1957 Porsche 356A Restoration - Video 5 - Engine bay insulation, rear window, sunroof unstick.

In this video we: Remove some of the engine bay insulation. With the transmission out, I took some time to help out a couple other members of the 356 Registry. Mark has a 1957 car that was missing some engine bay insulation. I would need to remove the insulation on my car for sandblast/paint anyway, so I offered to send him any larger intact pieces I managed to save. Removed rear window as it was getting hot when I used the heat gun on the interior side of the firewall. Worked on unsticking the sunroof. Another owner of a 356 with a manual sunroof had some questions about the latching mechanism, and I had curiosity. So I decided to see if I could get mine working and get a few photos for the other owner. End up uncovering a "number matching" headliner. When Reutter was assembling the body back in 1957, they would write or stamp the last three digits of the car's Chassis number on everything so the hand fitted parts stayed with the right body. That included the sunroof headliner panel. The sunroof itself also has the last three digits of the chassis number written on it. The car was originally delivered in June of 1957. Right at the transition from T1 to T2 body styles. It mostly seems to be a T1 body, but tail lights and a few other things are T2. Here's the Kardex details: Ruby Red exterior with brown corduroy and leatherette interior Sunroof Blaupunkt Cologne Type Radio Electric Antenna Two Speakers Passenger side headrest And a “set of chrome-plated perforated disc wheels” The car went from Stuttgart to the Ernst Islinger automobile trading group in Manheim, Germany, where its first owner (also from Manheim) took delivery. How it made its way from Germany to the US is lost to time. Glove box archeology uncovered PA based receipts spanning the years 1972 thru 1978, and (despite evidence of at least three top side re-paints) the condition of the underside of the car showed many years of road salt damage. I purchased through https://germanjalopies.com/ in November of 2024 and arranged transport with Reliable Carriers to my house just north of Salt Lake City, Utah. It arrived December 11th, an early Christmas present for me. 0:00 Porsche 356 engine bay insulation / sound deadening removal 1:40 Porsche 356 sunroof rear drain line removal (passenger side) 3:43 Porsche 356 rear interior insulation removal 6:55 Porsche 356 rear window removal 8:28 Porsche 356 sunroof headliner removal 8:55 Porsche 356 "Number Matching" sunroof headliner writing 9:28 Porsche 356 "Number Matching" sunroof writing 10:04 Porsche 356 Golde sunroof handle 10:46 Porsche 356 Golde sunroof opening mechanism

Added 21 Oct 2026