In 1965 our family was living in Wurzburg,Germany. My Dad's best friend was Otto Meyer. Otto took my Dad+ I on a ride up to Bremen to pick up his new 911. We rode in his 356 at 90 mph (max. speed) during the rain on the autobaun. Otto sold his old 356 to my Dad for $100!
I bought Lou Fageol's 1953 356 Super, which he had modified to AWD. Yes! They couldn't achieve synchronization between the two engines, front and rear, and the unique Porsche was sold through a classified in ROAD & TRACK for about $3,500. After the second owner died when his chute didn't open, a couple Maytag engineers bought the car and raced it in SCCA F Production. I picked it up in December of 1959 for $700, a rumpled wreck with no bumpers and a VW camshaft. I spent the month stripping the many coats of paint, but my chemical remover wouldn't touch the original paint and primer, which was hard as ceramic. I had to sand that off! I had pro spray 17 coats of Lucite metallic silver gray, while I color-sanded between coats. The bumpers were retrieved from a farm, where they were stored by the parents of the second owner, who gave them to me without cost and their blessings. When I moved to California, October of 1961, I sold my 356 for $900 in Des Moines. Today, if restored, the '53 Super coupe would fetch $225,000 at auction. Ve get too soon old, und too late schmart! Or something like hat.
The Super 90 engines were made for the 1960 to 1963 models. The bodies of the cars being built are 356B Type 5, built for the 1960 to 1961 models. This footage was taken between late 1959 and late 1961.
I'm a huge Porsche fan, and it's so cool to see the craftsmanship first hand of the 356 line. I wish I was alive in the 60's with money and knowledge of the 356 then. It would have been a family heirloom for sure. ❤
In 1960-64 I ran advertising and PR for Porsche in Southern California (Porsche Car Distributors) and "borrowed" a 16mm print of "Made by Hand", which I had for years until it disappeared. Never thought I'd see it again and able to share it with a lot of others.
Очень приятно было посмотреть как работали люди с душой , как работали с оловом как матовали под покраску ,как ставили коробку передач и.т.д. Спасибо за фильм.)))
In all my years of being a car enthusiast I have never heard of Reutter and it's contribution/connection with Porsche, I'm talking 60 years. Really a good example of never bring too old to learn.
Loved every minute of this film. The true automotive craftsman is long gone unfortunately. Automation and robots have taken over virtually all auto plants worldwide.
This isnt craftmanship, that would be using hand tools, this is just production line work. A man trying to be a robot. You could learn to do any of these stages in less than a week, you dont need to be a skilled craftsman.
@@krusher74There are one or two operations which you probably couldn’t learn in such a short time, though your wider point is absolutely valid. The use of molten tin, it’s shaping using heat and a leather tool & subsequent filing & planing is harder to do well than it might appear. In this way, Porsche (& presumably all other manufacturers) get to hide panel junctions where they would otherwise be visible.
My dad bought a ‘61B super roadster in 1981 for $1500 with a broken crank in NY. I rebuilt a type one vw engine someone gave us, rebuilt the tranny, brakes, etc and drove it in high school and college. He sold it in the late 80’s for $10k.Today the same car fetches $100k restored. I have owned few other p-cars but nothing drove like that B roadster. Lovely cars. So fun to see the car I cut my automotive teeth on being made back in the day. I recognize every detail!
I bought a 1963 SC Coupe in Texas 1993 and I drove it until 2009 trouble free! I earned some good money and decided to have the rust removed under the door. Then I received the dreaded "we have to talk" phone call Jack Staggs in San Clemente and he told me that the entire lower part of the body was rusted through and a total restauration was needed! Price about 50 Grand so I sold the car to him. It should be finished soon.......
This is an amazing piece of history - Very Interesting too! - You love the bathtub - you'' ll love this documentary ! - Thanks for sharing this piece of of a bygone era !
Even for 60 years ago this was incredibly labour intensive and primitive in terms of methods. Lots of fettling and reworking. Has to be the most highly skilled assembly line ever!
Contrast this to the robotic Tesla line and you will shake your head at all the intermediate steps this modern mode eliminates. But I prefer my natural ignorance to artificial brains.
This is story about the true passion of car builders. Hand made cars what are able to do 1 million km. Its impossible today with best tech, computers and robotics what are way ahead over hand with brush and spanner. What goes wrong today if newest tech cant serve us properly? ;)
Love these cars- I don't car much for materialism or owning a bunch of materialistic garbage you don't need however when it comes to the 356, I'd love to own one of these cars, they are a mechanical art masterpiece .
In 1965, my dad bought a 356 C ,which was it's last production year, and the first year of the 911. He chose the 356. He traded in a '63 356 SC to get it.
I love Porsche and have owned many and still own a 911, wish I could go back in time and grab a few of them beauties. Great retro film … born too late 😀
Back then it would set you back a few grand for one of those. Of course a few grand was a lot of money, but still a lot less than what you would pay now.
