Work Completed by the Howard Brothers and Crew at Deluxe Customs

Fall of 2013:

All along I've wanted the quality of this restoration to be show and magazine article worthy.  All the details I'd planned and rare parts I've collected from all over the world (thanks internet!!) would mean nothing if paint and body wasn't exquisite, and reassembly wasn't done in painstaking detail.  As I mentioned, the nearest body and paint restoration talent with a reputation that met my planned standards was in Tempe, AZ.  So, the car was towed over 2,000 miles and dropped off for 6 months of being busted down to bare metal and brought back to life in true Blue fashion!!

Speaker holes in rear luggage tray were a no-go.  Wanted the panel to have a stock appearance when viewed from an open trunk.

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All patched up!

At some time in the cars history a huge wonky hole was drilled in the fender for an aftermarket antenna.  Here it is being returned to stock form, eventually to be fitted with a NOS Hirschman Red Tip.  

Since I'm too tall to fit in the car with stock T-3 seats, my plan was to get some low backs and seat rails from a 64 Karmann Ghia and have the pan modded fit them.  Gets me an addition 4.5 inches or so of head room,, everyone else probably won't be able to see over the steering wheel....

Here's the clean installation work on the seat rails.

Body work and rust removal begins.  Luckily, the car had just a few trouble spots, pretty solid all around.  

Filling engine compartment insulation holes for a sanitary color matched compartment.

Several posts ago I wrote about the Blaupunkt radio and custom 356 Tach set up I'd planned.  This is Matt making it happen with a custom made, heavy gauge steal dashboard extension, which will be color matched to the dash, and support the big Tach below.  It turned out just how I'd hoped.