What’s Involved in a Porsche Restoration: Part Two

Last post we went through the first two steps involved in some classic Porsche restorations: rust repair and the paint job.  These posts should not be taken as a guide on how to repair a Porsche on your own, but a general list of things that are typically restored during the process. The amount of work that will need to be performed will depend on how neglected the car was and whether or not there needs to be any complicated engine work.

Brakes, Suspension and Wiring – the suspension is completely disassembled and ever part is bean blasted and then cleaned and refinished before reassembly. For such a small car, the Porsche has a lot of wire. Every circuit needs to be documented during disassembly. Color-coded wire helps, but marking the wiring and photographing the route and mounting location of the harness is essential when restoring the dash, gauges and any other electrical parts.

Engine work – engine repair and restoration is probably too complicated to go over in a simple blog post. The key with engine restoration is to know exactly what you are doing when attempting to restore or fix any components. Doing the wrong thing or not handling parts correctly can cause a significant amount of damage to the engine. The experts at Personalized Autohaus are trained professionals who know how to deal with classic Porsche engines.

What’s Involved in a Porsche Restoration: Part One

Restoring a classic Porsche can be an exciting prospect, but some people aren’t aware of the vast amount of knowledge and expertise required to effectively restore the car to its original condition. Many people who attempt to restore an old Porsche on their own may find themselves working on it anywhere from a couple of years to fifteen years. How long it takes depends on the person’s level of dedication, hours worked per week and level of knowledge on their particular model. Personalized Autohaus has expert mechanics and personnel to make a restoring a Porsche a much simpler process. The following are some of things involved when someone restores a classic Porsche.

Rust Repair – water damage and neglect can cause a lot of rust damage to the body of a Porsche. This can occur on nearly every part of the metal body, with some areas being much easier to repair than others. Large panels like door skins and fenders can be purchased, but smaller sections need to be replaced through metal fabrication, which requires an expert.

Paint – metal work and painting are often performed on a rotating stand for accessibility purposes. After a sealer coat is applied to help protect the metal, imperfections in the metal are fixed with a variety of tools. The more attention paid to these defects the better the restoration.  After the metal defects are fixed the car is given a primer coat. Block sanding is then used to level out the surface. Additional primer and surfacers may need to be used to fill in abrasions and scratches. Before receiving its final color coat, the car gets a sealant. As you may have noticed, a good paint job requires a lot of work and preparation in order to get the results that your restore Porsche deserves.

More steps to come!