The company which built the chassis "Karosserie Reutter", Karosserie meaning body/chassis, is still know today under a different name. Reutter Karosserie (ReKaro) with the K changed to a C becomes Recaro, the well known automotive / racing seat manufacturer.
That’s a brilliant piece of automotive genealogy! I had black leather Recaro seats in both my VW MkIV Golf GTi Turbo cars. I drove only this model for about 15 years and never tired of it. A mechanic friend said in his opinion, that era, late 1990s to early noughties, was peak reliability for quality cars. All the weaknesses had been bred out yet the amount of censors and the role of onboard computers was still minimal. As a result, fault finding was simple and fixes likewise. All parts of the vehicle were robustly made and bodies galvanised. If I could pick a car to have new again out of a Time Machine, it would be a fully loaded VW MkIV Golf GTi Turbo.
Reutter was bought out by Porsche in ‘63. The seat manufacturing division of Reutter split off from the body building division in the sale of the company and became Recaro. In the contract, they were to supply Porsche with their seats for the next 10 years.
Fantastic video. Wouldn't want to be the undercoating guy working in that cave. Test driver YES! I wonder which coach builder commands more money at resale? There have to be variances between all that welding, hammering, etc. Make mine a silver coupe Carerra with four can engine please.
Porsche 356 History - The video features insightful information about the rich and storied history of this legendary sports car, the Porsche 356. Enjoy!!! #Porsche356 #Porsche356History #VintagePorsche #ClassicPorsche #Porsche
ahhhh, minutes like <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="540">9:00</a> or the spot welding around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="480">8:00</a>, <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="620">10:20</a>, all those fumes, all that lead. You melt lead and shape it all day and you're going to get lead poisoning. And those doors and hoods were all custom, the difference between hoods and doors, car to car, is huge. I had a 1953. Needed a hood and I lucked out: It wasn't perfect but it was close. Doors are worse. Even the windshields had a 1/4" difference car to car so windshield fit could be Tuff.
The beginning was a little rough for Ferdinand between two wars to end all wars and facing the crimes against humanity trials that followed put an untimely death from the stress. But his heirs continued on and created a dynasty that he would be proud of.
@@Tumbleweed-vh4pt yes indeed one of the Cogs in the Third Reich was Mr Porsche (Volkswagen) - peoples car, National Socialism I think they called it......but still engineering at its finest.
I installed a 356 engine in my 1960 Karmen Ghia, had to enlarge the bell housing to accept the larger pressure plate/flywheel n then bolted it right in
spray on undercoating, no respirator, shooting paint, no respirator, Melt that lead onto the body, no respirator. Real Lacquer paint. at least they wear a respirator spraying on the Signal Red paint. The same color I spayed on my 1953 coupe. Back then the windshield was +/- 1/8" in fit so putting in glass was not always a success, good luck getting a good fit with replacement doors or hood. oddly the rear decks always interchanged well, if you mashed up the rear end. I put in a 1964 SC engine with a big bore kit, over 100hp. at minute <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="917">15:17</a> we see a red porsche with louvers on the engine deck lid, a Carrera, I think.
Yes about those windshields I actually broke one because it was too big for the opening but that was part of the program working at a Porsche Dealer as far as getting doors and hoods that fit that is why they used lead you can make anything LOOK like it fits with a little lead.
TheHypnotstCollector the karman ghia was no different plenty of lead to make them fit , yet the cheap beetle had nearly perfect pressings no lead at all
This is too much like a high school reel-to-reel movie we used to see in the 1970s. Inevitably the film would jam, stop against the hot bulb, melt and we would proceed to throw paper wads at each other 'till the teacher fixed the film.
Engineers even back then as well as today are not given the recognition they deserve. People don't care about who makes the television as much as they care about those on it. They idolize the car but really never think about those who designed it to make it work. Technology is simply taken for granted without knowing how it actually comes about. These engineers designed it all to the last detail, then designed machines and tools to be able to make their designs, then trained people in assembly lines to put it all together. It's simply gob smacking. BTW todays machines are far more impressive than what we see here...we now see automated robots working with utmost precision in assembly lines. Even more gob smacking.
Tesla seems to have the automotive world by the short hair, as to efficient robotic assembly and testing technology. Now, if we can find the ingredients for the batteries of the future, the conversion to engines with only one moving part will cut costs and pollution for us all. Muffler makers will join buggy whip producers in the archives of auto history.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2308">38:28</a> Why was that Cabrio top hanging out like that? It seems like only the blue top ones were like that on the footage and did Porsche actually make blue top cabrios?
I'm watching this wondering what job I could possibly do in the factory to help. I was feeling more and more dejected as most of the jobs look pretty hard and yucky. Then I saw it, at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2160">36:00</a>, the chassis dyno test. Heaven.
Actually that is the wrong way to think about it. This is proof since it was done by man, another man it can be remade and given a chance to dance again.