classic porsche preview

Early 911Buyers’ Guide

INCLUDING

EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION OF THE BEST CLASSIC PORSCHES FROM 356 TO 911 3.2 CARRERA

356 912 911

£6

.99

Classic Porsche N

o 1

9772042

107009

01

ww

w.911porschew

orld.com

Brought to you by the publishers of &

CORRECT SIZE CLASSIC PORSCHE COVER:Layout 1 27/10/09 16:04

THE PERFECTOBSESSIONWe follow Paul Rui’s quest to get inside the head ofPorsche’s production line team in an effort to producethe most accurate restoration of an early Porsche yet

Words and photos: Keith Seume

32 CLASSIC PORSCHE

classic porsche:PW MASTER 6/10/09 15:25 Page 32

To say that Paul Rui isn’t like mostPorsche enthusiasts is something ofan understatement. He comes acrossas being a typically understated

Norwegian, tall, quietly spoken and speakingimpeccable English, with just a hint ofScandinavian accent. Maybe that’s becausehis mother is English and he has many happymemories of childhood holidays this side ofthe North Sea. But we digress for, moreimportantly, he’s an obsessive character whoonly knows how to do things one way: theright way.

Over the years, he’s owned, restored,rebuilt and, most importantly, driven a widevariety of vintage VW and Porsche cars.They’ve nearly all been a little on the unusualside (OK, to use an Americanism, ‘way out inleft field’) but have each been impeccably

detailed in their own unique way. But hisdream had always been to own an early.Porsche - and by early we mean really early.

‘I had just sold my unrestored 1950 VWConvertible,’ Paul recalls, ‘and was looking foran interesting project to sink my teeth into. Iknew a thing or two about these earlyPorsches, but obviously not very much due tothe fact there is almost nothing written indetail about them. What I did know, though,was that Ferdinand Porsche died at the end ofJanuary 1951 and I wanted a car that wasproduced while he was still alive.

‘My friend Austin Asphjell was studying inTexas, and one day back in 1997 or ‘98 hecalled me up to say he had found a 1950 split-window Porsche in Hemmings News, the long-established classic car advertising magazinein the USA. I had told him to be on the lookout

for anything interesting that might come up.Well, to cut a long story short, a deal wasstruck and I found myself the proud owner ofa 1950 Porsche!’

It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Youwant a Pre-A Porsche, you find a Pre-APorsche - you buy a Pre-A Porsche... But thiswas to be the beginning of a long journeythrough the Porsche archives, sorting truthfrom fiction, and trying to get inside the headof workers at Stuttgart, thinking the way theythought while hand-assembling each 356coupé. Paul continues: ‘I remember trying tofind as much info as possible about this car,and spoke to the seller - Tom Scott inColorado - on numerous occasions as healready had several early Porsche restorationsunder his belt. Tom was kind enough to supplyme with lots of information and, thank

PRE-A 356

33CLASSIC PORSCHE

classic porsche:PW MASTER 26/10/09 10:21 3

“I spent a full two years searching for the correct Hellaheadlights. They are extremely difficult to find…”

We flew to Oslo especiallyto photograph the car, aswe knew it was going to be something special. Itwas one of the stars of thePCGB event at HedinghamCastle in 2009. Rear three-quarter view is ourfavourite. This car is perfec-tion on wheels

34 CLASSIC PORSCHE


goodness, it turns out he also had a few of thehard to find parts for sale.’

In these early days in the project, Pauladmits he knew pretty much nothing aboutthe car at all, so called Richard King ofKarmann Konnection in Southend, Essex, andduring a short phone conversation it wasdecided that he would see the project throughthe main part of the restoration. ‘However,’says Paul, ‘little did I know that therestoration would take the best part of 10years, but I was determined to leave no stoneunturned in restoring this car to the sameimmaculate condition as it left the factory.’

