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.
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.
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.
I've always wondered why Japanese and European classic cars don't have very good corrosion resistance compared to American cars but it's so much harder on vehicles in those places
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!
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.
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 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
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?
The alkaline lasts a few years. It’s easily spiked and most of the stuff comes off in the washbay. The acid lasts maybe 2 yrs and can’t be spiked as easily because of the dissolved metal. We are working on a filtering method to make everything last longer
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!
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 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
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.
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.
They went out of their way to get the car chemically stripped to the metal. It's not a cheap treatment, so I think they're willing to spend a lot of money, which should be, at least in theory, a point for their will to have a "done right" job
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)
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.
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.
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! 👍✌️
@@kaidzaack2520mein Opa kannte den Spruch von seinem Seat Toledo. Als der tüv Prüfer einfach mit nem Schraubendreher durch den Unterboden durchgehauen hat wars vorbei 😂
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 😢
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.
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??
Rust in the usual places for a 914 - B pillar and battery tray. For a nearly 50 year old car, it is in near pristine condition. Must've been garaged for most of that time.
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.
I have been watching your channel for a long time while contemplating taking my 914 to you. Mine is in not the best shape, so i am worried how much will be left!
About how long does it take you to do each stage of the pressure wash? Also do you shop vac the standing water out of areas before it goes back in the dip?
First washes after alkaline can take from 20-45 min. After all the paints gone and we are working on rust it takes an 1-1.5hrs. It varies greatly on a lot of factors like clearcoat, bondo, undercoating, etc. I only shop vac when it’s going to be switching chemicals. I’ll shop vac prior to washing if there’s chemical in the floor. One of the reasons I don’t pressure wash from the top down is because all the water settles in the floor and causes me more work because I lose visibility of the floor panels. I usually start from the inside out to avoid that issue.
@@minute_of_dangle Thx for the feed back. How soaking wet are you after spraying the shells down? Or are you in a "clean/dry suit" I know when I pressure wash my patio, I am soaked head to toe.