Chemical dipping a 1974 Porsche 914 

In my opinion this is the best way to start a quality restoration. It exposes all the sins of the piece, past repairs, rust and corrosion. It removes paint, sealers, plastic, adhesives and everything else without adding damage to the metal that mechanical sanding, stripping and sand blasting does. The rust treatment prevents future rust. The restorer is left with the best possible piece to work with.

12.5 years as a Porsche technician. Worked on my share of the 914, even one race car version and a few 914-6. Once I was draining the fuel out of the tank, I had a 15 gallon barrel under the car and as the fuel level went down the fuel was not hitting the barrel, I reached out to move the barrel and a spark jumped from my finger and WHOOSH!! The fuel caught on fire. Luckily I am trained in firefighting. Had the fire out in seconds but wow.. that was exciting. No harm to the car at all, not even discoloration due to the soot.

914’s are notoriously rusty. That’s a really nice one honestly.

For me this is the way to go, seeing clean metal and where the corrosion is makes things a lot easier to understand what a project looks like before repair work begins. This man works well in front of the camera too. Thanks for the upload.

As a 914 owner, I can only applaud this way of starting a restoration! 914s are true rust buckets. But underestimated cars when it comes to driving and driver involvement. Any 914 is worth saving and restoring!.The downside of this dipping is the fact that you cannot look behind the rockers, where the 'lungs' are. Often a weak point. But given the overall condition of the car, the owner might be lucky when it comes to that part as well!

that's the cleanest I've ever seen.

seriously great start to a restoration.

My wife bought me one in Germany in 1982. for $400.00. Of course I blew the engine on the autobahn, but had the engine replaced in Stuttgart for 2 cases of Jack Daniels. LOL Brings back memories. Like your channel.

Any day a 914 is saved is a good day, well done, good luck to whoever gets the final product. Starting out so rust free is a bonus.

Strangely satisfying to watch.

*I can’t stop watching your videos! Lot of fun seeing the layers and years of bad decisions being revealed.*

Great tub! That'll make a nice 914!

I can’t imagine the regulations that you’ve got deal with. I’m glad that you’re doing this. It’s the only way to start a proper restoration.

I really appreciate what you do thanks it would be awesome to see what the owners finally do with them

I wish my 914 was that clean! Good work!

Great shape for a 914

Impressed how little rust there was on that car. Having the floors not full of holes certainly seemed to make the jet washing a rather more wet job for you!

That's a really clean and rust free car to start with!

What a great starting point. Your work exposes the good and the bad. This one looks pretty good !!

In Chicago these 914's were rust buckets when 4 years old, this one looks pretty good.

Getting a bit hooked on your videos. Keep them coming there a great series.

Wow ,amazing work❤❤❤❤❤😮

I'm really enjoying the before incerts during the final reveal. Great work.

The joker loves😂 the acid bath

never really been a 914 fan. but an old spider i could dig . great process

I really enjoy the "real time" video spraying. I really like the wide view and this Porsche was a great dip. Thanks.

It makes me wince. The dip is amazing the car is amazing. But wow does the work start now :o) Glad I’m not the one making panels and welding them in without causing distortion ;p)

Cool !!! That's a great condition car for a '74 !👍🏼👍🏼

3100 is a great price. I stripped mine down bare metal last year. I used sanders, scrapers, grinders, wire wheels, foam sanding pads, heat guns and about 40 other items. But no chemical strippers. A few hundred hours at least. Never again! What city are you guys in?

Very interesting thanks for sharing

Incredible work, I just cant believe that will be a running car again one day.

very intersting to see this process done. a 914 seems to be a bold choice as most i've seen would have so much rot it wouldn't be worth the trouble to restore. Of course that's true for a lot of cars.

I learned how to drive a stick in my dad’s 914. That car was a blast.

Exelent condition for that porsche!! Great job bro! Big hug from Argentina, love your work man!

Always enjoyable to see the process. Well narrated and great video. Thx

The Joker and Roger Rabbit, nice little hint 😁

This looks fun

That joker in the acid nearly had me piss myself laughing. Thanks for the humor.

The dippers I used in NorCal made me remove all the seam sealer and sound deadner!!

The result looks so good.

That is the finest 914 I've seen in decades, truly worthy of such a professional strip-down job. Hopefully, the customer will rebuild it with equal professionalism.

I remember watching the door gap get wider as a rusty 914 was raised at Autothority in 1982. One thing you didn't do was to open the door on a rusty 914, or 911 Targa when it was on the lift. Also watched as a mechanic jumped up and down on the rocker to get the car's door opening back to the shape of the door. To prep a car for PCA club racing we stripped it of every piece of non needed bracket and metal piece, including cutting open the rocker to remove the heater tubes. Then we took the tub to a company in Allen Town PA. They wrapped the tub in an insulating blanket and put it in a room on a large metal table. Closed the doors and turned on the computer controlled heat. It raised the temperature very slowly (maybe 1 degree per minute). Raised the temp to something like 600-700 degrees ( I may be wrong on the temps as this was 1994). They held the temp for a period of time and then brought the temp back down at the same rate that it was increased. When this was done the chassis was 30-60 pounds lighter ( again this was 30 years ago so my memory may be off a little). Everything was now ash, including paint, primer, undercoating, rubber, plastic, seam sealer, everything. You ended up with a clean canvas to prime and paint. I think the name of the company was Redi Strip of Allen Town PA

1st car i bought with my own money was a '73 914 (back in 2002). Super stabile and fun car to drive...hard to work on it though. Love seeing them though and love someone bringing one back to life.