Research shows that the car was sold atGlöckler in Frankfurt, the agency run byWalter Glöckler whose own mid-enginedsports cars inspired Porsche to go down thesame route, resulting in the development ofthe 550 Spyder. So it came from a goodhome, then, but it was a full restorationproject, as Paul clearly remembers. ‘I soonrealised, the more I sank my teeth into earlyPorsche history, that this car had to berestored in the correct way. It needed a lot ofthings, but did have some of the mostimportant bits. It’s taken a long time gettingit to the condition you see it today! I havebeen to the archives probably about seventimes in total, carrying out research. You see,I can’t bring myself to trust what you read inmost information sources.’

The decision was made to entrust thetask of restoring the badly corroded body andchassis to Bruce Cooper’s Sportwagenoperation in Essex, a company responsible forseveral of the finest early-Porsche rebuilds

this side of the Atlantic. The fun, though, wasjust about to begin, as Paul recounts: ‘It wasnot until the car arrived at Sportwagen that Istarted to see all the small but importantdetails that make a 1950 a 1950. I havemanaged to detect over 20 differencesbetween a four-digit chassis number 1950and a later ‘51 model, for example. My car wasactually built on 20th December 1950 and ischassis number 5355.

‘Pretty soon after the car arrived inEngland for its two year body restoration, Iwas starting to find out all sorts ofinteresting things about Porsches of this age.I already had a friend in Sweden, Christer Rye,whom I knew through the VW scene, who hadrestored a 1951 Porsche and he becamepretty much the first person I turned to forhelp. Christer had been smart enough todocument the whole restoration of his owncar and had amassed plenty of informationabout who to contact, and the like. One nameturned up on a regular basis: Tom Birch inCalifornia. Tom proved to be a huge help as Iran many of my thoughts past him. I alsofound some more useful information afterbuying an unrestored ‘52 in Sweden, fromwhich I hoped to source certain parts thatwere identical to those used on my 1950.There were some but, as it turned out, notmany...’

Meanwhile, thanks to Thomas Skogli, Paulbegan a long dialogue with the Porschemuseum in Stuttgart. ‘I managed to speak toJens Torner at the archives,’ he says, ‘andspent time looking through the smallcollection of pictures they have, using a

magnifying glass. Jens was kind enough tolet me read many of the different notes madeduring the meetings Ferdinand Porsche hadwith his staff in the early days while working out what improvements could bemade to the design.

‘I have spent a lot of time in the archivesand also at the Porsche museum, where I alsoreceived a lot of assistance from Nadine Katz,who put up with me crawling all over themuseum’s own cars while I was lecturing herabout screws and all the different varietiesused at Porsche! My obsession about screwsand what brands were used got a bit out ofhand... After travelling all over Europe to trackdown the correct fasteners, I managed to findthe majority of the screws NOS (new oldstock) - and of the correct brand. I think onlyabout four per cent are still original, and theywere treated by bead-blasting, then heatingthem up and popping them into a bath of oldmineral motor oil. You then get a finish that isas new, with that blue-black hue that mostfasteners from that period had. Also, it took along time to track down 14mm nuts which forsome reason are very hard to find new...’ Doyou now see what we mean about Paul being

Robbie O’Rourke gets the nod for the stun-ning interior retrim, while owner Paul Rui handmade the Porsche-scripted radio blankingplate himself

The devil is in the detail, and Paul Rui’s 1950356 is full of them. New old stock taillightsand the correct body badging add the finish-ing touches to a magnificent project

PRE-A 356

35CLASSIC PORSCHE


‘obsessive’? Needless to say, he found thoseelusive 14mm nuts in the end, as well. Buthe’s not finished yet...

‘Also, all screws for the interior are newold stock from the period,’ says Paul. ‘You caneasily spot a late screw from an early one, bystudying the width of the screwdriver slot: thewider the gap, the later the screw.’

