore and what's involved.

And how did you end up wanting to restore?

So tell us first how you got this car.

So, yeah, let's start there.

So back in August of 24, there was a car that, you know,

sometimes I find cars and sometimes cars find me.

And this is a car that found me.

It was advertised on the PCA Mart.

It was advertised on the 356 registry.

And I sort of followed this car a little bit, and it was really intriguing

because it looked like to be a really fabulous car.

And if you want to put that up, that'd be great.

So here's the picture of the car I fell in love with.

And from this picture, it looks like, wow.

I mean, it really looks fantastic.

So this car was owned by a PCA member.

He'd bought it from California.

It was a number matching 356 SC, all California car.

This is part of the sales pitch that came to me with the car.

It was the shop that owned it in California that sold it to him.

And, you know, this is a little bit for when we're buying cars

and looking at cars, you know, it is the buyer beware.

You're going to take a look at this.

And if you saw that car and you saw this description,

you're like, wow.

So I truly was not looking to restore, revitalize,

or anything, a car.

I was looking to buy a number two car because I've

had all those experiences through my life

and I just wanted to enjoy a car.

So I had bought this car thinking, wow,

it's really going to be the end I'll be on.

I'll just be able to drive it on at any show.

And I'll just be able to have fun with it.

And I don't have to worry about it.

Did they advertise it as a number two?

They didn't.

But, you know, I think in my mind, I wanted it to be,

I wanted to buy a number two at number three prices.

And I bought a number three at a number three price.

So what I was listening, number two is number one

is like the best of the best of that model.

That's less than maybe, maybe 1%, maybe less in the world

are really true number ones.

Number two's are incredible cars.

And they're usually not daily drivers.

They're also, will win any concor, very impressive cars.

Three is what most of us want or hope.

And you talk to most people and they

think they have a number two.

But you notice more like a three or a four.

So we've had Bob Miller on the show before.

He's got spectacular cars.

He finds very original cars.

And that's not what I have.

So, you know, the non-original number,

high number twos or number ones, they're very pricey.

I recommend if you're buying a car to put in a collection,

buy the best car you possibly can so that you don't

have to go through what I did.

But anyway, so anyway, the car unveiled itself to me

as I started to look at it.

I'm a tinkerer.

I'm a person who likes to make things better.

So as I started to look at things,

I didn't want to find things wrong.

But this wasn't right.

That wasn't right.

This wasn't right.

And so I started on this journey of correcting things.

And a lot of cars, especially this vintage,

have just deferred or neglected maintenance.

So, you know, interestingly,

you get underneath the car and it has heater boxes.

You pull a cable.

So the cable had broken and they used cotter pins,

which is a unique way that we used to do it in the old days

when you didn't buy a new part.

But there was a lot of unorthodox parts on the car

or just things that I sort of expected

in a car of this level.

But, you know, the seller didn't sell anything to me

that I didn't know about.

He was very clear and wide open about everything.

I had a hope and an expectation that it was something.

But the more I looked into it,

the more I'm like, eh, I got into the rabbit hole deep.

I got into the rabbit hole really deep

because I keep fixing that and that looked good

and the next thing didn't.

And just as you said.

How long after you bought it did you say,

this is gonna require restoration?

Not just fixing a couple of things that aren't worrying.

You know, again, you use the word restoration.

And I think I decided to do-

When you're taking glass out of the car,

that's to mean restoration.

The guys out there who do this professionally,

they're the restores.

I'm not doing it professionally anymore.

So I really caught the revitalization.

But I just started buying one part.

I got to be friends with the 356 registry folks.

I got to find out the autoatlantas in the world.

I've got their AMFM period, correct radio.

I've got their gear shift lock.

Yes, that works.

I got that from them.

So I started finding out that there were parts available.

So I would spend time when my wife would go to bed

because she's a doctor, goes to bed early

and I'm on the TV, I'm on the screen

and I'm looking at the wish list of parts

and all of a sudden I just start buying parts

and I'm replacing parts.

And I think that's part of the process in what I do.

It's, do you repair, refurbish or replace parts?

