door question

does anyone know if speedster doors and roadster doors are the same , just the shell? thanks

Speedster and Convertible D were the same if I'm not mistaken. Cabriolet doors were different, the top of the door on a Cab were pretty much the same as coupe, so they were straight across the top where the Speedsters sort of tapper down to the back.

NO they are very very Different. The speedster door is shorter on the winshield post end at the top and the windshied comes back more on the sides I had to cut part of the nose of the windshield post off and add it back on the doors when i did my Speedster D conversion. and the rear half of a speedster is 3 inches lower than a Roadster i had to remake the rear window as well.

ugh, not what I wanted to hear Barry but I'm glad to find it out now rather than in the middle of a potential conversion. My attempt to find a roadster always brings me back to the conversion idea.

Jane-

Just an idea...

Barry converted his VS speedster into a '59 "D". He did a great job. Buy his, or have him do one for you.

Jane your too Kind Thanks.. But it's a slow and tedious process. I would only do it again If i had to fix mine.. Im to slow for most customers. I take so many painstaking extra steps to make sure it fits and I made my own defroster vents by hand out of tin,that look a lot like the real ones

Hey If you can get roadster doors (ready to go) regs, glass, and in them. thats a BIG save.. The windshield and door post mods are not that rough Settin the D winshield and frame in the right place is the tricky part But if you have doors with windows up. That would help..

But I will still say!!!! Get a IM even if you have to have it built.

The Intermmecania has so many things goin for it ,I think they use 914 suspenion parts these days . A tube non flexing frame.
4 speed.5 speed and even fully automatic trannies options. rack and pinion steering. AC and good heaters. and Henry backing the quality.. Pricy!! Yes!! But a much better car..

I like your idea Stan, but I kind of thought maybe
Barry woudn't be too keen on it. I have a small car lot and we fabricate things a lot actually so Barry when you say about getting the doors set up with the glass that to us I was thinking would be the easier part, we even have geo tracker window regs, I 'm glad you noted that the windshield fitment and defrost vents aren't as big of a challenge, I was thinking frankly get the door fronts to allign properly with the windshield frame would be the most tedious. My friend at Rusty Tubs in GA and I were talking about making a template for roadster since he has the molds but this was a few years ago. I was reading an older post of someone else on the group who did this using karmann ghia window scrapers and regs his too is water and air tight. Barry I would love to just build one from scratch but unfortunately by business is down, a few years ago was booming but our glorious economy put a glitch in my plans. I would like to but a roller from SAS but don't want to wait a lifetime, don't want to get started on that again, sore subject wait time. With the paint work it would take as well as the initial outlay of original top frame, windshield and frame and roadster seats, not including the labor for the door work thats no biggie, don't you think it would be a wash, meaning maybe holding out for a roadster would be the better option, OH my god I'm even getting sick of hearing myself saying this now for years, back and forth back and forth. If I found a speedster that would be worthy of the conversion it owuld have to be a later built one, I definitely don't want another pan based speedie have to have all the goodies now, rack and pinion, A/C etc. A few years ago I bought an older IM roadster and gutted it and re did it doing all that I wanted, cosmetically that is, it was gorgeous frankly but I was left with a really pretty older pan based speedie and it wasn't pleasurable to drive it was not different than the CMC's I had before. Ah, the search goes on or you knooooow who is in my area soooo very close to me , ha ha Alan's only a hop away but didn't seem too anxious to get into a conversion project which I can understand, anyway maybe doing it ourselves here would afford me more $$$'s in the original outlay for the car itself.

oops wrong car

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Low-Mileage-356-Roadster-D-/220740288835?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3365258143

this one would be a nice possibility but it's about 23k more than I want to spend and frankly they're not pulling numbers they should so if it still stays a buyers market maybe I can find an IM roadster for $32ish

If it helps, ill buy that steering wheel from you. :)

hey Paul I sold it on the car but I got from my friend Ric at Rusty Tubs, 356 parts, paid $450 including the horn ring and paid $250 to have it restored, you can find em on ebay or on the classifieds on the 356 registry site

Jane,

Had know idea the wheels where affordable anymore. I appreciate the information.

Paul

Paul,

there is a guy in CA whose company name is Sierra Madre collection , all porsche parts and he sell the ivory original VDM sterring whell for approx. $1000 completely restored, the horn ring is not included at that price but they are stunning, he advertises on the 356 registry site and on ebay under 356 parts, I also got an awesome pair of leather bonnet straps from him, they are absolutely the highest quality I've ever seen.

Jane

I can tell you this,, It took a while to do it. Id at least 2 years in my spare time.


If you have autobody skills and want it bad enough. Do it.

but if i had a choise IM

the other potential stumbling block could be the availability of an original D top frame and taking into consideration the only other source for one would be from IM in which either source would be pricey I'm sure as well as completing the roadster with roadster seats and that in and of itslef could also be a challenge in that they need alterations to even fit, unless someone else had better experiences than I they were to wide and required the removal of the existing seat tracks and fabricating another seat platform that would accomodate original seats, I opted to use the IM seats in my 82 IM roadster that I restored even though I didn't like them nearly as much as the original set I bought from Rusty tubs that were complete with newly chromed side hinges, they were gorgeous and I loved the patina of the leather but a long with the challenge of installing over riders etc, dyeing the stayfast top that was initially dark brown and restoring an original ivory vdm wheel I decided to make a concession, ugh, anywya if anyone has any other ideas regarding rodaster top frames or original seats I owuld love hearing about it.

Barry, this one on ebay doesn't even look complete , where are the bows and I'd find it hard to belive if the moving any parts are fluid , if this is an indication of what's out there it might not be good.

It is interesting that the eBay seller says they are "the authorized retailer for Intermreccanica in the US".

That would seem to be correct.

http://www.intermeccanica.us/

In the early 90s there was a Dealer named C & F who built and sold IM speedsters and roadsters in Costa Mesa. I remember shopping them, Vintage and JPS on one long summer day. C&F was mainly a restoration and repair shop with Alfas, Austin Healys, Morgans and much exotic iron to be drooled over. He taught an evening auto shop class at a local school. He was then famous for making sure that ALL the Philips head screws were always "clocked" identically on any given panel. By 2000 he was no longer an IM dealer.

It took me over a year to find a top and windshield frame from 2 different places posted in Hemmings Motor News 2 times. Doc and Sy had the top The brass winshield frame came from out near Seatle..

Barry,

just curious when you were sourcing the parts for the conversion if you even checked with IM since they build conv D's they have the windshields, frames and conv top frames, just curious if you got any prices or availability from them

You could do that But I wanted the real thing. I recently found out that the top and frame are now worth 3 times what I paid for them back in 2001.. WOW back then cost me $3,000.+ for all of it and they had to be restored.

Barry, what do ya think of this, I found an original D door and I have a line on the other side and I also found a beautiful D top frame thats powder coated and ready to install. What do ya think about using the original doors, obviously for you it owuld have been a drawback because of the whole needing to be repainted but I'm working on putting something together to buy in mid stage and not painted so as to start from scratch. Let me know what you think about using the authentic doors and your thoughts about allignment etc, thanks, Jane