But there is a good reason for thisobsession. ‘I had seen a few restorations withall sorts of horrible bolts and screws - evenmodern Phillips screws that Porsche did notstart to use until sometime in 1954... Details,details! I really did start wondering if I wasgoing a bit crazy, but I have always followedthrough on all projects I’ve done, struggling toget the last few percent correct. I just don’tfeel good with myself if things aren’t the way I like them to be.’ Thus speaks theperfectionist.

But when you are satisfied with nothingless than the very best, it can be demoralisingto discover that some so-called (or self-professed) experts don’t prove to be as expertas they make out. Paul continues: ‘There are a

lot of people you need to involve whenrestoring a car of this kind, and it takes a longtime finding out if their standards are up toyours. For example, I tried a number of well-known chrome-platers over here, but didn’treally feel anything like satisfied until I sentparts out to America to get plated. But it’s allpart of the learning process!’

The bodyshell was in a bad way and itwas necessary to have a lot of fabricationwork done while it was at Sportwagen for thebody and paint restoration. It ended up beingpainted in its original Radium Green twice,such was Paul’s search for perfection, as heexplains: ‘The original front hood and a fewother pieces were not up to Sportwagenstandards - and it proved to be a problem. Anumber of people ended up being involvedwith getting the bonnet in the same state asit left the factory. My painter in Norway,Bulente Ertung, did his best to fix things, butit was the inner structure that was theproblem. It wasn’t really until I got an original replacement panel that I feltcompletely satisfied.

‘The car then went back to England, toBruce Cooper, in 2005 to be repainted - mygood friend Tomas helped me with all thetransport to England. I held my breath whenthe crew on the Newcastle ferry ordered himto back the full length of the ship - not aneasy thing with a trailer in tow. It was themost impressive piece of reversing I haveever seen!’

But sorting out body panels andpaintwork was only the tip of the iceberg. Pauldoes seem to attract trouble, if he doesn’tmind us saying so: ‘A few incidents haveshaken me during the restoration, like thetime my everyday car got stolen while thePorsche’s transmission was sitting in theboot! Or when I dropped two sets ofwindscreen glass on the floor, and spent eightmonths locating some replacements.’ It’s all

The sheer quality of this restoration isbreathtaking, and Radium Green has to be themost beautiful colour ever for any earlyPorsche. Sportwagen gets the credit for theflawless finish

36 CLASSIC PORSCHE


part of the fun...What makes the restoration of this

particular car so exciting, though, is the wayin which Paul tried to get inside the head ofthe people who built it in the first place.That’s what set this apart from the vastmajority of such rebuilds. As he says, ‘A lot ofthinking has gone into this project. I tried tothink of myself in the mechanics’ place so Icould figure out how they did certain things. Iread a lot of old magazines and studied asmany books with early factory pictures as Icould lay my hands on. This meant travellingto lots of automobilia auctions in search oforiginal photographs to study in detail.’

But why did he set his standards so high?Paul explains: ‘I have attended TechnoClassica Essen, and several other large classic

events, just so I could see for myself what theexperts call a quality restoration. I usuallycame away disappointed. You see, the truequality of a restoration is only found whenyou get down on your hands and knees andlook underneath. I usually crawl all over a carat a show, and can’t really understand why somany people don’t give much thought towhat’s underneath that shiny bodywork. Mostrestorations - even so-called high-quality ones- lack real attention to detail. I guess I’mstrange in that I believe if you’re going torestore a car well you should aim to return toits factory-original condition as accurately aspossible in every area. Anything else is onlysecond best.’

The problem here - and this isn’t unique toearly Porsches - is that there are many partswhich simply aren’t available, no matter howdiligently you search. Many smaller parts haveto be fabricated after studying drawings andphotographs. Paul Rui had to make the tinyhose-clamps for the fuel lines: ‘They areidentical to the clamps used for the axle

boots on the transmission, but in a muchsmaller scale. They took so much work - Ineeded four, and it took me close to threehours to make each one from scratch!

