356 – Back to AAA

The wiring harness on a 356 at the headlights goes through a front fender brace and into the lamp bowls. One of mine was so decrepit and twisted from a previous hit that I couldn’t withdraw the wiring and to be honest it needed throwing away and replacing, the bumper bracket mounts were also a bit worse for wear. So with a bit of welding needed it went back to AAA. Welding is something I promise myself I will learn one day, I even bought a Haynes guide once!

Now I trust Ben at AAA, he’s worked on a few cars for me and it is safe to say that he knows me quite well. So when he called to say the front mounts are rotten he knew I’d say cut ‘em out and get on with it. He was equally comfortable when his guys chased some rust around the car that the response would be the same. And it was, so that’s what they did. Not too much, but a fair amount. There was some serious work in the engine bay. Seriously good too – one picture I saw of a part I thought was a pattern panel, but it had been hand fabricated. They also did some extensive work on a door frame. Anything suspect was cut out and replaced.

6212… Clearly with being patched and welded in places it needed some respraying, and with no loom and no interior what better opportunity than now for a colour change back to the original 6212 and Bali Blue. So that is where we are heading… complete strip to shell, bodywork underway, in primer soon, the colour matching swatches have arrived from Willhoit in the US and I’m looking forward to some great pics soon.