My first ride in a Porsche was unforgettable. We ran out of gas! Only 10 at the time, I was out with for a test drive in an early-sixties 356 B in silver, with what I recall was a maroon interior. He was an ad executive on the Volkswagen account and was keen to move up from our current Beetle convertible. He’d heard of a used 356 B through his dealership contact at Pfaff. It was his daily driver for several years. I loved that car.
Years later, I was with him again when he bought his next 356 from Volkswagen Yonge in 1967 – a 2-year-old, Signal red, numbers-matching 1965 356 C with black interior. We spent many hours on my weekly trips to school. It was his year-round daily driver until our salty winter roads helped grow rust in all the usual spots of a 356. He’d had the driver’s side floor patched with a sheet of galvanized metal, but eventually the rot got so bad the doors wouldn’t open.
He took it off the road in 1973 and, knowing I wanted it, he garaged it until I took it off his hands in 1985. I stored it in various rented storage spaces until we bought our first house in 1993 with the essential 2-car garage. I’d hoped to start right away, but three kids and our own business got in the way. Here it remained, rusting slowly while our youngest gave it the name Rusty – which accurately tells you what state it was in when I finally started the restoration after I retired in 2015.
I had learned car repair, wiring and welding from my first car – a tired, bondo-filled, 8-year-old 1962 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II. There’s nothing like maintaining a British sports car for auto repair training. My beloved Healey was traded in for a Volkswagen Rabbit when our first daughter arrived.
I joined PCA UCR and the 356 Registry and – inspired by the restoration blogs – finally started restoration in 2017. I was so blissfully ignorant of the tools, skills, and time required that I naively planned to do ALL the work myself.
I decided to keep as much of the original car as possible. It had only 61,000 miles on it, was complete, numbers-matched, and had a great interior – but a lot of rust. Disassembly took well over a year, including bagging and labelling everything. I had the good fortune to meet several local 356 owners who were unbelievably helpful.
Walt MacKay of MacKay Racing, who has rebuilt countless engines for 356s and 911s, rebuilt my transmission and, together with Bill Thorne of Motex, rebuilt the engine. Bill also installed new kingpins. Dave Whittick of Nostalgic Garage was an endless source of advice. Mike Martin, the UCR 356 SIG lead, introduced me to Roberto DaSilva of Unique Auto Restoration who had done the bodywork and paint on his gorgeous ‘58A, and who agreed to help me.
Given my limited funds, Roberto agreed to share the work with me. He’d advise me on the structural welding and take over when I got as far as I could go. He would straighten Rusty, replace the front battery box and rear engine compartment and return it on a rotisserie for me to do the structural work. I replaced the toe board bulkhead, repaired the tunnel and inner sills, and patched the floor with an NOS front floor panel. Our heated garage allowed me to work year-round and was taking far longer than I’d expected. Words of wisdom from Mike: “Restoring a 356 is like eating an elephant – one bite at a time.” Another was “How old do you want to be when you finish it?” These cars are hard to restore.
Rusty returned to Roberto when the excessive heat of a novice welder like me bent the car once again. Straightened again, he proceeded with the bodywork while I tackled sandblasting, replating or repainting and restoring everything else. Luckily the wiring harness and instruments were good. Front and rear turn signals were replaced with LED lights throughout, and an extra brake light and rear window turn signal were added. The elephant was still big.
As the car was originally painted Signal Red, the perfectionist Roberto scanned the inside of the glovebox for the best colour match. Four samples later, we had it. Red is a challenging colour to get right, so he insisted on a red primer. A now-glamorous, non-rusty Rusty with six coats of paint, sealed seams and undercoat was returned to me on August 17, 2022. Now all I had to do was put it all back together. The elephant was still quite large.
New brake discs, calipers, master cylinder and lines, plus a new fuel tank and lines. New wheel bearings and seals. All the original glass and chrome trim was used. All new rubber seals throughout. Much of the original sound insulation was reused, the balance replaced. Door handles and bumperettes rechromed by Mark Henry at Plating House. Wheels and engine tin were powder coated. Jens Brandes of European Custom Upholstery installed the new headliner, German square weave carpet, reinforced the front seats, and re-dyed and reinstalled the original, faded leatherette.
There were some niggly bits like the exhaust not fitting, clutch and gear shift not working properly, plus some parts I hadn’t installed – but I was pretty much finished in July last year. This car will be driven, not a garage queen.
Mike Martin put me in touch with Ian McQuillan of Hockley Autosport to ensure it was safe to drive and certify for licensing. They addressed the “niggly bits,” performed their magic and were very diplomatic about my mechanical shortcomings. Ian and I roared off on my first test drive in October, grinning and giddy at how fast this little car was. An absolute thrill to drive. Almost 50 years to the day since the last time Dad had let me take it out for a spin.
Rusty and I have logged over 600 miles between October and December. What I’d planned as a do-it-yourself project became a much more rewarding team effort of craftsmen, my family and help from fellow Porsche owners whose talents and patience made this happen. </>
Story and Photography by Dugald Cameron
