Werkstatte

Renew  Your  Steering

You’ve spent considerable time and money on the body and trim of your 356, but have you paid attention to the running gear?  Often the most forgotten area is the front suspension, and especially the steering part of it.  You’ve probably rebuilt the outer spindles and replaced the tie rod ends.  But, most often neglected is the steering gearbox

For a number of years now, we’ve been attending the Porsche 912 Registry’s Rendezvous event. It’s somewhat telling that we keep coming back, as this event is certainly one worth putting on your calendar year after year. Admittedly we love Porsche’s 912 as an extension of the 356 line of cars, but it is often the owners of these cars that really makes the difference. If the 912 owners that attend the Rendezvous weren’t some of the nicest folks we have ever met, we probably wouldn’t be coming back every year, no matter how fun the cars are.

Trevor Gates, the winner of our "We Can Save Them All" contest is making some progress on his rusted and busted 356A. He's got the doors just about done and he's working on recreating the engine compartment sheetmetal.  It's a slow road—but we're happy to see forward momentum on this gargantuan project. 

His once-in-three-pieces car was on display at the Dana Point concours and he's been working on getting the engine compartment box back in one piece.  Quite a bit of the inner structure of the car was rusted and damaged during its long and very traumatic life—making this portion of the project slow and tedious as Trevor recreates the portions of the car that rarely need to be fixed—and are thus not yet available from suppliers like us.  

We attended this show as they celebrated their 10th anniversary last year, and it was a foregone conclusion that we’d be back again for the 11th. Last weekend we made the trip to Northern California for the ‘best car show you’ve never heard of’. 

Stoddard attended the Porsches 2 Ohio event this past weekend.  It's a great event that draws enthusiasts from around the Ohio area (and a little bit further...) and we make it a point to go every year.  We're the title sponsor for the event as we feel that it's a great addition to our community.  

Our 1978 911SC is coming back together, but we are taking time to make sure that everything is up to snuff mechanically. This, of course, is adding time and money to our budget.  

A friend of Stoddards, Dan Mainzer is working on a Concours-level early 914-6.  We stopped by and took some pictures of the assembly project. 

The June issue of the UK Magazine, 911 & Porsche World has an article on our company.