Lane's Beck Coupe #1

Lane:

Wheels are one of the easiest things to change once you get your car and drive it for a while.  That's the route I took with mine.  Henry had a set of old D-90/964 wheels that were the perfect width and offset, so we had those cleaned up and that's what I am using now.

After a season or two of driving, should I decide to change the wheels, I then have the perfect upgrade, without having to make any real changes to the car.  Put away a few bucks each month, and it adds up.

And Christmas comes once a year, don't forget.  

Lane---I can't think of a better guy to be the trailblazer for the Beck coupe.  This is such an exciting project to me as for years I have thought the ultimate would be a 356 coupe powered by Suburau.  I like your plan for the uber reliable  EJ25 engine--a very smart "no hassle" choice.  Like I always insisted on with my sales force, "we want high production, low cost and no trouble!"  Delivering only two out of the three was unacceptable.

You know that in addition to the Beck Speedster manual you wrote, you had better get started on the Coupe handbook.  Could be some trading material for you there?

Good on ya, my friend.

See you in Charleston in just 7 weeks.

I too am excited for you.  I'll have the same engine at Carlisle, but am stuck with the 4-speed with my chassis :-(.  You're certainly willing to drive it to get a feel for the future.

We're also experimenting with a couple of shift-linkage improvements (not sure if they'll be applicable to your setup); an oilite shifter bushing to replace the nylon one and CB performance's Rhino Super coupler to replace the traditional rubber one.

I still am advocating slate gray with a tobacco interior with maybe a black racing stripe like this one :-)

Jack: the coupe manual, along with several others, comprise the "sweat equity" I mentioned in the first post.

Tom: I have left my "red" phase and am entering a "blue" one.  As for grays, I drive a black car (very very dark gray ;-) as a DD so I'm leaning against that.  However, I do really like whatever Porsche called a battleship gray color.  I'm pretty firm on the oxblood interior, though.

Given that we have 6-8 months before delivery do y'all think we can make a record thread page count here?

Lane, you can go full SC trim, no?

Lane Anderson posted:

David: Wheels may be stock to keep things in budget.  I am looking at a couple of other upgrades but have to be realistic.  I know what I'd like (Minilites) but they're quite pricey...

Lane, have you considered starting out with Panasports?

They can't be too much more than stock wheels. Moss has 15 x 6's at $329 for four:

http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop...x?PlateIndexID=71603

And you may decide they're close enough to the Minilites not to bother upgrading.

Sacto Mitch posted:

Lane Anderson posted:

David: Wheels may be stock to keep things in budget.  I am looking at a couple of other upgrades but have to be realistic.  I know what I'd like (Minilites) but they're quite pricey...

 

Lane, have you considered starting out with Panasports?

They can't be too much more than stock wheels. Moss has 15 x 6's at $329 for four:

http://www.mossmotors.com/Shop...x?PlateIndexID=71603

And you may decide they're close enough to the Minilites not to bother upgrading.

 

Interesting, Mitch; they even make a 15x7" (for the back)...

I can go pretty much any way I want.  I am thinking (but not firmly decided) about:

• No bumper overriders
• Possible aluminum bumper trim ala GTs.  This would also mean leaving off the side deco strip
• Raydyot racing mirrors
• Possibly some driving lights in the lower front grills.  The GTs did not have the vent trim.  Instead, they only had screens.  Not sure whether I want to do that or not.
• While chrome or silver painted wheels are standard, the outlaw vibe needs something else.  Since I probably can't afford alloys at first what do y'all think about having the stock rims powder-coated black with stock hubcaps?  I could also have the wheels painted (but not powder-coated) body color.  If I went with body-colored wheels I could try to do the same pseudo-rudge look that Pieter van Rossum did on his Envemo. 

Here are a couple of pictures of Pete's car for those that weren't there in 2009.

I love the Panasports but am not sure how to get them in the right size (cuz I don't know what that is yet.  Are you sure the price isn't $329 EACH?

EDIT: Yeah, that's for each wheel.  If you select a quantity of 4 the total is $1319 and change.  Sigh...  Here are several with Minilites/Panasports.

Lane Anderson posted:

...Are you sure the price isn't $329 EACH?...

Ah, sorry - you're right.

The first page shows of price of $329 and a quantity of four in the box. But when you click the 'add to basket' button, it does the unfortunate math.

But you may have better luck finding these in the right size with proper offset and brake clearance than the Minilites.

Haven't been on in ages. Great to hear that they are doing a modern envemo coupe.  Regarding wheels. I suggest looking for some 15x5.5  5 x 130 911 painted steel rims. They are plentiful and reasonably priced. Last month after 11 years of ownership I updated mine from the old 4 lug and nipple caps. 5 lug rotors up front. Stebro 5 lug drums in the rear and complete resetting of the front beam and rear torsion bars.  It honestly woke the car up visually.  Only issue is that I am going to have to add a slight spacer (maybe quarter inch)to the rear drums because the flat hubcaps hit the castle nut.  I'll post some shots of it in the am. Dark here now. 

Thanks Paul.  Look forward to seeing them.

Deep dish steelies would be sweet

Here are some before shots with the 4 lug and nippl caps. Like a lot of the later cabriolets (envemo and CPB) rear of the car is was set too high.  Too me I was never 100 percent pleased with the look. 

Side shot. 

I have no idea what bolt pattern your hubs and axles will use, but if it's VW 4: EMPI 8-spokes do a pretty fair job of replicating the minilites you love.

They are available in about 6 different finishes (my favorite is satin with a polished rim) for about $100- 120/wheel shipped to your door. Not too bad.