You take a look at a car like Rob's car

and it's very original.

Maybe a paint color change,

but most of the parts are original.

And so when you take a look at a part,

you think to yourself, do you repair it?

Does that repair mean that you're gonna refurbish it?

There's a picture of some horns that I have on the car.

So as I was putting this car back together,

I looked at these horns that I had on my car

and they were rusted and you couldn't,

they didn't have the symbols on them.

And then I decided I was gonna really just refurbish it.

Could have bought new ones,

but I think the real thing for us,

the guys who have the old cars

and of course Rob's very emotionally attached to his,

I'm not as much,

but to refurbish an old part and keep that part working,

that's really joyful.

I mean, it really is the clocks in the cars, et cetera.

So I went down this journey.

I did not want to get the car painted.

I don't like body shops experiences.

My body shop experience has been horrible.

And so I looked for probably half a year

about after I got all the mechanical things

really kind of up to a higher level

to finally say I'm gonna paint that car

because everybody said, why would you do that?

And I said, well, this and that.

And so, you know.

And there wasn't a rust or was there rust left there?

There was some minor rust,

very, very minor rust in the car.

Here's a great picture of the car,

of why I bought this car

because it checks so many boxes.

The under's carriage, it was perfect.

Next picture, yeah.

So you can see what they did to prepare this car.

So when I did go back to that point,

the why I bought this car was

it checks so many great boxes.

It had great bones.

That's a battery box to die for right there.

That's original?

That's been replaced, which is fine

because that's what happened.

They all rust out.

So, you know, I went through that.

I tried to update all those things.

I finally got back to the point

where I looked at the paint and I said,

ah, rabbit hole, here I come.

So I went out and talked to several different paint shops

and I got a quotes from anywhere

from 10 to $50,000.

And that is just very discouraging to me

because in my mind, remember,

I thought about a number two.

And in fact, I was gonna now have to make this decision

to take the car off the road, dismantle it.

I don't like body shops

because it's always more expensive and more time.

When I finally found the body shop that I went to,

first thing I said to him, hi, I'm David Ducart.

I hate body shops.

You know, what a great way to start a relationship.

But we really did have a great relationship

and a shout out to Matt Pratt,

who a top coat up in Hampstead painted this car.

And I think he and his team just did an awesome job.

And you can see the work that they've done.

And he painted it.

Did he paint it in 256 before?

He had a 356 in his building.

Mine was, I believe, the first.

There were lots of Porsches and 911s and Lamborghinis

and a lot of other exotic metal up there.

But he did have a process,

a little bit of a learning process on my car.

And it really turned out fantastic.

Well, it would be different.

You hear people saying, well, I just want a Porsche guy.

I don't want anybody else to touch the car.

But I always say sometimes mechanic is a mechanic.

And you don't have to be a Porsche mechanic

to set a points.

If you know how to set points,

then you can probably set them on a Porsche.

So I think when you go back to this vintage,

you know, I'm a control guy.

So I took the car apart.

I was going to take the car and put the car back together.

It's, I think a lot of the shops these days,

the young guys and Matt's team is one of those teams,

very efficient, very diligent and what have you.

But they don't know the details on that car.

They don't have that.

So that's why I wouldn't ask them

to put the car back together

because I'm going to spend extra time.

I didn't just put the horns back on.

I rebuilt them.

I didn't just put the lights back on.

Maybe I did replace them.

So I went through all of that process

and made those decisions of, you know,

does this part match up to the rest of the car

and go through that process?

You know, there's folks, I think,

down on the Eastern Shore CPR,

they, you know, live, eat and breathe this stuff.

And they'll probably come to my car

and say, well, you didn't do that, right?

It's not the right finish.

So I think when you choose the body shops

of where you're going to go,

you like to have the experience.

You like to see other cars in the shop

because you want to know what the outcome is going to be.

So, you know, it's been a,

it's been a really, really good experience.

Matt and his team have, you know,

put a little bit of joy in my life by having this car

painted this color.

He was very exuberant about having a color change

on the car.

And as you well know, my card X color is ivory.

The car was painted that signal red.

