This 1960 Porsche 3565 B Roadster RHD arrived in January of 2024. The client has owned the car for a long period of time but has always had a suspicion it was hiding something. Being a factory rhd Uk car it had spent the first part of its life in the UK before being exported to Australia in the early nineties. Whilst there it was subject to a fairly extensive restoration and a colour change from Condor yellow to an unknown pale blue.

Upon initial inspection the car was an extremely good base for restoration, driving well, handling perfectly. The car was documented with gaps, heights and angles all being measured ahead of the full strip down in preparation for blasting. Striping the car was a pleasure, each and every item come apart with ease and not a single fixing broke. Each component was photographed, bagged and tagged before being boxed for storage. The shell and loose panels were then sent to our friend Ash at Soda blaster for a full strip and prime.

On receiving the car back we were shocked to see lots of repairs. Areas which initially looked straight and clean were brazed, plug welded and patched. There was also obvious accident damage to the nearside front corner which had been hidden by filler and underseal.

The first part of any restoration carried out by us involves the car being loaded onto our Spanesi measuring jig. This allows us to check if there are any discrepancy’s against the factory drawings which we have. Unfortunately the front nearside was sitting 25mm up and back from where it should have been confirming the accident damage.

Aarons first job was to remove the front skin, inner panels and axle which would enable him to move the inner front end back to its correct position. The decision was made to order some new panels but not all. The fuel tank panel, inner front wings, and upper inner wings would be replaced and the other panels cleaned, restored and refitted.

The next area requiring substantial work was the floor and inner sills. The exterior sill panels were removed and the old floors cut out. The inner sills had been repaired down both sides as had the tunnel edges. To achieve a butt welded repair down both sides access was required from the outside meaning the external sills were also removed. The 356 floors are two sections with a strengthening bead running side to side, these were spot welded together as per factory. Several test fits of the floors were completed to ensure the overall length and width were correct as well as the seats, pedal boards, pedal assembly and tunnel all fitting. Aaron was then able to fabricate full length sections and butt weld them into the inner sills at the correct length. The tunnel was removed and restored as a separate item before being spot welded to the floor and fitted as one as per original.

The dashboard/scuttle had been patched and repaired several times, therefor the decision was made to remove it, restore it and refit it as a whole. This enables us to make repairs invisible from both sides. The Spanesi jig comes into its own with challenging tasks like this. We are able to set up the overhead system and use drop down measuring arms to ensure both sides are the same. The windscreen was also test fitted to check for a tight fit between the scuttle and base of the screen.

The final stage of the metal work restoration will be restoring and refitting the front skin. This will be completed on the jig enabling us to confirm the heights and angle of the headlights, bumpers and indicators. Once completed a full dry fit will take place ahead of the paintwork.