Oof. Pour out a glass for the former owner of this pretty 1960 Porsche 356, who apparently had a very bad day that ended in a roll-over. At first, seeing the car’s location in Florida prompted me to speculate it was tossed around in the storm surge from Hurricane Ian, but the intact and mold-free interior leads me to believe this damage was the result of a road-going incident. Regardless, it looks like a car worthy of rebuilding, even if the body shop bill will be quite significant. Find it here on eBay for $44,500 or best offer.
As someone who is neck-deep in two projects right now requiring a fair amount of time in the body shop, I can tell you this: good God, it is expensive. And I found a guy who does it for far, far less than what a concours-grade shop would charge. It is one aspect of vehicle maintenance / restoration where you can see the sheer amount of hours and labor involved in doing it right, so at the very least, the costs seem justified (I’m not talking about bumper bash repairs at your local insurance facility.) Just repairing the roof properly on this 356 is hundreds of hours of labor, and that’s before paint.
What’s odd to me is why the previous owner didn’t pursue the repairs. A car like this would almost certainly be insured with an assigned value policy (right…?) which would dictate that it would be repaired back to its original form, assuming it carried a six-figure valuation. The beautiful interior, polished wheels, and what looks like very nice paint all suggest this 356 was previously restored, so one would think there’d be little argument from the insurance company that it was worthy of repair. However, there are numerous wrinkles that can materialize when it comes time to paying the shop bill on a significant vintage sports car.
The 356 still runs and drives and the seller reports that it had been recently serviced with new brakes and shocks. The 356 is obviously a cherished collector car these days, but the challenge with this one is putting the work in all while knowing it will forever have a salvage title. That alone may have deterred the previous owner from wanting to repair the 356 versus taking the insurance payout, as no matter how perfect you make it after the accident, the sale price will forever be impacted by the accident in the history file. Thanks to Barn Finds reader T.J. for the find.
PLEASE!,PLEASE!,PLEASE! don’t post
“That’ll buff out” (I know,I just did).I’m getting
so tired of that cliche’
Where r the bumper guards for this car? Is it a 1960 356? If it is it should have bumper guards front and back!
Super 90 engine and no rust makes this a good candidate for repair but not at the going in asking price. Top needs to be replaced not repaired. Lot of used parts around to do that. Left front finder on the edge of either repair or replace but I’d bet on one of those available from recylers would be easier. Metal is pretty heavy on these cars and panel straightening is a long and tedious task but more than possible. Last panel straightening on a 356 for me was on a ’60 race car with the nose pushed all the way to the trunk liner. Took 11 days to get it straight.
The pan looks bent the suspension probably is tweaked and yeah I suppose with enough man hours it can be repaired. But why spend all that time and money to save this. Other than the engine cover doesn’t seem like there is a straight panel on the car. Is this car really worth that, myself and the insurance company don’t think so. On the plus side does not have a certificate of destruction title, not sure how they finagled that.
A shop with a good alignment bench can take the misalignment out of any unibody chassis..We tweaked many a Porsche into alignment that was better than the factory specifications.
This car wasn’t involved in a bad smash, it looks like it only did s rollover do I doubt very much that the chassis is bent.
After looking at the pictures I’d say the reason for the rollover, besides stupidity, was the jacked up rear suspension. There should be a little negative camber back there and it doesn’t look like it’s anywhere near being that way.
So sad to see.Please somebody save her.
This looks like an older, inferior restoration. The engine, and a few other things are all it’s worth. Look where the passenger door was rust repaired. Completely unacceptable. And I have to wonder who painted it, primer doesn’t remove itself from bare metal, like that. And don’t get me started, on how people practically cover a car, with a skim coat of bondo.
This is so sad and I am not even a Porsche fanatic ,to see this happen to any collectible car is hard to take. Over my 60 some years as an absolute car nerd, I have had experience with body work and paint work. And there is no doubt this is not going to be easy and it is going take experience and talent to get it done, not even factoring in the money. I hope someone will be able to do it.
Sure, this could be fixed, but only a fool would pay $44K for it then add $120K-plus to do the job right. Almost every panel is bent, and the floorpan looks suspect. Previous “restoration” work (bondo) would all have to be re-done. Meanwhile, you can find dozens of nice 356s for far less than you’d have in it. This is a 356B, not an Abarth Carrera. This is a parts car.
It probably did just come out of a hurricane. It looks like the four Winged cars a doofus left in FLA during the storm and it destroyed them.
Title probably washed.. could be a flood car, could be a sherrif office drug car, probably not insured. Carfax should show wreck history.
CARFAX only goes back to 1981 vehicles when they standardized the VIN numbering system.
Methinks the ins co paid for the car and he bought it back? Shame to see it bent up like this. Too rich for this ol grey hair’s blood. Good luck and happy motoring.
Cheers
GPC
The accident damage is not that bad, any reasonably competent metalworker can do this. The problem as I see it is the car is a BONDO SPECIAL. Just look at how thick the filler is everywhere, and filled/painted over rust!
Just curious what this thing would be worth completed?
Here’s one for 62k, or am I missing something?
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/porsche/356b/2606206.html