And what I really decided to do

is choose a color that I really liked,

which is Ruby because I'm not going to put it

in that high end concor.

And if somebody really doesn't like my color,

well, that's their fault, not mine.

So I don't really need their opinion,

but thanks very much.

But you know, the bottom line is it's been really

getting towards the end of the revitalization of the car.

And you see the, some of the parts working,

like everything in that car works.

I've got a key for the glove box.

I got a key for the, for the gear shift lock.

I've got the radio, the clock works.

And I've reached out to so many folks that we know,

like the folks at GT Performance at Canadi.

He did the lock for me.

All to Atlanta, I got parts from them.

I got parts from Sierra Madre.

I got parts from Stoddard.

And of course, the way that I really learned more

about Sierra Madre is I was fortunate enough

to be invited to come to Works Reunion in 2024,

five minutes after I bought the car.

You guys let me in.

There was a Sierra Madre.

That was a shout out to Ron Gordon.

Ron Gordon.

Finding long space to park you.

Parked my car.

I mean, just snuck me in at the last minute.

Don't ask him to do that, please.

Cause that was a, I paid him a lot of money

to do that.

But you know, so then I started a relationship

with Sierra Madre.

And I think that's, if you're in the process

of repairing, refurbishing, replacing parts,

is that to get the folks who are going to be able

to supply those parts is really incredible.

The one other thing, and again,

I've got several books here.

So Rob's kind of averse to being the mechanical,

doing the mechanical thing,

but I think he's diving into it.

There's so many books out there

that you can just read about these cars,

how to buy them.

The 356 registry is unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

And the forum.

And I always tell people, you don't have to choose

between PCA and the registry.

You can actually belong to both.

You can belong to both.

It's not, yeah.

You're welcome in both, both corners.

Exactly.

But you know, one of the things

about doing this revitalization, as I call it,

and you'll see this red folder here,

I'm not going to open it up.

But inside this red folder,

the key thing that I wanted to do

was to document everything.

And I think when you buy a car,

if you're looking out there in the world to buy a car,

if you can't buy the best car you possibly can,

so you don't have to have a folder like this,

but you really like to see where the history has been.

Has the owner really taken great care of this car?

What things have been neglected?

Much to my wife's chagrin,

we're potentially looking at a 356 this weekend

that she didn't know about.

And even though I told her very clearly,

I said, do not let me do this again,

because I'm to a point in my life at my age,

I want to enjoy the cars

and not maybe work on them so much

because it is a bit of a distraction.

But yes, we're going to go look at another one.

And now, unfortunately,

I've become a bit of an expert on these cars

because I know what fits and what doesn't fit.

I know who to talk to about this, that or the other.

Even on a car that I was looking to buy

prior to this one, I sent the VIN numbers,

pictures of the VIN numbers

to the past president of the 356 registry

and those guys are rabid fans of these cars.

Go on to bring a trailer any time, pick up any 356

and you'll see all of their notes.

And you have to go to that proctology exam

when you put a car on, bring a trailer

and these guys come out of the woodwork

and that's right, this is wrong,

that's right, and this is wrong.

And it's very helpful.

And the car that I had sent to them

that I really wanted to buy, a 65356 SC cab,

they said run away from it

because it's either been wrecked or stolen

or blah, blah, blah,

because that number wasn't correct.

So I think due diligence really matters

if you're out there looking at a car,

buy the best car you possibly can,

find out if you really want to do

the so-called revitalization that I did.

As I've been kind of coaching Rob,

it's your car, nobody can tell you what to do about it.

Do it as you see fit that it makes the most sense to you.

Put a plan together if you care to start saying,

okay, well, what are the most important things

I need to do and how do I start putting a list together

and figure it's gonna cost you,

take you more time and more money than you wanna spend

unless you buy that car initially.

So at the time part,

I always tell people who are,

I've told this to Rob,

and Rob bought a Cayenne,

so at least he has another Porsche in the family.

That starts every time he gets into it.

But I said,

because I restored 80% of 914 years ago,

but what happened, and this happened,

so a lot of people were storing cars,

is you hit a two-year mark, three-year mark,

and you haven't driven the car in that time.

