Back Home Again!

At 1030pm last night Chemo & a buddy showed-up with the M346 after five long years away. We grabbed a wheel well and unloaded the body onto the wood dolly I built. The dolly is designed to store the T34 in one garage space while being able to work on either the body or the chassis separately. The chassis can roll-out from underneath the dolly or the body can roll-out.

The massive amount of rust repairs that Sean Roper performed and Chemo finished are now invisible on the razor-smooth body panels. The fresh air vents are perfect, the spare tire frame is undetectable, and the lower wheel well sections are flawless. I'm very happy with the results and the L554 Cherry Red color is absolutely beautiful! It's sedate and classic on the Black roof.

Restored Gauges

I've used Foreign Speedo for gauge restorations for the past 20 years and they've always produced quality work at reasonable prices. The set of four T34 gauges was only $165 and was completed in 8 weeks. Cases painted, black rings on the center dials were repainted, brass polished, needles repainted, speedo calibrated & turned back to zeros, speaker fabric replaced, plastic faces polished, and inner rings painted to match. The only things they can't do is repair clocks and replace the outer T34 chrome trim rings.

Now I can hear you saying "hey, he's got the wrong speedo for 1965, as it's the smaller diameter one for the 1964 models". But no, there were a short series of early-1965's that had the small diameter 100mph speedo carry-over from the early design. Not very many had this design but mine did. And all 1965s had the white needles, unlike the 1962-64 models with amber needles. Try finding one of these small-diameter bronze-knob white-needle 100mph gauges ... really specific & very limited!

Mmmmmm, Fresh Chrome!

Thanks to Bob Walton & Jack Fisher I have a yummy fresh new set of T34 chrome! Bob used his source in Pomona (Best Polishing & Chrome) CA and the results are awesome. Vent window frames, "pointed" bumper guards, front & rear bumpers, & Euro headlight rings all came out like-new again. Several holes were filled in the front center bumper, holes filled in the Euro headlight rings, and the vent frames were pretty pitted. Hub caps were done by Pedro Sainz in Mexico, a specialist in early T3 caps. Took 7 weeks and total cost was $1065. No tax, no shipping to/from thanks to Bob hand-carrying the parts (what a guy!).

Final Paint!

A huge hurdle has been reached with the final painting of the M346! Five years from when I disassembled it into 34 million pieces and now it's showing signs of its rebirth. Chemo shared these photos with the T34 owners at the VW Classic (which I missed as I was in Germany on business) and now shared them with me. The L554 Cherry Red may look differently under the yellow lamps of the shop, so he's taking new ones outside to see the real color hues. But my inital impression is one of great contrast between the body & roof and of an aggressive look with the two-toned scheme.

Visit to Darmstadt Germany

I was in southern Germany on business and had a couple extra days to spend visiting with two T34 owners in Darmstadt. Jorg Fischer owns two amazing T34s: an unrestored Anthracite & Pearl White 1963 with manual-crank Golde sunroof & a restored Pearl White 1963 Cabriolet, one of five known to exist worldwide! Tobias Ebner also owns two T34s including this nicely restored Emerald & Pearl White 1963 Electric Sunroof. We met for steak dinner & Martzen beers one night and then the next day went for a beautiful T34 cruise into the edge of the Odenvald forest for some amazing photos. I was able to take a ton of reference photos of the M345 to help my M346 restoration and was also able to see the M341 details up-close. Did you know that the rear side seat vents are rotated 90 degrees on all M341s? Strange but true ...

Porsche T34 Interior Light

Just got an great tip from Franck Boutier in France about a Porsche 356 interior light that seems to be an excellent & reasonably priced repro for our T34s! It's stamped Hella, is 80mm, has the right shape, the inner edge is painted silver, it has an ivory switch knob, takes a 10W bulb, and they have the long 6V bulbs as well. Priced at $35 you can order part #NLA-632-101-03 from Stoddard in Ohio USA at 440-951-1040. The repro light was not in-stock but after a quick check with thier purchasing girl the rep said they expect to have more in mid-June and will accept orders now & ship it when it comes in. It's listed as fitting Porsche 356-AT2 & 356-BT5, all Cabriolets & some Coupes. That's a huge stroke of luck, as we've been seeing NOS ones in the $200 range and used ones for $100-150. A perfect repro one for $35 seems like a steal! Thanks, Franck!

Off to Chrome Shop

Thanks to a local plating shop source from Bob Walton I was able to gather the chrome parts and get them sent off. Expected costs: $250 per bumper (3pcs), $60 per guard (for the pot-metal pointed style), $25 per headlight ring, $60 vent frame, & $10 per license light ring. I'm having the four holes in the front bumper piece filled, dented/rusted hub caps fixed, and extra holes in the headlight rings filled (all at no extra cost). Warning: be sure to have the studs in your pointed guards masked-off so they don't get dipped, as the acids will eat the studs down to little stubs rendering them useless (been there, done that).