Belt and Braces...

The grey POR-15 arrived today, I'm really glad I decided to get the color change, you can see the 1st coat has some holes which I would otherwise have missed.

Naturally, with tin and brush in hand, I couldnt resist giving the top a coat of grey.

Ta-Da...

The haynes manual says "Removal of the rear brake drums is a considerable task." Well, ta da - job done. Now I can get back on with getting my car back together.


I decided I would get some grey POR-15 to do the 2nd coat underneath. It's a nasty job, but having a colour change between coats will make it more satisfying and will help monitor it in future.

Managed to get the first coat of POR15 on the underside, this time showing respect and running indoors to wash off any splatters as soon as they were felt. It wasn't a complete success as one splat wouldn't come off!
Found a couple of motivation photos. Air Suspension would be sweeeeeeeeeet...

The sun finally came out, so I had another go degreasing the underside. This time I followed up with metal ready and after rinsing let it dry off. Whilst towel drying the overspray on the topside, I found the clips for the passenger side brake pads - oops, I thought I'd put them in a bit quick. It didnt take a few minutes to get the wheel off and put them back in.
Now I can get on painting the underside and wait for the 36mm socket.

Rained Off...

Well my plans for the underside were rained off, so I figured I would go ahead and get the calipers painted and the porsche pattern discs on. I could have sworn I had a 36mm spanner or socket - but alas no, so will need to tackle the rear brakes after I receive the 36mm socket ordered from ebay.

Everything came apart nicely, the first caliper I painted came out rasberry colour! I think it takes a few minutes after applying the hardner and stirring for the paint to completely reach red. After a couple of coats, I still had some paint left - so painted the anti roll bar.

It's a good job the phone rang as I was about to paint the steering damper and then probably would have painted the control arms etc and would have run out half way through. I wouldn't have bothered painting the calipers if I wasnt putting alloys on.

Well 15 hours later the calipers were dry to touch but in putting the pads back in I managed to disturb the paint and also got them a bit dirty due to wearing dirty gloves Doh! I'd sealed the tin yesterday but was suprised to find it still useable - why don't the manufacturers just put the hardner in themselves?


After touching up the calipers I had the urge to paint something else again but managed not to. The rain finally stopped long enough to get a photo of my efforts.

Waiting for the weekend to degrease the underside. I'm wanting to get all the pressure washer stuff out the way before I start on some upgrades like rear disk brakes and fuchs Ive had sitting around for a couple of years.

I've found a website of a guy who's rebuilding his replica as a proper replica! Anyone who loves the 356 and has owned a chesil will appreciate what hes doing - 'fixing' all those niggley things that remove from the viewing experience. There's only a handful of real speedsters in the UK, as far as I'm aware. You won't see them on the road outside of Porsche meetings. I dont know whether he plans to sell it after completion but I'm sure he would have a queue! http://www.speedstars.co.uk/.

Having decided to keep my floors, it meant needing to remove all the old sealant and nails that held the old seal in place. I also went over everything with a drill and wire brush insert to remove any loose rust, flakes of paint etc. This worked well on the topside but will need a few more applications underside to completely remove the 14 years of road grime and waxoil!

The water hoover and pressure washer came in really handy and made the job alot more do-able.

I've degreased with marine clean, followed with the pressure washer to rinse, then hoover up any remaining water, let the sun dry the remainder off, then repeat the process with metal ready instead of marine clean, finally applying a couple of coats of POR15 and chassis black. This got the topside done, but Ill need to finish off degreasing the undereside another day. Despite my best efforts and wearing marigolds, I still managed to get some POR15 on my feet, hands, arms and face and I only painted the topside!. The POR15 was runnier than I expected, also it has a very shiny finish, i think I would have prefered matt. The chassis black was also quite shiny but looked a bit murky and duller than the POR15. I regret not getting a tin of grey aswell as black POR15 so that applying the 2nd and 3rd coats would be more satisfying to know where I've not been.

Whilst degreasing the underside I found the plugged up drain holes in the floor, I left them plugged as Id already painted the topside the previous day, and had drilled a hole in the marine boards to hoover any collected water through.

With the marine ply boards back in place I'm satisfied that I kept the floors, but from the time it's taken degreasing the underside it would have been cheaper to get new floors if a shop was doing this - but this is 'free time'. I remembered to repack the front beam with grease which squirted some water out in the process.