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1958 Speedster
David
J. Berardinelli
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is a photo history of the body & paint restoration of my 1958 Speedster. This
project was done for me by Bob Campbell. I want to publicly acknowledge
Bob's integrity and commitment to quality on this project. With Bob's
dedication and expertise, we were able to preserve the originality of one of
the shrinking number of original Speedster cars left from this penultimate
expression of the 356 line.
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| I bought this 1958 Speedster from a friend who, along with myself, was one
of the original founders of the New Mexico Zia 356 Club. Zia 356 will host
the WCH in Taos, New Mexico on October 1-5, 2003. This car has 71,000
original documented miles and is Kardex correct with matching body [#84514],
engine [#68550 616/1] and transmission numbers [#18236] as well as matching
original colors of Silver Metallic [#5706] body and Red interior and dash.
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| Mechanically the car was in great condition. However, although the car had
recently been "restored" by a Phoenix company and looked good cosmetically,
a pre-sale inspection by Bob Campbell revealed serious body flaws. For one,
the tip of the nose protruded to almost touch the front bumper and the gaps
and doors were badly out of line and gap. Undeterred, I negotiated a lower
price with the seller and bought the car anyway. I then sent it to Bob
Campbell and entrusted Bob to correct the flaws.
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| This turned out to be a long and arduous project, as is usually the case in
such matters. Rust repairs were badly done years before and hidden with
thick layers of bondo by a number of subsequent body workers. The most
recent restoration had glossed over these problems. The nose had been dented
[without frame damage] years before and suffered from several very poor
attempts at correction. The dash was rusted underneath.
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Stripping the car down to bare metal [and bondo] showed it would be
impossible to rework the nose yet again with acceptable results.
Fortunately, Bob was able to procure a new nose piece for a 1958 Speedster
which was welded in place of the tattered original. The rocker panels were
replaced. The rust repairs in front of the doors were removed and replaced
with fresh metal. Most of the bondo was removed and the metal reworked by
Bob's fabricator. The doors were re-gapped with lead and fit perfectly to
the body. The dash was corrected with new metal replacing rust and poor
repairs.
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The car was then primed and repainted in the same fashion as done by the
factory.
Today the car is ready and on its way to appear at the WCH in Taos on
October 1-4, 2003. Of course, restoration and preservation projects are
never ending. I look forward to years of enjoyment and fun driving, and of
course restoring and preserving, this stunning and original example of the
356 heritage.
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Thanks, again, to Bob Campbell
for all your help, skill and encouragement.
David J. Berardinelli
Member # 12778
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