‘I spent an awful lot of time studyingparts,’ continues Rui, ‘in an effort to discovertheir origins. Thankfully, as many mechanicalcomponents are identical to those used onthe contemporary VW Beetle, there have beentimes when I’ve been fortunate enough to findNOS parts, such as the torsion bars, king-pins,brake master-cylinder, wheel cylinders, link-pins, track-rods, and front and rear shocks(the rear shocks actually date back to thewartime era, and are stamped with the veryearly VW cogwheel logo!). I learnt that manyof these parts were not painted, being left asraw metal covered in grease. Of course, I have

done it in the same fashion.’It seems glass and Mr Rui don’t get along

too well, though. ‘I managed to crack threesets of windshields and had to order severalsets of window rubber from Tom Birch, as heis the only person who makes them.Unfortunately, they are not cut to the rightlength, so I had to cut them myself, but endedup cutting them either too short or too long,so the glass broke when I tried to install it!Eight times I had the glass in and out, before Iwas satisfied with the result. I learned thatit’s not recommended to tackle this job onyour own, like I did - the experts say at leastthree people are needed to do the job properlybut, if you are like me and only trust yourself,you have a problem.

‘Several people try to do it the easy way,’says Paul, in a disapproving manner, ‘by usingthe one-piece windscreen from a “bent-screen” 1953 model. They then cut the centralsealing strip from the earlier car in two anduse silicon - that’s horrible on a 1950s car - tostick the pieces on either side of the glass to

make it look like a two-piece windscreen.‘All the glass is in fact new, but not

marked - I chose not to etch-mark the glassbecause I have yet to find out if it used to bemade by Sigla or Sekurit. Working out what todo about the window rubbers was a case ofusing logic. I struggled for a time to find outwhere the join should be, and it wasn’t beforeTom Birch in America sent me a picture of anoriginal windscreen, with the rubber and glassintact, that I realised my ‘screen had to comeout again. The join in the rubber should be atthe top and not the bottom. I also found thesame with the rear window, by using amagnifying glass while looking at a photo inthe Porsche archives. It all makes sense whenyou think about it: it’s raining, you stop, waterruns down the window and gathers at the

bottom of the seal. Now, if the join is at thebottom, water will seep into the car. Simplelogic, you see. Porsche never did use any glueon the early seals...’

After even a few minutes talking withPaul Rui, you start to get the feeling thattrying to restore a Pre-A 356 by yourself is atruly daunting task. But even if you entrustthe task to a professional, there’s still noguarantee you’ll end up with the right partsbeing used, not because of any intentionalcorner-cutting, but simply because so fewpeople really know the minutiae of olderPorsches. Paul gives another example:‘Bumper trim comes in various shapes. Minehas a groove down the middle, which is rightfor the period. Others don’t and the two areoften confused. Also, these early cars have athin aluminium trim to finish off the valances,

The proud owner with the fruits of his tenyears of obsessive research. Original Hellaheadlights are fragile and almost impossibleto find in this condition

PRE-A 356

37CLASSIC PORSCHE

“If you’re going to restore a car well you should aim toreturn it to its factory-original condition”


front and rear - these are fastened with tinyscrews that have a square-shaped head. Italmost goes without saying that these areimpossible to find, so I had to get these madeas well.’

All too often, it’s the trim and ancillarieswhich cause the most grief - sorting thebodywork itself can almost seem easy bycomparison! On this car, the rear lights,including the indicator lenses, are all new oldstock, and you can only imagine how hard itmust be to find parts like that. ‘You can getgood reproduction indicator lenses, but thecolour of the glass is too dark,’ says Paul. ‘AndI spent a full two years finding the correctHella headlights. They are extremely difficultto find, because the reflectors are silveredbrass. You only need to look hard at them andthey crack. Remarkably few people know theyshould be brass, even die-hard VW guys. Ifound a memo in the Porsche archives statingthat they changed to Bosch in early 1951,probably for this very reason.’

