Issue link: https://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/1309033
16 car it was in was totaled years ago and he kept the interior with the intent of finding another 356 someday. Someday turned into years. His daughter was studying to be a pilot and flight school isn't cheap. The detailed auction photos showed a few pieces had some issues and the high $8,800 listing price tempted me to just place a low bid and cross my fingers. Nobody else in the universe needed a red leather interior for their 356 the day the auction closed, so it was mine at the listing price. I rationalized that the price was a bit of a splurge, yet still reasonable when considering the cost of pre-sewn leather kits and paying an experienced upholsterer to fabricate all the seat cushions and panels from scratch. In addition, the value of the cores for seats with working recliners, rear jump seats, dash pad, door panels, and garnish rails add up to a couple thousand dollars, which I could recoup by selling the old ones. I was delighted when the shipment arrived, everything was consistent with the photos and all the issues were fixable. A more cherry red color was still visible in covered areas where UV fading had not given it the orange hue many confuse for the later "Lobster" red. I have a hide remnant from a job done on another 356C by Steve Shepp. According to Steve it is correct for the color code on my COA and it matched those covered areas. I would later discover the driver's seat bottom cushion and pan had been a little more severely damaged in the accident than I had thought, but it was fully disclosed in the listing. The seat backs were already equipped with chrome headrest mounting bases, which was an exciting prospect to me. The most satisfying reward was the authentic, aged, but well cared for patina, and that unmistakable smell of rubberized horsehair padding. The first step in the interior restoration was driving (not towing) the car down to EuroGlass in Redmond and into the capable hands of Bruce Simmons and Jeff Johnson. They installed a new SIGLA brand windshield with new OEM rubber seals around it and the rear window while reusing all the original garnish strips. I was running the risk they might damage the stained, yet intact original factory- installed headliner, but that's the case with any glass work. Jeff did a fantastic job and the headliner survived unscathed. Finding no hidden rust rewarded the gamble of cutting back the old window seals for paint to reach the spot weld flanges, paying off with what looks like a "glass-out" paint job. Once the car was safely back home, the temporary black interior was quickly stripped out and the headliner prepped for a re-dye by masking it off and giving the vinyl a gentle wipe-down with lacquer thinner. Steve Shepp had introduced me to a professional- grade flexible aerosol coating for vinyl manufactured by SEM in a color called Phantom White. A thin coat was applied to the original headliner to hide the stains and blend into the remaining clean areas. The results are quite remarkable and it was an amazingly close match to the original color of both the headliner and the sun visors, which were also restored later. Shopping the internet for red wool square-weave carpet kits revealed a $600 to $1,200 price range, all looking like they had been cut from carpet originating from the same mill in Germany. I gambled with the low range $600 kit from a small operation out of Los Angeles called K & H Upholstery. Upon arrival I was delighted to see the edge binding was correct and the red vinyl that is used to anchor it at the A-pillar matched the red leather perfectly. The 356 T6 body used a single piece of carpet to cover the longitudinal channel from pedal floorboards to rear bulkhead that replaced four pieces used in earlier models. Since gluing is a 'one shot' deal, the single piece made it much more challenging to achieve a perfect alignment with the cowl pockets and sides of the rear jump seats.