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John Mellencamp recorded a fun song called Cherry Bomb a long time ago, but it's still a great listen. If you've forgotten the song, listen to it below while you look at the photos of Miss April on a neighbors driveway, bathed in cherry trees. A much different "cherry bomb", but I just couldn't resist the song reference. Hope you like the photos.    
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Ok, not the old movie with Jim Carrey....... There are a lot of cables on a 356. Probably the reader quickly thinks of the clutch cable, but here is a list of the ones I am working on.
This weekend I replaced the cable to the rear decklid. I had previously removed and lubricated it, but when I reinstalled it, the cable broke at the end right where is passes through the latch. It's important to know that is a rubbing point and also the point where there is stress when the cable is pulled. I cleaned and lubed the engine lid latch months ago, and it works great. I made a small extension to use until this weekend I replaced the cable with a new one. Installed it with a nice lube as I put it into place. Here is where it gets interesting.... The cable sold for the engine lid release is the same one as used for the hood release. In my case engine deck lid cable broke only about 2 inches from the end, and was in great shape otherwise. Here is the surprise, the cable length to the rear engine lid is LONGER than the length to the front hood latch. Hmmmm..... I did not want to have the cable break for my front hood latch, so I removed the latch and gave it a serious cleaning. It sure was full of dirt and grime. Came out great after soaking and cleaning with a soft brush. Photos are below. Then, to avoid the issue of the front hood cable breaking at the point of attachment to the latch (like the engine deck lid cable did), I simply used the old engine deck lid cable for the front hood cable. Even though it had lost about 2 inches when it broke, I still had to cut another couple of inches off of it to use for the front hood latch. Again, the cable was in fantastic shape, so I lubricated it and installed it with full confidence. After cleaning the latch it was lubricated as well. Both front and rear cables operate very smoothly now, plus I have a spare cable I could use if I need to cut it down for the fuel door. Photos below.    There are brass fittings and screws on a 356. Perhaps more on the earlier cars, but even on the 356 C cars, there are brass screws in the Zenith carburetors, and brass fittings on the brake lines. But, there is at least one more spot... The straight slot screw that goes into the fastener where the rear deck lid cable folds back is, yes indeed, brass. Of course I had to polish mine!  Original fuel line on T-6 Porsches had a blue plastic tracer in the braided cloth. Many of us have found samples of this that remained unchanged for decades under the floor mat at the front of the tunnel. It was used in that location, but also on the engine, the gas tank overfill line (T-6) and connecting the brake fluid reservoir to the line feeding the master cylinder. Some attempts have been made to replicate this plastic lacing, but none were made with the same materials as original. Today you could buy fuel line that is woven nylon over the rubber fuel hose, and the blue tracer line is made up of several thin strands of nylon threads (not a solid lace). The fuel line is shinny black, the color of the tracer is the wrong color, and it is obviously not a solid plastic lacing, but threads. So the problem is that the original lines are old and unsafe, not fit for modern fuels, and a replacement fuel line can be had in braided cloth, but without the blue tracer. This is what a large percentage of 356 owners are installing today. So, what is an originality freak to do???? I had my own line made up with the proper materials of course!!!!!!! I pulled the blue plastic lacing from an original fuel line and examined the back side to get a good color match. Originally the blue was lighter than the dirty appearance the 50+ year old stuff looks now. Very happy I found a good match. Results are below. This first photo is the original fuel line that was used on the gas tank vent line. I decided to reuse this piece since it is in nice shape and normally not a "wetted" part.  Here it is installed.  Another shot of used/original line. This one is so dirty is still has spider webs on it. That makes the blue plastic tracer line look darker than it did originally.  Here is a somewhat blurry photo of the nylon version of replacement lines. Again, the material is nylon instead of cloth, and nylon threads instead of solid blue plastic lace. In the photo below, it doesn't look to bad, but in person, it is very obvious that the braiding is done with groups of nylon threads, not cloth. A few years ago I bought some not knowing it was made this way. I tossed it out when it arrived.  And now,,,, here is the line I made up! Cloth wrapped with a solid blue plastic tracer as original!  |