But what about tyres? How manysupposedly accurate restorations have youseen where the car runs on a set of modernradial tyres? Paul shudders at the thought. ‘Imanaged to trace a set of brand new DunlopGold Seal tyres in Denmark. Now, you have towonder how tyres can survive for 50 yearswithout cracking up, but the secret is the

storage: you must keep them in the cold anddark. These tyres are fitted to a set of thecorrect KPZ riveted wheels for the year andmodel,’ says Paul.

‘The hubcaps are a story of their own - andthe only departure from truly original on thecar. I had always liked the old hubcaps thatcame on the really early 356s (as if a 1950model wasn’t really early - KS), and, although Iknow that they are wrong for my car, I knew Ihad to have them. Of course, now a few otherPre-A 356s have them fitted, but mine havebeen on the shelf for five years. Richard Kingfound a set of the “good quality” repro largeVW-logo hubcaps, and set about findingsomeone who could make a wooden buck tohammer out the logo pressing. It took lots ofwork, but I think the end result is reallyworthwhile.’

There are relatively few things that theold Pre-As share with the later 356 models,one of them being the strap that holds thehandbrake cable and brake hoses in place. Butthat didn’t make things any easier. Paulexplains: ‘You can get repros of these but theyare in nylon, which is something that I doubtthe factory used - not in the early days,anyway. This detail was one of those thingsthat took a long time figuring out. I had seenfragments of original ones, sometimes inleather, but also rubber. I have used rubber, as

I believe this to be the most correct.’ Logicand obsession rear their heads again...

Paul Rui’s obsessive behaviour showed nosigns of waning when it came to the interior,either. ‘Many Porsches came with radiosinstalled, but I believe this was a dealer-installed option. Many restorers choose toinstall radios, therefore I have chosen not to -besides, my car probably didn’t have a radiofitted originally anyway. Instead I have made -from scratch - the so-called “dummy gauge”that just says “PORSCHE”. It took a lot of work(and time) to accurately replicate this panel,but I think it was well worth the effort.

‘Some people might also wonder why Ihaven’t fitted any license-plate brackets onmy car, but don’t forget, I restored this car tothe state in which it left the factory, not theshowroom. I believe these, like the radio, werealmost certainly installed by the dealer,especially when you consider the differencesin the shape and size of license platesthroughout the world.

As soon as the 356 left Sportwagen, itwas sent to O´Rourke Coachtrimmers inCranleigh, Surrey, where Robbie O’Rourke tookon the task of reconstructing the car’s trim tocreate an interior that was exactly as it wouldhave had from new. It is an absolutelyincredible piece of work. Of course, things arenever simple, as Paul explains yet again:

38 CLASSIC PORSCHE


‘Floorboards in these early cars have alwaysbeen a point of debate. What colour shouldthey be? After speaking to a few friends inSweden who had found a set of floorboards inblue, we started to wonder if they werematched to the colour of the carpet: bluecarpet, blue boards; green carpet, greenboards. It seemed logical, but I neededconfirmation. And then I found a board at aswapmeet in America that was green! Inretrospect, it seems strange that Porschewent to this trouble when you consider howmany different colours were available at thetime and that the floorboards were almostentirely hidden out of sight.

‘I chose to install a full carpet set, whichis more for show, as most of the early carsprobably had rubber mats as standard - it’shard to say what was the original choice asthere are no records. Anyway, I have colour-matched my floorboards to the carpets, andalso glued/nailed a small strip of horsehair onthe back of each to prevent the boards fromhammering on the metal - just like theoriginals.’

