1956 356 Outlaw build. SoCal

It begins again. Got the last project finished about six months ago and was itching to do another. 170hp 2276 with a fully built transmission in the car with just a few miles. 

I have every single part but the door cards but it needs everything. Full wiring, oil coolers, cage installation, tune, windows. The whole thing. So out of pocket past what I paid should only be a few grand  

Figure 3 months and it will be back in the road terrorizing SoCal. 
 

right now I have to figure out how to get it off the trailer with no brake fluid.

photo on trailer. Cannot see but my wife has called dibs already on this one. 
 

Nice, can't wait to see this one progress. What's the plan for it?

Hell Yeah!

blake_ said:

Nice, can't wait to see this one progress. What's the plan for it?

Not sue. But right now leaning towards stripping everything out of it caging it and doing a proper street outlaw. 
 

also I have fantastic neighbors who helped me pull it off the trailer. 

Awesome!

Now that's a Porsche!

Appleseed said:

Now that's a Porsche!

To be clear this is very much a replica. A very old replica that has seen some E36 M3 in its life. 
 

but it's almost perfect and was clearly made as a one off from splashing an original car. 
 

Small world but the owner showed me pictures of it last weekend !

OK so I have spent a few hours going over the car and starting to tear in. I am very conflicted right now once I had it up on the lift. 

So under the body it is the best built or restored VW chassis I have ever seen. I mean absolutely perfect in every single way. Everything is brand new, the suspension is all Koni, the steering and brakes and tire and wheels and rubber and EVERYTHING is almost perfect. Better then anything I could ever build in a million years, that is saying something. Even the brake lines are perfectly run and bent custom just amazing stuff. Never been shaken down or used even one mile. It is like they were trying to show off. The transmission looks like it has two miles on it with the scope. The engine looks like it has maybe 1000 miles on it as well.  I just keep finding more and more expensive parts on the drivetrain. Again it would cost me 12K-14K to get a motor like this built, easy 9K if I built it myself. Transmission with the Sachs clutch an easy 4.2K, another 3K in brakes, shortening, chassis coating. Has brand new cut pans it appears. So well under what the chassis and body would cost me to build my 50% if you count labor. 

Now the bad. Who ever built this thing knew exactly what they were doing. But they were building a full show car, who ever owned it since then and did the other work I am less impressed with. I know what the PO did and it was not much so somebody had it in between him and the god who built the chassis. I had to pull all the carpet out, the seats, the wiring everything. nothing above the pan is correct or finished correctly. It is now completely stripped internally and all the wiring is out of the car. (They did not cut down the harness to just what was needed and used an expensive GM autometer unit)

I now have a race car shell in the garage that with about 100 hours of work would be street legal and rip. But it would be a minimal interior build, just a headliner, some flat door panels, race gauges, seats with the foam cut out of them, autopower rear cage, no side windows, just a ripper. Would be in the car for 30K when I am done if I had to take a guess. It would look the part of a 70s outlaw and perform. Could leave it outside. Very roadkill looking but reliable hopefully. 

Or I could get the windows in, make the glass work, get proper door handles, proper seats, proper everything and its going to be another 10K easy on top. It would still be easy to tell its a replica due to the window frame thickness and the dash but it is a coupe so everyone is going to think it is real. If I did this I would have to repaint the car as well which even if I do all the work add in another 6K. So call it 50K all in and better then a restored original for driving dynamics and comfort. 1/4 the cost of a real outlaw but still a lot of money for something I want to use frequently. Also I am not Emory so value is not going to keep up with the expenses. 

I should have the gas tank mounted and lines installed by next weekend. I should have the harness cutdown after that for install and then maybe a quick test fire. Gauges and brakes after that and then a milk carton seat ride in the driveway before I make any decisions. Got a parts order of about 400$ and it will make noise and may even drive. Leaning towards ratty and then maybe even beating up the paint like I did on the 550, cut the window surrounds and just have fun. 

Don't beat up the paint. Nothing is worse than faked patina.

But given that it's a replica with good mechanicals, I'd go for your first option. Make it a fun street car - I'd probably add side windows so it can be weather tight, but don't make it precious. Have fun with it, rip around with it, care for it but use it.

It amuses me that there's a "correct" way to build an outlaw. 

Wiring harness board is built. Battery and mounting now will be here tonight. 
 

I took a solid half of the harness that was in the car out. It's never going to have power windows and power door locks or really any of that stuff. 
 

after spending days tracking down problems with the 550 and the horrible wiring harness instructions o al putting everything minus the motor in the board. 
 

I have the sensors as well off the motor so I can ensure they are working as well though all the car has is fuel, oil pressure and oil temp. 
 

will run out of connectors here soon so that needs to go on the order list and that will give me time to pull all the turn signals and running lights to ensure that those work as well. 
 

I somehow never get the wiring right for the flashers or signals and I don't want to trouble shoot in t he car bent over. Will have to shorten a bunch of the wires but at least I know going in on install that o did it right. 
 

Building the harness out of the car is a very good idea. 

I dig the paint/graphics scheme! (Looks the same as my bugeye)

I am wholeheartedly in favor of the streetable race car theme you are talking. When I was building the bugeye I got a carpet/interior kit and chose to leave it on the shelf. I prefer it bare. I prefer a car that wears stone chips with pride to an immaculate one. It's just more fun. If I didn't have to cut the rear decklid to put in a valid rollbar, I would. It's just more fun to jump in and bomb around in it this way.

