356 Hand Built Video

Actung Bitte: These are classic videos of how the 356 was hand built at the Reutter coach builders. There are 5 parts to the video. First show unitized body which is so different from the VW pan.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQBrQ5qd5w8

Wolfgang--wow! What a video--thanks for posting this; it will be a classic on this site for years to come. Thanks for posting it.

I was surprised to read that the car used a "unitized body which is so different from the VW pan" because according to the video the only time "unitized body" was mentioned was at the end as the body was being completed and was referred to as the assembly of the complete body shell which conists of a pan, tunnel, top,braces, door openings, etc.

There most definitely is a pan and at 4:09 of the video it is shown and described as "the bottom pan or frame". The tunnel is referred to at 4:21 and at 6:00 the assembly is described as "the bottom pan and tunnel"

I was interested because I deliberately chose a pan based Speedster
because it was close to the original car. Two defining features of the original Speedster were the pan based frame and the air cooled
pancake aircooled engine. I wanted a car as close to the original Speedster experience in handling and engine as I could get, so I chose a pan based car with an air cooled engine.

You were correct in that the body shell is a "unitized car body", as you said, but it incorporates a pan and a tunnel.

Key difference for a uni-body vehicle is there is no separate structual frame. The auto has the body and frame in one unit where side members are designed on the principle of a bridge truss to gain stiffness, and body sheet metal (fenders, cowl, roof) is stressed so that it carries some of the load. A unibody car can't be unbolted from the chassis like a VW pan and be driven around that way (for long anyhow). When you look at a Porsche with rusted longitudinals - be careful not to open both doors at same time (especially on convertibles!) as the shift rod is the heaviest steel piece left. Even sunroofs are said to weaken the structure - hence Targa's are less sought out by autocrossers over a hardtop coupe.

Wolfgang,

Not quite true. The longitudinals are only a portion of the whole concept. The inner structure can by its self hold the engine transmission and suspension and be driven around like a VW pan if you were to cut off the body shell. The Sunroof does NOT compromise anything because the structure is reinforced inside by the sunroof top frame. The reason Porsche went with a unitized body and frame construction is it's light weight to strength ratio is off the chart and not having a pan bolted together you eliminate flex especially with regard to the front suspension. If you need pictures I have plenty........;-)

BTW it is a great video and I have watched it many times.

Dave-the comment was about rusted longitudinals. Anyway discussion about structural integrity, pros-cons-otherwise, is for general reference only.

Scott,

I know it was about rusted/rusty longitudinals. My point was even if they are very badly rusted the 356 Porsche even the open ones are NOT as flexible as people would think. I have seen some VERY rusty cars go through Ted Blake's restoration shop in Sacramento and you would really be amazed how compromised things can be and still not have problems. I have scrapped a couple that folks would/could have restored if you put your mind to it. The problem comes when you cut the bad parts out to replace them and you don't have things braced properly is when you get into trouble if you don't know what you are doing.

Cheers!

I thought uni or unitized was EXACTLY like a beetle. The frame of the car is the base (1 piece), uni..... then the body is bolted, molded, fit to the base. Anyhooo....great vid, there's a series of those on YouTube. Cool to watch how the old guys worked before the unions came in.

Mike--it is cool to see how those guys worked pre-unions.

Curious--Porsche is still in business. Not like "Government motors" yes, the "new GM" after stiffing stockholders, suppliers, workers and receiving a gov't checkbook, the union as a part-owner and a total bozo CEO with zero experience in car making. Ain't it wonderful.

Anyway---back to: " that big flat thingie under the 356, is it or ain't it a pan."

Floor (even with shift rod tunnel) on 356 is NOT a pan (floor pan yes but not to be confused to T1 Beetle pan which also supports all the suspension components - save for MacPherson equipt Super Beetle). If you were to call the 356 floor a pan based car then virtually every car produced since 1960's could be called pan based - from Pinto to Cadillac. Few framed based vehicles left now - most PU and real SUV (not cross-overs). Corvette is probably last mass production frame based car! (?)

The Golf/Rabit would be Unibody. The old Beetle is really a bastardized ladder frame which we like to call a pan. The center tunnel being key strength part. Key is that for unitized vehicles the entire body is stressed to provide strength with a weight reduction (plus guess easier to build with robotics). I never could figure out what the T2 bus was (60-70's at least) - looking underneath you see classic ladder frame but it is not separable from the real body.

Do we have a vote feature on the FORUM? That would be neat feature.

Sometimes a name, or naming convention, depends on the order or stage of assembly; what is a sub-assembly becomes part of a final inseparable assembly after it is "fused" together (fused=welded, bonded, riveted).

To go off point, just a little, I still say they (Porsche, or anyone, really) could make the exact same car (356 Speedsters and/or coupes), using so much sheet metal and numerical techniques and robots, I guess, these days. If you look in the car mags, you can find Chevy Camero unibodies made by some company or other, brand new and available for sale. And they claim to be exact form/function replicas, but better because they use far fewer individual pieces of sheet metal to form up the thing: stiffer , stronger, and less prone to rusting. And they do this using the modern numerically controlled jigs and welders, etc. I'm tellin' ya, they could make "real" 356s, out of steel, better than the originals, if they wanted to. And to pose the question again, seen in another thread recently: if they did, would you buy one if it cost ~same as a FG shell and a shortened VW pan and running gear?

That videos amazed me.It makes me interested about unitized body.thanks for the post.

PS: I watched all five. Took me about 15 mins to clean all the drool off my keyboard. I'm sure I saw my old S90 being put together ;-)

Had to laugh at the remarks made about how well the car was rust-proofed and made water tight. Maybe for the truck ride to the dealership, but not much beyond that. Still, what a marvelous place. And they were right for sure: hand made.

I almost got to see the Zuffenhausen plant in '69, or maybe '72 -- can't recall. Imagine my utter dismay and monumental disappointment when, after spending a whole morning looking for the place (PS: Stuttgart and Z'hausen are NOT the same place)that all tours had been cancelled for some time because they were building a new car not yet released, so wanted nobody to see: the 911. Scheis!!

Watch yourself Kelly, the drooling is the 2nd thing to happen...remember the 1st?

Wow. I'm just blown away (in a good way) by how unrefined the unibody is compared to a 911.

Lot's of good pics at the derwhites356literature.com site, too. Look here: http://derwhites356literature.com/Birthofa356A.html

Look at the wood forms that they hammered the body panels into shape on!!! This kind of stuff makes me want to buy contour gauges, an english wheel, a sheetmetal brake, and a hammer & dolley set. Given the time and using my CMC as a template, I'm pretty sure I could find a panel beater to widdle out a metal body to sit on a full tube frame.