Grandpas Porsche 356

The story about grandpas Porsche

- by Steve Mezzapesa 2019-03-29

My car is a 1965 Porsche 356 C with matching numbers and only 46,000 original miles. I inherited it from my grandfather.

To tell the story of my 1965 Porsche 356 C, I have to start over 20 years before I was born. In the ’60s, my grandfather, Jesse Gaskin, was in the market for a Porsche. However, he wasn’t the kind of guy to just go to a dealership and buy one—he loved getting a good deal. So in late ’65 / early ’66, when he came across a ’65 356 C for sale, even though it wasn’t the color he wanted, it was the deal he wanted, so he snapped it up.

The Porsche was a “grey market car”

The car is what’s called a “gray market car,” meaning it was purchased new in Europe by a U.S. service member and brought back to the States, where it was sold to my grandfather. My grandpa drove it home to San Jose, CA, where it would live for the next 25+ years before he moved out to the country near Lodi, CA for another 25+ years.

It originally had a Togo Brown exterior with a brown/cream interior. In the early to mid ’70s, he decided to have it repainted in the factory Ivory White color that he loved. The job was done so well that, without checking the paint code on the door-jamb plate, you’d never know it isn’t the original paint.

Over the 50 years that he owned it, my grandfather loved and cared for the car the best he knew how. He went out and bought every shop manual and maintenance book he could find so he could do all the oil changes and valve adjustments himself. He passed all of these on to me. (While going through them recently, I found his “356 Club” sticker, which I now proudly display in the rear window.)

As kids, my siblings, cousins, and I were not allowed to be within five feet of Grandpa’s beloved Porsche. But I admired the car every chance I got and had to beg for a ride more than once. He never let anyone drive it, except for the rare “around the block” cruise for my mom (his daughter). He even kept his own driving to a minimum.

He saw the car as an investment that he wanted to preserve. He mostly drove it into town for church on Sundays. Because of that, he only put 43,000 total miles on the car in the 50 years that he owned it.

Could not drive the Porsche for 10 years

In the last 5–10 years of his life, my grandpa struggled with Parkinson’s disease and couldn’t drive himself anywhere. This terrible disease affects hand-eye coordination, hand strength, and even his speech—he often mumbled and rambled.

I think he was heartbroken that he couldn’t drive his 356 anymore. Before he passed, he wanted to see my mother and me enjoy the car. My mom, not being into cars, knew that I would appreciate it, take care of it, and never sell it, so she passed it on to me right away.

Because of this, I had the opportunity to take my grandpa on a drive in it a few months before he passed away. I hadn’t heard him speak that clearly or enthusiastically in a long time. As we cruised around my small beach town, he gave me driving tips and talked about valve adjustments and other things he thought were important for me to know. I could tell he still held a deep passion for the car.

A few months later, just days before my grandfather passed away, I was out for a drive when I had engine trouble. After many phone calls and a lot of searching, I found a local expert who came highly recommended and is incredible with 356s (he owns four of them!).

Blown up pushrods

He informed me that I had broken a pushrod. It snapped in the middle and split the pushrod tube open. He said he hadn’t seen one break like that before and that it was probably a combination of a bad pushrod (from the factory), which only lasted 43,000 miles, and the fact that the car had sat undriven for 5–10 years.

I then embarked on a six-month journey of having the engine completely restored. He did an amazing job, and it now looks and runs like it did when it left the factory in ’65.

The Porsche is going to be passed to next generation

I’m honored to be the caretaker of this amazing car. I know my grandpa is smiling down on me when I go out cruising in it. In the car with me are his driving gloves, his old Porsche sweater, and I even wear his vintage Porsche aviator-style sunglasses.

I will do my best to preserve it for future generations of our family, and I’m excited to pass on the same Porsche pride and enthusiasm that my grandpa passed on to me. I’ll be getting married in a few weeks, and my new bride and I will drive away from our wedding in this beautiful car. In the future, I hope to one day pass it down to our kids.