The dark blue Marty posted is the best looking one I have ever seen in a picture  ---I'm sure not seeing many "in de flesh" around these parts. The full SC trim is fabulous.

Absolutely gorgeous and just what I'd pick.  Yessir!   Only I'd go with a more comfortable seat than the original Speedster type.  I never sat in one but it just looks hard and like it would wear your a** out in short order on a  road trip.

I am starting to have 356 Coupe lust attack.

Lane have a look at these Emory coupes... You should look at his sites he has some done some great work with 1964 coupes and outlaws.. you might like some of his ideas

Here a beautiful wheel from Emory too. 

The problem with the Minilites is they don't come in a wheel offset that properly fits our cars.  You can get them with a custom offset, but the price is WAY up there.

My first choice would be a set of Porsche aluminum spares (15x5.5).

Anyone know if the Porsche spares came in 16s?

Here's some more coupes shod with Minilites

Ron wrote, "The problem with the Minilites is they don't come in a wheel offset that properly fits our cars."

That's just it Ron, this coupe won't be ONE of our cars. This is a whole new, custom build. Who knows what the possibilities are?

X2 on the Empis tho. They get you about 95 percent there for about one-fifth the money. Make a plate with 8 or 12 little acorn nuts; put two-eared knock-offs on them. Done.

If the offsets are right and the wheel wells are properly-stuffed, not two people in 10,000 will look at them with anything but envy and admiration.

What happens here though is some of us have this disease of demanding real quality--or authenticity. WE can tell the difference between a Minilite and an Empi wheel, and we know the Empi's aren't "light" or "high performance" or exclusive or "Porsche." And so we--or some of us, anyway--think we can't use them. Gotta keep up with the Joneses.

I'm sure the irony is not lost on anyone....

Porsche spares? Yes! Gather them up. Shell out. It's just money, after all, and what's money compared to braggin' rights?

BTW, just for context: I have this disease as bad as--or worser than--most of you. As I write this, my other finger hovers over the "Add To Cart" button here.

edsnova posted:

X2 on the Empis tho. They get you about 95 percent there for about one-fifth the money. Make a plate with 8 or 12 little acorn nuts; put two-eared knock-offs on them. Done.

 

That's close. It's also dirt cheap, if it's the look you're after.

Ron O wrote: "Anyone know if the Porsche spares came in 16s?"

They did for certain year 944's, and I suspect certain 924's, too.

I have one each (front 6"/rear 7" ) 16" Fuchs from a 944 and a set of 16" Fuchs from an '89 911 so the spares must be out there.  I passed on 5 944/924 spare wheels once because I didn't now about the demand.  

Lane:  You might ask Adam Wright at Unobtanium ( adam@unobtanium-inc.com ) if he has any spare wheels kicking around, but they're going to be pretty narrow for that engine/suspension.

You can always have them widened.

Or, A set of "Phone Dials"

Here's mine that I just changed. They are 911 spares 15 x 5.5 that I picked up for no more than 50 bucks a piece.  They need a 1/4 inch spacer in the rear for the hubcaps to fit and I am thinking about a maybe a half inch spacer up front to fill the well out a little more.  You have to watch the part numbers on these spares. There are 944 turbo spares out there that look the same but have a different offset.  

A couple more

Paul,

Nice Envemo, you should bring it to Carlisle this year. 

When is Carlisle?

Check out the posts in the Events section for all of the details.  We'd love to see you there.

Paul,

Carlisle weekend is 5/19-5/22.  Here is the thread in teh Events section of the forum:

https://www.speedsterowners.com...13th-year-rsvp-today

Lane, MGM, you have only just started, and here is a whole tub-full of advice about how YOU should arrange YOUR car. All good advice from your family, of course. In the months that follow you are going to get a WHOLE lot more.  Maybe we'll set a page record, as we have a very good start so far.  Hope you can handle it.  And remember, dark blue will look black a lot of the time.

Gordon Nichols posted:

Ron O wrote: "Anyone know if the Porsche spares came in 16s?"

They did for certain year 944's, and I suspect certain 924's, too.

I have one each (front 6"/rear 7" ) 16" Fuchs from a 944 and a set of 16" Fuchs from an '89 911 so the spares must be out there.  I passed on 5 944/924 spare wheels once because I didn't now about the demand.  

Lane:  You might ask Adam Wright at Unobtanium ( adam@unobtanium-inc.com ) if he has any spare wheels kicking around, but they're going to be pretty narrow for that engine/suspension.

If you look at 16" Fuchs alloys be aware that there are 2 different offsets for the 8" wheels- off the 911 (with a 911 part # and 112mm backspacing) and off the 944 (with a 951 # and 125mm backspacing).

Cool.  Not sure what side mirrors you are going to go with- GT style on the fender or durant on the door. If you go durant style on the door just be sure he mounts it in the correct spot like the original 356c. For some reason just about every envemo has it mounted further back on the door and 1) it doesn't look right and 2) it is pretty much useless in that position as a rear view mirror. I am going to move mine forward soon and probably eliminate the passanger side mirror too...though I have a GT mirror I am toying with installing. 

I'm leaning toward Raydyots (see pic) as they are period correct racing mirrors that are actually usable.  I've seem them in raw aluminum (shown) or painted, and they can be mounted on the fenders or doors.  I think they go well with an outlaw vibe.

They look nice on this Emory special 

I'm trying to get my front wheel stance like this car. The original envemo used what I believe was a narrowed Puma front beam and the rims don't fill the wheel wells up front. I am thinking about adding a spacer up front but not sure how much yet. I have some 21mm factory rear 944 spacers I am going to try for the mock up but would like something that will bolt to the disc. 

If you really like your car consider changing the front beam.