It's been sitting,

hopefully you're working on it little by little like I was,

but you kind of forget what it's like to drive

and you fall out of love with the car.

And I tell people,

be careful because if you don't get to drive the car

and enjoy it,

and you buy it right away and start restoring it,

if you're doing a full-blown,

nut and bolt restoration,

that's a lot to ask to wait that long

and to go through all that

and not being able to drive it.

Did you give yourself a timeline

when you were doing all this,

like I wouldn't have it done by such time?

Well, the answer is yes.

It was the boardwalk reunion.

How was your goal?

That was my goal,

and I had it done a day before that.

No kidding.

And the car had been sitting for a while.

Maybe I mentioned this to you.

One of the things,

if you have an old 356,

maybe you tried this, please don't.

I used starting fluid to start the car.

I was by myself in the garage

and next thing I knew it was on fire.

Very quickly I put it out, obviously,

because there was no fuel there.

The freshly painted car is on fire?

No, no, no, that's right.

It was a little bit like, ah!

But anyway, it was just the starting fluid,

which of course, these cars backfire when they're leaning.

But anyway, I had that timeline

that I wanted to get it done by then,

and it really pushed me to do it.

But I think when you buy one of these cars,

I was unsuspectingly gonna do, to revitalize it.

Then I really got into it

and I didn't have a formal plan per se

because things just kept growing.

That rabbit hole, I just kept going down,

oh, I gotta fix that, I gotta fix this.

But I think that the bottom line is,

if you're thinking about doing this,

whether you're at Rob's mechanical skill

and you're gonna get somebody else

and pay somebody else to do it,

figure what your time is,

figure out what your money is, and stick to it.

On my side of the fence, since I am retired,

I've got time and so I did wanna do everything

that I wanted to do to my level.

But I agree with you, if the car sits too long,

I fell out of love with this car.

I totally fell out of love with it

and now I'm starting to get that back.

And I guess like Rob,

so you have, so you're not gonna be doing it yourself,

then now you gotta manage the shop,

be it the mechanical or the-

I don't have him do most of it.

You can do your general contract.

Yeah, well, he's done the legwork

on finding the right paint guy

and that's the difference, right?

He talked about taking everything out himself,

the gauges, the windows.

I'd obviously be paying someone to do that

or just showing up in his driveway and you know.

But I mean, let me just share a thought with you.

So many years ago, I did a cosmetic restoration

on a 1976 911 Targa.

Car was a great shape, California car,

friend of mine owned it,

and I did a cosmetic restoration on it.

I did a 10 article issues for the pattern at the time.

In the title of that, those articles,

what drives you, fear or passion?

And so, you know, Rob doesn't know about the car,

so that fear might hold him back from doing things.

And my suggestion is, no, let it be your passion.

The parts can be bought, a person built it,

we can rebuild it, whatever that is.

I've learned a lot.

I had many fallbacks on this car

and I had to learn something again

because I wasn't the expert on how to do that.

But I am now because I've done it five times on my own car.

So what advice would you give, are you advising Rob?

So Rob has, his doors are rusted.

Yes.

But to me, it looks like the rest of the car is fine.

Not maybe to the level of your car, but a good driver.

Are you telling him to get a full repaint

or just fix the doors and keep on driving?

Well, I like spending other people's money.

That's pretty easy.

As I said, I wanna get his shirt made.

It says I'm not collecting opinions today

because a lot of people wanna come up

and they wanna sort of tell you what you could,

what it should do, or that's right or that's wrong.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anyway, I think Rob has a different connection

with his car, which I think is really, really cool.

At the 70th anniversary at Hunt Valley,

Porsche had a chance to meet his parents,

his father, his mother and his daughter.

And it was just neat to hear that story.

So he has this emotional attachment to this car.

What color do I choose?

That's a major decision for him.

If I painted the car blue,

if I painted my car red, it doesn't matter.

My suggestion to him, because he comes from it

from a totally different perspective,

it's a very emotional one and it feeds him,

which is really, really cool.

So I would say, first of all,

think if you're going to do some work to the car,

think about your budget first.