But what of the drivetrain? This was onearea where Paul faired a little better. ‘The non-synchromesh split-case VW-sourcedtransmission is pretty much original and, inthe end, I just took it apart and inspected itbefore reassembling it again.’ But don’t thinkhe took any short cuts in his search fororiginality: ‘I decided to put in a graphitethrow-out bearing like they used in the earlydays. Nobody will ever see it, but I’ll know it’scorrect for the year. I was just following mygolden rule when restoring this car: return it

to its former glory, the way it was originally.’As for the engine, it’s the correct VW-

based, short-stroke 1100cc unit that’s hadthe pistons and cylinders replaced, but isoriginal (that word again!) in every waypossible. Paul continues the tale: ‘The enginewith which it was fitted is actually slightlyolder then the car itself and was probablyamong the first 100 engines to be produced.Fortunately, it still had all the original andunique parts for an 1100, which include thesuper-rare heads that, in 1950, had four-boltintake manifolds.’ The engine was lovinglyrebuilt by Ole Walzig, using as many of theoriginal components as possible, and thendetailed to perfection. It runs like a dreamand, in such a light car, its performance beliesits miniscule capacity. We took a trip roundthe streets of Oslo and found it hard tobelieve that a car this old behaves so well inmodern traffic. Dr Porsche and son clearlyknew what they were doing when theypenned the 356. Heaven only knows whatrivals made of their little gem.

We think it is safe to say that this isalmost certainly the most correct restorationof an early Porsche done to this day. Even thePorsche museum agrees, and has expressedinterest in Paul Rui’s Radium Green beauty.Take a look at the photos and it’s not hard tosee why.

We’ll leave the last word(s) to the proudowner. ‘Obviously a lot of people have helpedme with this project and if I was going tomention everyone, it would fill a page alone! Idefinitely wouldn’t have managed it withoutthe help of Jens Torner in the Porsche

archives, or Nadine Katz at the Porschemuseum. Also, big thanks go to Tomas forletting me use his workshop so often, andTom Birch in America, who must be one of THEgreatest authorities on these early Porsches.There have been many questions we havesolved together in our discussions about whyPorsche did this or did that. Christer Rye inSweden has been extremely helpful withsourcing parts and giving me valuableinformation, following the detailedrestoration of his own 1951 356. KobusCantraine in Belgium has been a big help indocumenting and finding parts on his travelsacross the world.

‘Thanks must go to Tom Scott, who soldme the car in the first place, and was alsosuch a valuable source helping me to trackdown correct parts. Austin Asphjell for findingthe car in Hemmings, and for organizing thetransport to get the car back to Norway.Victor Miles really deserves a big thank youfor doing the chroming. It really is absolutelymuseum quality! Finally, Richard King, RobbieO’Rourke and, finally, Bruce at Sportwagen forapplying the incredible Radium Green paint. Iam very impressed with the quality of thework done and can truly recommendSportwagen for the finest of restorations.’

It’s hard to believe that the rusty tub on thefar left could end up looking so perfect! Paulsaved every tiny part of the car so that hehad constant reference to original details

Engine is the correct 1100cc ‘short-stroke’ unit, which runs like a Swiss watch

PRE-A 356

39CLASSIC PORSCHE


EXPORT 56:Layout 1 27/10/09 11:06 Page 1

www.brm-manufacture.com

Fo r s t o c k i s t e n q u i r i e s p l e a s e t e l e p h o n e + 3 3 ( 0 ) 1 6 1 0 2 0 0 2 5L O N D O N

D M 0 2 0 7 3 1 8 3 5 3 1 - C O N N O L LY 0 2 0 7 4 3 9 2 5 1 0 - J U R A LT D 0 2 0 7 8 9 8 0 5 2 0 - T H E WAT C H G A L L E RY 0 2 0 7 5 8 1 3 2 3 9

Create your own BRM V12...

eate your Cr

V1wn BRM o

12...

m-mrb.www

lpseiriuqnetsikcotsroF

c.erutcaffaunam

20020161)0(33+enohpeletesae

mo

5

538137020MD

J-01529347020YLLONNOC-135

pq

TAWEHT-02508987020DTLARUNODNOL

)(p

93231857020RYELLAGHC

BRMCP01:Layout 1 27/10/09 11:14 Page 1

classic porsche preview

Documents