My Porsche 356 Lives Again

Almost a year ago, I bought a 1964 Porsche 356 SC that had been hidden away in a garage for a couple of decades. The mechanical work is finally done, and it got delivered back home this week:

I took it to Gaudin Classic Porsche (Instagram), a phenomenal shop here in Vegas that does beautiful work.

Because the car had sat for decades with no prep work ahead of time, there were a few parts that had to be replaced, period. The tires, shocks, and brakes had to be redone. The fuel tank had quite a bit of rust inside it, so that had to go too, along with all the fuel lines.

The big question was whether we’d have to do any work to the engine and transmission. The engine turned smoothly by hand, which was great, but the more we dug into it, we just said screw it – let’s rebuild the engine. As long as the engine was out, we decided to go with a pink color scheme on some of the engine parts to honor the Pink Pig 917. The Gaudin guys had the great idea of painting the SC badge in pink to match, too.

Because the engine was out, we also took the opportunity to return to the original exhaust. At some point in the car’s long life, the muffler had been replaced, and the mechanics of the time took the easy route of just dumping the exhaust straight down below the engine. I went back to the original exhaust pipe design which exits through the bumper because it’s such a pretty little detail.

Because the engine work was going to take several months, we took the opportunity to recover the seats. Before & after:

Other than the seats, we didn’t make any cosmetic improvements, and we left the original patina. It still has the dings, dents, and decades-old paint. Trust me, the car exterior looks way older and more, uh, “experienced” in person than it does in photos here, hahaha.

It’s a very charming car to drive, and makes the most adorable noises. It’s manual steering, of course – everything was back then – and it’s still finger-light to turn. I love the Speedster, but this is much more drivable in the chilly Vegas winters.

You can see it rolling off the trailer – although it’s silent because the delivery driver didn’t know the trick to starting it, heh. Part of the charms of old cars! It’s got the original 6V electric system, so you have to hold the starter down a little longer than you’d expect for it to catch on.