Think about really what your ultimate goal is

and let that be your driving force.

If the car has some structural or mechanical issues

that are gonna stop you from driving the car,

fix them first.

That's what I did with mine.

You'll see, I redid the brakes on my car

that had rusted calipers on it.

So I went through those things.

And I think Rob has really tried to do that

because his car has been sitting for a while

and he took it to a shop and basically said,

fix it, get it up and running.

And had the right to check to get that done.

So where he wants to go or where someone else wants to go,

I think you have to determine

what's the most important thing.

I think keeping it in the family,

much like my wife's car, a family car,

it's been handed down, it'll continue to be handed down.

That's really cool, keeping them to that original way

that you knew the car as he said his car is silver.

And that's a personal choice.

However deep he wants to get is really determined upon,

again, the time issue because if you give this car over

to a car shop and it's a lot of metal work

that might need to be done, oh, and by the way,

once we start poking, there's that thing

that needs to be done and this thing, the old rabbit hole.

So I think the process is set a budget,

set a timeframe, the same things you were talking about

and make the determination what you want the car to be.

If you want it to be a number one car show,

to compete against guys like Bob Miller,

you're gonna spend a lot of time and a lot of money.

Do you really wanna do that

or do you just wanna enjoy the car?

So I think it's to each his own in this process.

I'm a little bit OCD in the world

and so one thing begets the other

and I continue to fix that, make that change,

do this, do whatever.

And that's just a personality issue.

So I think there's many ways he can attack his issues

whether it's just replacing a door, replacing the bottom.

There's ways to go around it to kind of save dollars

in the process.

But I think ultimately you gotta think about

what do I really want this car to be?

So when I bought my car, again, a lot of people

are in the mode to these days of buying and selling cars

and doing that thing called flipping.

I'm not that person.

But at the same time, being the investment guy,

I don't wanna go down, I don't wanna have a car

that's going to go backwards on me in a big way.

Whether my car will or won't,

that's to be determined in the future.

So I've got a lot more money in the car

than I ever thought I would.

I do, I really do.

But that's my personality and I fed it.

But I suggest him to go through that.

The one benefit for him to maybe go a little bit

deeper than he is, his purchase cost is really great.

I had a higher purchase cost.

So that was my first hurdle.

And I think as I said, it's fun to look at a car

like his to go through it to see what is original,

what's not.

I mean, I had my head underneath the dashboard

the other day and I saw the flasher

and it was the original flasher

and I was excited to see that.

And then I look at the radio

and I see that the bracket's wrong.

It was wrong on mine.

And I'm like, that's a $10 item.

But how far do you wanna do these things?

And I was joking with Rob.

Up until that point you probably didn't realize

he didn't realize.

I had no idea.

But I did get a text from him, maybe that night saying,

I can put a list together of stuff

that I think you need to get.

Okay.

I'd be happy to do that for you.

And you offer that service at any car that calls me.

Well, I give unsolicited advice to anybody.

If you don't like my advice,

if I come up with you and I start giving you

unsolicited advice, my safety word is

I gotta go to church.

You can just say I gotta go to church

and that means you're not talking to me anymore.

I completely get it.

We always talk about that.

I always happen to car to the coffee.

There's certain people that we weren't talking about you know,

but there's other people that will come up

and tell you everything that's wrong with your car.

Unsolicited.

And like people, they'll say,

I thought I had a nice car until about five minutes ago,

but apparently I got a piece of crap

because nothing's original anymore.

Don't listen to those folks.

They're projecting and they're just telling you

what they know, whether you like it or not.

I am guilty of doing that as well.

But one of the things about the revitalization

of my car and putting the right radio bracket on,

you know, it's the things that people don't see.

So if you take the door panels off my car,

you'll see the extra attention to sound deadening.

You'll see it on the floorboards.

You'll see all those things that the extra things

that I did a lot of things to that car

that people don't see.

I love my wife very much.

She has this old car.

She had these things called Rudge Wheels.

I took them off, cleaned them off

and I painted them the original color.

And my wife, you know, she's like,

why would you do that?

Why would you spend the time to do that?

