02/04/2026
A very fiddly time consuming job on the Porsche 356 A this week. This is the difference between a good restoration and a Precision Panel Craft restoration.
Even when using a very high-quality panel, it doesn’t always mean everything will fit straight away. When fitting the headlight pods , Matt discovered they wouldn’t seat correctly and had a large gap between the front panel and the bowl. Also the factory panels were double-sided spot welded not single sided — something that’s almost impossible m to replicate without the original manufacturing setup.
To solve the issue, Matt fabricated bespoke rings that fitted extremely tightly to the headlight buckets. This allowed the new buckets and their rings to be spot welded together and then carefully grafted into the panel while maintaining the correct alignment and fit.
A lot of extra work, but the result is properly fitted headlight pods and a finish as close to factory as possible.
handcrafted precisionpanelcraft