Man I hate universal parts. This wiring harness is completely wrong for a vw or more likely somebody was in here before and played around. 
 

I am going to have to cut the whole harness apart and make it from complete scratch. If I did this in the car I would go crazy. 
 

so cut the fuse block down to 6 on switch or accessory and two on ignition. Then hacked everything out. I mean everything. 
 

I lost about three hours tracking issues i should not have. Wiring is my absolute worst skill so I am using this to get better. I need a partner who knows what's they are doing to walk me through it and show me all the secrets. 

This is going to hurt to look at if you have built a harness before but this is my first time doing it 100% from scratch with no diagrams. 
 

so far I have fully working gauges that light up. Fuel gauge and gps speedometer work. Oil pressure I need a motor to test. 
 

high and low beams work on the bench as well on the switch. Key works and powers my fuse box. Running lights work that was dead easy. 

So next I am building a running light / turn signal setup out of four five post relays and a switch.  
 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I've only half wired a moped so IMO you're killing it there. I'll let others share anything meaningful. Seeing this and the spyder you've got one track car and one street car to roll with. 

You can probably test oil pressure by grounding the sensor wire. It'll pin the gauge and that's enough to tell you there's a connection.

THE LIGHTS THEY BLINK ON MY SWITCH AND ACT AS RUNNING LIGHTS ALL ON A SINGLE BULB. 

All wiring on the board is complete. I was able to reduce the number or wires quite a bit and everything is on spade connectors. 

Engine wiring to the key and box is next but its a vw so there are like 3 wires total as I have a DUI/HEI ignition box which only needs unballested power from the harness according to the instructions I have. Run the alternator which is one wire back to the battery and then the trigger for the starter and fuel pump. HAve not decided if I want a fuel pump switch or just to have it run on the key. 

I am picking out a location for the fuse box now. In the 356 I have there are hidden little areas near the kick panels in the front of the car that I can put everything in except the battery. Battery location in the front of the car makes running the wires to the starter a pain so I may have to buy one of those cool aluminum battery box mounts and put it right behind the seats. I could in theory make a carbon fiber board to mount the relays, the fuse box and the bus bars on the battery box and keep everything in one place for easy testing in the future or adding additional circuits. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I'd run an inertial fuel pump cutoff switch.  Ford has a decent one that can be mounted under the dash in case of a collision where you are incapacitated.

Ok harness is in the car minus shortening a lot of the wires under the hood and adding the bus boxes for the grounds because fiberglass and all grounds are being run back to the battery. Engine is wired as well. All three wires needed as it has a dui/hei distributor combo. I still need to make the cable to the starter and the battery box. 
 

but under the dash it is the cleanest wiring I have ever seen in a kit car and likely the best thing I have ever wired personally. 
 

all the wires going to the fuse box will be wrapped in cloth electrical wiring tape and then hidden under the carpet. 
 

interior guy gave me a quote for the custom carpet and kick panels which was not as bad as I thought it would be. 
 

final color will be black exterior. With black seats and oxblood red carpet with black piping. The mats will be the traditional Porsche multicolored 356 ones you can get online. 
 

If everything goes well I should have it running in about a week to confirm the health of the motor. 

Can't go wrong with that color combo. 

Ok last of the electrical bits have ben ordered, specifically a custom pre lugged 2/0 starter cable and a bunch of cloth wrap for the harness to be hidden the same way I did on the 550 which I really liked using. All should be here Friday so next week and then we can make noise. The last of the fuel line came in today along with the fuel tank and fittings and my new hose lines, will need to find a place to physically install a fuel pump. Once it is running on ether then I will find a place for the regulator and hopefully I will have the rear engine cover cut apart to clear the single center carb and intake. I could get some really cool velocity stacks for the single 48 weber and have them stick out if I remove the engine vent cover. 

I do not want to run duel carbs, I hate the modern duel carb kits for VW the linkages are crap, the modern boxed carbs are crap and they are a pain in the butt to tune correctly. I am happy giving up 30hp for the single if I get better drivability and tuning. Thing is going to scoot with 120hp. With 160hp on duels and a FK9 cam and aggressive fueling its just going to turn the tires to smoke and break things. 

If and its a big if the interior guys actually can do what they quoted me then I am going to be into this thing for less then 35K all in plus around 120-140 hours of work. Figure another 3K for the plexi windows and the 550 race seats and cage which is the next stage. Which is a steal in my book as decent speedsters are selling in the low 40's now. Coupes are well above that but I will admit the ones from JPS at around 65K-70K + the two year wait will be nicer then mine. 

Figure at the rate I am going it will be done around April of next year and then a few months for shakedown. 

Should be test firing the motor up around 6:00pm tonight. Its all wired up except for the starter wire which just showed up. I got smart this time and had one custom made with the correct lugs already on the ends so I don;t have to make it with slugs and a torch. 

Getting excited. The bad thing is I think I need to go with a dual 40idf setup. I can modify the rear to get the single to fit but its a hack on a hack to do so. Though a friend keeps sending me pictures of a 356 Outlaw setup for dirt that he made in AI. I found off road tires that would fit, I could get a UMP filter to act as an engine cover and then I could put plexiglass windows in the car. 

Something like this with a bit more tread would be a lot of fun. Plus it would piss the purists off something fierce and work on our crappy streets here in SoCal. 

Can you put in suspension seats like the buggy? I like that vision^

It runs and has oil pressure. Surprisingly quiet as well. 
 

now the real work begins.