No one will see them.

And my wife's a surgeon.

I said, do you ever do an internal stitch?

And she says, yes.

I go, why do you do that?

Nobody'll see it.

Thank God you didn't work for the medical field.

That's right.

So again, you know, in trying to get the car

to my high level, that's my choice.

And Rob's gonna choose his level.

He's not gonna listen to anybody else

but his family himself.

And the key thing is to have joy while you're doing this.

And if it doesn't become joyful,

do something else, pick up another hobby.

Well, that's been very interesting.

I had, I listened to parts of your presentation

at the parking lot at Boardwalk Reunion

that you were telling people that wanted to listen

about how you brought the car to what it was.

But now it's even more interesting here

directly from you, what you did to the car

because when you showed up at Warsaw Union

telling me you just bought this car,

I remember people crowded around the car

when you parked it and it looked like a great number two.

So I had some 356 guys, there was three or four of them.

I said, hey, come take a look at my car.

I just bought it and they did exactly what you just did.

You know, the car color was white.

You know, they went through this whole litany

like I'm doing with Rob,

just out of the goodness of their heart.

They weren't trying to be mean in any way, shape or form,

but they were giving me that information

and that was where I really started to think,

what am I gonna do with this car?

Am I going to make it bigger, better, greater

because it had lacking of certain things.

And that's when I got, that's when I made the decision.

I don't think it's limited to the 56

because when I was at Lufthansa,

a guy who I'd never met before came up to me

and he goes, I just wanna let you know

that your hockey pucks, your side markers are backwards.

And I go, really?

He goes, yeah, she got them left and right.

You gotta, they go to L.O.A.

And that's good information.

Like I did not realize that,

but at least I've had them like that for 30 years

and just never realized that,

never looked at another 914 to see,

and do I have them right or right?

Cause when I put them on it didn't even occur to me

that maybe I'm doing it the wrong way.

Well, but that's it.

The same thing that I learned about my car.

So I did learn towards the end of working on my own car

and this was one of the downfalls of doing your own work.

It seemed if I had a 50-50 option

of one way or the other way,

I was 100% wrong most of the time.

I mean, I was just, it was just,

I'm like, I can't believe it.

So a little bit of, I'll tell a quick story on myself.

So I put the cables back up for the speedometer

and the tachometer, they sit next to each other.

I remember I took everything out

so I was putting everything back in

and I'm getting ready to start the car

and I put the cables up and I was at a 50-50 chance.

50-50 and they were somewhat close

and I felt like I didn't even have to think about it.

Anyways, I'm starting trying to start the car this

but I'm gonna needle, needle's moving.

And I'm like, I'm not moving.

And I'm like, ah!

So, you know, those are the trials and tribulations,

I think of working on your own car.

I wasn't an expert on a 356.

I have some mechanical knowledge.

I think if you trust yourself a little bit

and realize it's not the end of the world

if you do something crazy like that

and it can be easily fixed

that you'll have a lot more fun

and you don't need to see a therapist

about the craziness that you might have in your mind

which is what I do.

But luckily you have a very understanding wife

who's also into cars so...

She's into a car but she accommodates me in my car.

Well, she comes with you to all the PCA stuff.

She does, she comes to most of the things

that you know, so I was very fortunate.

That's one of the things by the way

that got me to meet her

because when before we knew each other

somebody wanted me to meet her

and I said have her Google me

and she saw that I was into Porsches

and then she got into this whole conversation

do you like other cars and what have you.

Did you really say Google me?

I absolutely positively said Google me.

I said have her Google me.

I know it's rude but I was almost 60

and I swore off women I was really done.

Anyway, so I said to Google me

she saw the PCA connection.

She asked me if I liked other cars.

I said, she said her father had a car

and I said, what does he have?

And he has a 300 SL and I said after I meet you

can I meet your father?

You know, I mean, I thought that was appropriate

which her father called me on one time.

Did you know I had a 300 SL before you married my wife

and I'm like, yes sir, I did, you know, guilty.

But also I told her I could work on that car

and my wife has a wonderful sense of humor.

She said that's one reason you're still in the running.

