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Case Studies
This area details some of the work we have undertaken.
Tale of 356B
An interesting tale about a 356B cabriolet. A 356B arrives on a transporter from the North of Scotland with instructions to attend to minor blemishes on the paint work. Proprietor Robert Gant straps on the trade plates, picks up his mobile phone, just in case, and sets off on his usual pre-project road test only to return a few minutes late shaking his head. Out comes the A4 pad and pen to accommodate the following points. Car undrievable!
Steering partially seized, front suspension probably partially seised and/or riding on bump stops, in short the car behaving like a bucking bronco. Brakes extremely poor, very inefficient and pulling dangerously one way and then the other. Transmission extremely noisy, gear selection difficult. Engine seriously deficient in the performance department. On reporting back to the client Robert was informed that he had only recently purchased the car and had parted with substantial monies for what he was told was a fully restored car! Now how many times have we heard that magic phrase………fully restored?
Following the clients instructions our intrepid engineers totally dismantled the suspension, brakes and steering to find a catalogue of worn and incorrectly assembled components, which has become an all too familiar scenario, including; incorrectly adjusted steering box, partially seized track rod ends, very excessively worn king pins and link pins, very noisy wheel bearings, incorrectly set torsion bar angles with suspension permanently on bump stops. Completely dysfunctional shock absorbers, braking system contaminated with water resulting in rusty cylinders and pistons…………
Having completely rebuilt the suspension, brakes and steering with a multitude of new components we then turned our attention to the transmission.
What a can of worms this turned out to be. The transmission had obviously had a major disaster at some point and had been attended to by someone who was obviously way out of their depth. Apart from the usual worn syncromesh components a plethora of additional problems were exposed including badly worn gear teeth, unmatched gear pairs and cracked differential carrier.
Having sat down with a bottle of Scotland’s finest malt and mulled over the various options offered by ourselves, ie. Rebuild the original, buy second hand and rebuild, buy second hand and install with fingers crossed the shell shocked client instructed us to rebuild the original using as many good second hand parts as Gantspeed could possibly source and supply, thus retaining a matching number car.
Having successfully completed the transmission our attention turned to the engine which by this time had now been commissioned a stand in our custom built engine bay. Now this was anticipated to be nothing more than a basic service, this assumption was soon dispelled.
First problem, no valve clearances, despite rocker adjusting screws being fully backed off. Investigations into this problem resulted in a total engine strip down revealing the following major faults;
Rockers fouling on valve springs and rocker posts. Rocker shafts oval, due to over tightening. Incorrect assembly of valve gear in general. Spacer washers missing. Valves badly worn and recessed too far into cylinder heads. Pistons touching the cylinder heads, pushrods bent. One piston fitted the wrong way round resulting in heavily scuffed cylinder bore and completely shot conrod bush. Conrod big end bores oval, oil pump gears badly worn, flywheel badly scored beyond reclaiming and oil cooler leaking. Heat exchangers completely rusted and carburettors and distributor in very poor condition. Plus a host of minor problems too numerous to list.
Why do we at Gantspeed come across this simply appalling state of affairs on such a regular basis not only with 356 engines and mechanics in general but also with 911’s? Why do so many owners of these beautifully engineered cars entrust their pride and joy to such grossly incompetent people?
There is no such thing as a cheap job!!!!
Breaking the news is a nasty side of the job but brutally honest is the only solution to long term success and satisfaction and we know short term fixes just lead to tears and a very light pocket. Our hardy client was admirable and instructed us to proceed with a complete engine rebuild.
When this was done the engine and transmission were reunited with the car, brakes bled, suspension and steering set up and road testing commenced, this time with a much happier ending.
Here at Gantspeed it is our policy to do the initial running in of all rebuilt engines before handing the car back to the client with specific instructions on how to continue the process.
2 hours into his journey back to Scotland the client stopped for fuel and phoned to say how absolutely delighted he was with the car, that it was hardly recogniseable as the same car and that he had a momentary burst up to 90MPH, still running in remember, whereas before he was reluctant to cruise at anything above 60MPH. Another highly satisfied customer.
And the original minor blemishes on the paint work – that no doubt will come later!!!
16th Apr 2003
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