Chesapeake Region
Article: And So It Began...356 Pt 3. Steven Groh Restoring a 356, Part 3: Every Picture Tells a Story “Every Picture Tells a Story (don’t it?)” is the title song in the classic 1971 Rod Stewart album of the same name. I know, you might be asking what does this have to do with restoring a 356? Well, now that we have, in Part 2, completed the first step in the restoration process by establishing proper chassis integrity, it is time to get to work re-assembling virtually everything that was removed – which was virtually everything! Hopefully, you took LOTS of photos before the disassembly process – in addition, of course, to carefully labeling everything removed and placed in ziplock bags or cardboard boxes and storing them by systems (brakes, electrical, interior, engine, suspension, etc.). I can tell you by experience that looking at a handful of nuts, washers and bolts in a plastic bag 1 year after removal can still leave you with a bit of a mystery. But thankfully you’re a genius and have photographs stored on a jump drive and ideally also printed out in a 3-ring binder for reference, right? This may sound like overkill. It is not! For example, after receiving the bare chassis back, the first significant challenge I faced was installing the new replacement wiring harness. Since the original was inadvertently cut while the tunnel was being removed, and with its age now showing many warning signs of potential failures (which might take an awful long time to trace), it was sensible to replace it with a new YnZ harness. By far, simply approaching and secondly, installing the harness was the most daunting task in the entire restoration process. The new 5-piece harness scared the hell out of me. It looked about 14 feet long and with what looked like hundreds of connections, each marked with a paper tag which thank God referenced an included diagram and a description. It also looked significantly thicker than the diameter of the tube in the tunnel it was supposed to slide through. Even if I get it through the tube, how will I know how and where to connect it? As I pondered this, I hung the harness sections from the ceiling of the garage to straighten them out, and went to the photo file. Voila. I had years earlier taken around 40 photographs of every electrical connection, lighting, fuse block, and under-dash instrumentation points. Even the ones I thought were useless were invaluable. Since the YnZ harness is an exact replica of the original, when the occasional little paper numbered tag comes off, the color of the wire could still be matched to that seen in an old photograph. And, as a last resort, YnZ actually answers the phone! Through the process I spoke with their techs at least a half-dozen times and the owner once. You can imagine how nervous I was the first time I switched on the ignition. Everything worked! Well, except for one taillight. The bulb was dead. I swapped it out while celebrating with a Bourbon Manhattan. Tip: If you have the original harness, you are miles ahead. You can lay the existing next to the new, and check the connections to make sure they are the same (bullet or quick-slide?) since changing the style will not be fun after the harness is in place! Additionally, note the marks on the original left by the metal clips that hold the harness in place (see photo). These should be noted and transferred to the new harness so you will know how far to pull the harness through the tunnel, for example.
The original harness is shown entering from the tunnel (right, see blue zip-tie) and snaking under the removed pedalboard and up and paralleling the steering column. By noting where the metal clips pinch the harness (lower center) the re-
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