This sort of a field out in the country hid this fine old tin. It's a 1958 Porsche 356A with a '59 engine. Not too much rust, needs about everything, but pretty solid. I know it's not a typical HAMB thing, but these little cars were hot stuff back in the day. I'm trying to buy it, not sure what range it'll take, the owner may be nuts or sane. The offer is in and being considered. It was last tagged in 1978.
Those are pretty hot value wise. They rot in the rockers, pans and Torque boxes similar to a VW. Cool when done. Let us know if you score it.
I would give my left arm and most of the left arms of my friends and family to find something like that. But I am just some foreign car loving FNG so why would anyone here care.
Why wouldn't they? Folks here drive or ride all kinds of stuff. This is an old school rod scene, but it doesn't mean people don't like other stuff. I have a '59 Austin Healey Frog Eye Sprite, for example. Not just old US stuff. A lof of folks have eclectic tastes.
Tell you what. I will give you $500 more than what you pay for it and come and get it. Sounds like an easy $500 clams to me?
The rockers are solid, pans are solid as far as I could check it out in the boonies, the only rust out was in the battery box. There is a bit of surface rust in places. It was a California car when last tagged in '78. It has spent a lot of time under a car port, in a garage, and about the last 2-4 years out in the weeds. I hope to rescue it from that fate. They are money pits, four new wheel cylinders run $500!!! The engine is out due to needing to fix second gear, but it got torn down, heads rebuilt, a few parts bought, and then it stalled in progress. The current owner bought it in '71. I have heard one sold at BJ for $13 K, and also heard one for $17K. No idea if it is the same car, what shape, or anything else. I see blue book on them for over $50K, evilbay stalls at low to mid $30s for nice cars, drivers seem to be upper teens to mid $20's, and turds are way less. The prices are things I have found on the 'net in the last few days.
Those are fine little cars. If this was a traditional sports car site ,that would be right up there with finding an old survivor AV8 ect. The majority of those older ones that were sold in this country were sold in the North East and rusted out really quick. IF that one is not badly rusted that IS a real find. Lucky lucky.
I don't have a price at this stage. The owner wants it gone, but does not want to give it away for pennies on the dollar. She will NOT give a price, will only entertain offers. So, is the offer still good if she is way up in the air? It is one huge project, but mostly there, the bumpers are not there, most of the rest is as far as I can tell. I don't even know if I'll resell it if I get it. It'd look good next to my '80 911 SC widebody.
Yeah I guess I can't really back up my statement. I probably wouldn't pay $10500 if you paid $10000 for it so I guess forget I said that. However if you got it for a resaonable price and wanted to part with it by all means look me up. I have been looking for a rebuildable version for a while because I do not want a glass, kit car version. However as some may know these are not cheap cars or all that easy to find. None the less that is a sweet find.
Is this too far gone to restore? If so, look for someone that wants to gut it and run it in Vintage Sports Car Racing.
Good find!! The floors and usually the rockers on these seem to need replacing as a matter of course, but its not a bad job. The floor is a big flat sheet essentially.
I have owned about eight 356's over the years,great little cars. That car looks VERY restorable to me,or it would make a great outlaw car.
i can't believe i am the first to say this but, check www.samba.com they are mostly anything air cooled related. also can give you a more detailed base to get a better sense of what it is worth. ebay tends to distort things.
You might want to look at the 356 Registry site: http://www.356registry.com/ There are a lot snooty jackasses there, but there is a ton of good info too. The "A" coupes like the one you found there are getting quite spendy to buy, but that also makes them worth a good bit of restoration work. The day of the throw away 356 is pretty much gone. As for expensive to build, depends what you do with it. To try to make it period correct and concourse ready, $$$$$$$$! But to build a runner/ daily driver, or better yet an Outlaw/Hotrod, not too bad. Remember that on 356's, especially the older cars, many aircooled VW parts can be substituted, even big-bore Type 4 engines. Or even crazier power with the help of Kennedy Engineering in Cali. Now, as an guy just now finishing a 4 year build of a tuned diesel powered '64 356 SC coupe hotrod, I'm going to dive back into my spider hole and pull the cover over my head. moT
www.pelicanparts.com has a forum for nearly every Porsche model including the 356. The place is packed full of nice people and I have found nearly everything I needed for my ride there. I would venture to say that if the person has it setting out like that then you should be able to get it for well under $10K Hell if they asked me to make an offer I would tell them $3k and see whether or not they laughed in my face I would still suspect you could get it for somewhere between $5K and $8K. In case you haven't noticed I am dying to see the price. It is real hard to put a value on these particular models. I have also been dying to hot rod one of these puppies. Sadly that fully restored crap doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Ok sorry for all the rambling. Keep us (or at least me) posted.
Unless it is some rare model, which it doesn't appear to be it will not be worth what you have in it when its done. If you have many skills to do all the work yourself you may be able to break even. I love those old Porsches but can't see the work and money to make them right. If your rich that motor that is a 911 6 with 2 cyclinders cut out makes a dandy power plant with about 200 hp. Thats almost 4 times the original HP. I sa one recently with a turbo 911 motor in it. It could do wheelies.
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