Wow.

She's very straightforward.

I thought she wanted this but she really likes this.

He gets a certain age and that's gonna go away.

Yeah.

Hands is dollars, you know.

But you know, one of the questions you asked earlier on

about where do I kind of gauge myself as a mechanic,

I used to be really good.

So again, remember I told you

that 50-50 options weren't always really good.

So recently I was working on a part

and I've got a toolbox and I've got my mindset

on everything I'm trying to repair

and I'm saying this to you,

once you get the tools and the place to work on cars

don't be afraid to do it.

And I'm out there working on a piece and now I need help.

I usually work by myself and I was frustrated

because I'm looking at this part

and this is why I'm saying you get over these things

and I asked my wife to come out just to hold something.

She's a surgeon, she's bright.

She comes out and within three minutes

she fixes the thing that I've been fussing over

for an hour.

So you know, I had a little humility

and I'm like, this is good.

We're a team, not, you know, she's better than me

or I can't believe how stupid I am.

But nonetheless, you know, you're learning in this process.

So I used to be better, I'm kind of tailing off

but it's still fun to get out there

and have fun with the cars.

Well, that's why we're doing it.

Yeah, have fun.

That's what we're doing.

Good stuff.

So let's be sure to head over to www.pca.org

to sign up for PCA's newsletters,

performance news, e-brake news and Mark Fresh all free.

Let's go to www.pca.org

and you'll see how to sign up for the newsletters.

Let's move to Porsche news.

First thing up is the, you guys hear that Porsche

filed a patent for a tri-turbo 18-cylinder engine

where they have three banks.

I think Damon has it up on the screen.

They share one crankshaft, but three individual banks

and six cylinders each.

Well, didn't they have a, didn't they put a W?

So the Bugatti.

The Bugatti engine.

Yeah, I think it's a, this is a unique design

for when I was reading and different than the Bugatti

but I don't believe they've actually built one of these.

It's just a patent, a following and a concept

but I don't know what to put it in

but it's pretty cool.

It is pretty cool.

And you look how really the lower design,

the lower level of that engine too,

they could probably put it in.

And all I could think of was,

especially after we did Tech Tactics Live with the Cayenne

and everything that can go wrong.

Cause once again, you're hearing every,

the worst of the worst, you know, they can go wrong.

All I thought was, wow,

what's the maintenance costs from something like that?

Maybe it's going into another tractor.

Right?

No.

Once the EVs take over, that may be it.

The other one, I'll let Damon here since he edited the article,

the 2026 McConn and GTS EV was released.

Yeah, so McConn GTS,

we all knew that it was coming at some point

as Porsche always saves the GTS,

I feel like for last, you know,

after the turbo, after the turbo S

or I guess not turbo S in this case,

but here it is.

It's the most sporty version of the McConn electric.

And what you're getting is the same pulse inverter

in the rear 900 amp pulse inverter of the McCon turbo.

You get the same front motor and the same rear motor.

And that actually makes me wonder

why it's only 563 horsepower or not turbo horsepower.

And if you'll be able to get a little bit more out of it.

So we haven't got an answer yet.

Yeah, well, I did, but the spokesperson

did not answer my question directly twice,

but did confirm that it's the same pulse inverter

and the same motor front and rear.

So it's like a turbo in the sky.

Detuned a little bit, yeah.

But detuned, so why did they detune it

and can you open up that detune to get the power back?

You know, here's another thing

or something to think about is I wonder if,

I'm gonna scroll down for those on YouTube,

looks like I've had the article not in the right place,

but it has a track endurance mode.

So I'm wondering if the trade-off of the turbo

versus the McCon GTS, and I'm sure it's just, you know,

hierarchy, but a little bit lower horsepower,

but you can use it for longer.

So apparently if you're gonna be on

using your McCon GTS electric on track,

it should keep its 509 continuous horsepower

for longer than most EVs, because it cools the battery

and preps the whole car for, you know,

long sessions of track driving.

How many people do they think are going

to take a McCon EV to the track?

Not as a, like we did the Porsche driving experience

where we got to drive them on the track, but.

