One of our more recent jobs, but no less special, as we always relish working on a beautiful 356. This project is more of a restoration by staying true to factory specifications for the materials and the refinishing of parts.

Because of the age of the car, the original seats warranted a major overhaul (which we often do for cars of this vintage) whereby the seat internals are decontructed, sandblasted and powerdercoated. The seat springs are zinc-coated, and while the seat is apart we recommend the addition of steel cross-bracing in the squab (the backrest frame) for more support and torsional rigidity. Finally, the webbing structure is rebuilt, new foams inserted with the reclining mechanisms are re-plated in chrome to factory specification.

As delivered by the factory, we finished the trim in dark red leather with matching stitching. This is paired with dark red squareweave carpet. The only slight deviation here is that rather than replacing the factory floor covering with rubber, we opted for carpet. And a very subtle hint of design has gone into quilting on the centre console and adding leather binding to the carpeted pieces. All 356s left the factory with body-coloured dash panels which sets off the bold red interior very nicely.

The soft-top has also been rebuilt and covered in black German cloth. We’re probably biased, but it’s really pretty hard not to love a well-sorted 356.