Pro tip for removing the floor soundproofing pads, crush a bunch of dry ice and spread it on top and let sit for 10 minutes minimum. The soundprouf material becomes brittle and scrapes off in big chunks with a putty knife. A job this size would take less than two pounds of dry ice but should ideally be splt into two (left/right) sectons larger vehicles four or more.

Brings back memories, I bought my 914 in 1972 off the showroom floor and kept it for about 30 years. Loved that car, wish I could have kept it, but I didn't have the money at the time to do the needed body work and engine repairs. The car had the usual 914 troubles, rusted battery tray, rocker panels and shifting linkage problems. Best of luck to you in your life's calling.

Looking good 👍

that little Joker figurine in the acid bth had me rolling

That's in better condition than my 914 was in 1984.

Смотрю Ваши ролики. Спасибо. Очень интересно. Хо елось бы увидеть эти машины восстановленными. Спасибо.

Thank you. Very nice job! Looks like a four cylinder

was that the joker in the acid bath? 🤣

my dream car

Excellent work!

Very cool process , thanks for sharing , this car was one of the better 914s i’ve seen in nearly 40 years i personally. have mostly been into British Sports Cars but am a odd one amoung others perhaps because i also like Air Cooled VWs i’ve liked the 914s since their Introduction probably because they are a little weird ! I’m kind of new to RU-vid and on this Channel you guys should have some more advertising links to the business IMO i’ve lived primarily on the East Coast and in Florida your type of business due to the EPA has been getting harder to find Like Chrome Companies and anything else with Toxic Chemicals the last car i Restored it cost me a fortune in shipping i wouldn’t mind Trailering things personally for long distances

That's cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

One of my favorite cars of all time. Great job! I would love to be able to epoxy, seal and paint that body during restoration

Love the joker sitting in the acid bath lmao

To remove the poly sound proofing from Porsche and Mercedes I spread a plastic garbage bag on the floor above the sound proofing ,then I pour dry ice onto that . The sound proofing goes really hard and a few smacks with a nylon hammer shatters it,making it easy to vacuum out. Under the car is the same process with the cars rotated on a rotisserie.

Awesome!

So satisfying!!!

I kept thinking of the show "Dirty Jobs" as I watched this.

Love too see a ford transit mk6 in this

It would be fun to see the 'After' photo of restoration.

It would be cool if you could get pix of the completed projects you've worked on from your customers!!

No flap discs were harmed in the making of this video 🤣 Seeing this process is deeply satisfying - one day I hope to dip my 1972 Spitfire, though I expect not much may be left of it 😢

❤❤❤ awesome

one of the most solid 914's I've ever seen, usually the bottom half is gone on these things! curious thogh, how often to you have to clean out your tanks?

This was really cool to see.

Ein wildes Gestrahle exaktes Arbeiten geht anderst

Reminds me of that scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit when they dip the Shoe.

The red and yellow reminds me of Hulk Hogan's Viper.

A little more and 300k subscribers! ;-)

you could make a hot edm track from those sounds!!!

Awesome video!

Beautiful! My aunt had one of these when i was a kid. Great car but they had a very bad reputation regarding corrosion. She had to give it up as the frame was so rusted it did not get the “TÜV” (Mot) - and welding frame parts is not allowed here in Germany 😅. Great work! Thanks! 👍✌️

I'd love to see the rebuild video also.

That looks in such good shape must have been in a dry area Good video 👍👍

Will you Zinc coat it before painting?

Quite the find.

I have NO IDEA why I watch these video!!! But I will watch everyone one of them and enjoy each of them,,,,, Maybe its time for me to seek help??????

this job looks like fun ❤

Kind of looks like my old 74 914-6. Wish I still had it. It was a pretty quick car for the time period it was made with the 110 hp 2.0L. It was a bit temperamental at times; particularly with the AC that was shoehorned in the car and the fuel injection. Ditched the fuel injection since it was a POS and put on some Weber carbs. However, I did keep the fuel injection and it went with the car when I sold it. Electrical issues were always present with those funky little fuses.

Great video. Have a great weekend.

Nice video 👍🏻 How you prevent any new rust on the surface after cleaning with the pressure washer?

I'm curious as to what you do just before it leaves your shop to stop flash rusting of that lovely shiny metal . Do you prime it?

body looks to be in good condition overall. I look forward to seeing the completed look since you've work to such a low level.

Great Job

Last couple of these I've seen were broken in half in a junkyard. Ever had a car break like that in the bath?

Great video!

This got really good, once you turned it up to bees!

Another thing. I've restored a ton of Porsches, dry ice and a hammer is the fastest way to remove the floor tar. Just tap tap tap to break it all up when it's frozen, then vacuum it out. WAY easier than a heat gun or a wire wheel. Also, before stripping, I'd spend half an hour with some 36 grit sandpaper breaking the paint film with scratches, then 99% of it would come off first pass.

Nice, that Volkswagen engine just dissolved.

Holy Bondo on this car

This is how a real man brews his tea

I find this oddly satisfying.

After dipping ad stripping off all of the paint, how do you protect and repaint the hidden areas like rocker panels in between body panels with paint??

Dry ice works fine on the sound deadener

Where is this car from not very rusty compared to some I’ve seen it still has floors which is amazing

nice chemicals!

Will there not stay a lot of acid residue in the inclosed spots where it can't be washed out???