Yeah, I'm not sure, but I can,

I'm pretty sure the way I drive a back road, you know,

if you give me a whole day.

Yeah, I think you would need track mode

or track endurance mode to keep that power up the whole time.

So, but yeah, very, very cool electric SUV

and, you know, if I were in the market

for one of these new McCon's, Money No Object,

it would probably be the GTS.

Yeah, that's the one of all the nice features always

in the nicer interior without the turbo price.

Let's see, PCA events.

We have our final event of the year

for a national coming up, Unstock,

which is going to be at Porsche Santa Clarita

out in California on November 16th.

As of this recording, registration is still open.

We have about 20 spots, but by the time you hear this,

which is going to be two weeks later, it may be filled up.

If it is filled up, you can still come out and hang out.

There's a ton of parking there.

We're going to have some Porsche only parking

for people who aren't in the show.

If you've never been there,

you really got to see this dealership.

It's very impressive.

They have what's called the underground,

which is like their own museum,

and it is filled with interesting cars.

And on the showroom floor,

you've probably seen pictures of this,

they have a glass floor that you can look down

into the museum.

It's very impressive.

And the showroom floor was filled with ST, GT3 RSs,

turbos, and a whole bevy of different colors.

I was maybe wish I won the lottery.

First place I would go to to buy a car.

I can't eat a purchase when you're out there, right?

We have any PCA video updates or anything?

No, right now, videos,

preparing for Tech Tactics Live

took quite the number on my video output.

So my apologies on that.

But you can watch Tech Tactics Live,

which the majority of people watch it

after we record it on the PCA YouTube channel.

Exactly.

And I should say that I know what's coming up.

I did a review of a base 2021 Macan,

and I also reviewed my own V6 Kyan, a 2005 model.

It's a little bit more of a unique review.

And I'll put the camera on me actually right now.

Let's see if this works here.

But yeah, it's a pretty realistic review

because it's 174,000 mile Kyan and it's nice,

but it's got the common problems sort of thing,

the ones you want to watch out for.

So that should be good.

And I have a couple ideas of cars I'd like to review here

in the local area and also when I'm out in California.

Yeah, we'll probably do a walk around that in stock too

to show you the cool cars,

which I've been looking at registration there

is quite a few cool cars coming to this event.

So look out for that.

Well, that's what plug PCA SimRacing,

which you can also go to the YouTube channel

and they have a whole list of live events

that we're showing that you can also watch

after they've been recorded.

And you can go to PCA SimRacing.com

if you have any questions or you want to give it a try.

It's a lot cheaper than doing real racing.

I can, depending on your rigs.

So we were having dinner last night

talking about the SimRacing and how the rigs

can get really expensive if you start to get really into,

but you just want to get in, start getting into,

it's not too bad.

If you want some PCA Insider merchandise,

go to PCAwebsore.org

and you can go to the PCA Insider part

we have mugs, bottles.

And if you want one of the PCA Insider decals,

which fit inside or outside of your car,

send your address and your mailing information

to podcast at PCA.org

and we'll mail it out to you for your charge.

Anything else Damon?

No, I'm pretty sure that's good.

You know, when the trance are over to the podcast set up

today, I forgot to load a few graphics,

but I think I got the decals and the Web Store thing in.

Well, if you're still listening at the end,

we'll maybe put it back in for you in the final edit.

Gentlemen, it's been very enlightening.

I don't know if Rob has decided yet

what he's going to do with this car,

but evidently he knows where you live.

Right.

So he can come by your house and...

The pictures that him working on the car

was in my garage.

There you go.

He already does know where I live.

It's like having a vote does.

It's better if you have a friend with a vote.

So you don't have a lift in your garage, do you?

I have just a quick jack.

I try not to go too beyond my capabilities anymore

so the answer is no.

All you folks out there,

don't bring your cars to my house.

I don't have a lift.

All right, thanks for listening.

Be sure to like, comment, subscribe

and consider sharing our show with fellow Porsche enthusiasts.

Until next time, stay safe

and we'll catch you on the road.

Thank you guys.

Things I Learned From Restoring My Porsche 356

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