The Ryan Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 It’s been awhile since I’ve detailed something worth posting… Lately its just been routine maintenance on my cars, albeit almost 100% swapped to rinseless washing now. So when my co-worker came to me about a year ago and said “hey, I’ll work your duty weekend if you clean up my porche.” I immediately agreed, because - who wants to work the weekend? We made that deal year ago and this weekend it came to fruition. Our subject, a 1976 Porche 914. The 914 isn’t the rarest of rare porches, heck it’s got a 2.0 VW engine. This car holds a lot of sentimental value to it’s owner, it’s the car him and his buddy used to go cruising in back in the mid 80’s; his friend kept the car garaged and undriven since 1996 - this exact car. He was able to acquire the car about 5 years ago, since he took possession it’s sat in his garage; undriven. Since his son is getting his drivers license soon, he told his son he could have the car, if he did the work and paid for it with his own money to get it back up and running. After many weeks of wrenching on it and some new webbers, it’s running like a champ and it’s first destination was my garage. Although the car has been garaged, it was in desperate need of some loving. The (resprayed) paint had oxidized, swirls galore, faded plastics, and a recent fire on the interior (minor, just some dust to clean up.) I had my work cut out for me. Let’s see her in her original form: I thought the VW Audi logo was cool on the seatbelt cover For being 38 years old, while not in great condition, still looked pretty good. It has it’s bumps and bruises, but my goal was to breathe some life back into the paint. Since the car wasn’t filthy, I started out with a rinse less wash via Adam’s Rinseless wash, and Adam’s borderless blue towels. This was a new combo for me as I had been using single softs. I didn’t get any action shots of the rinse less procedure as I was in a hurry to get her started, I will say now that I have used the Borderless blue as a washing towel, it’s the only towel I’m going to use going forward, it holds a lot of slippery solution and it is super soft. After a quick wash up, I clayed the car with Adam’s USA made clay bar and some detail spray. Surprisingly keeping it in the garage did the car well Red marks… Given the period, and the respray having been done in the 80’s obviously we had single stage paint. It was time to find a approach, a tactic to get all this oxidation off the paint and bring back it’s luster. While I’m a huge fan of the MF buffing system, I didn’t know if would be able to handle this kind of restoration. I tried some test spots, Cyclo+MF system, and Flex+Foam and Flex+MF system. After getting quick results with the Foam, I decided to take to polishing… Here’s why I chose foam: Yep definitely going with Foam… Amazing to see the Red come out of all that orange oxidation. While I started tackling the long polishing job that was ahead, my Dad tackled the interior with a few heavy coatings of Leather and Interior Conditioner: I taped up the areas I wanted to keep the polish off of: Then got to work: It was finally getting that much needed Adam’s shine: Back to work… I got the Cyclo out for the hard to reach areas like the tail lights and pillars: Polish removal towels: Although I wasn’t finished, I had to see it in the sun: And take a quick spin around the block I wiped the car down with some DS to get any dust off of it from a quick spin around the block… Then it was time to get to the protection. I started with Adam’s Liquid Paint sealant applied via cyclo: One handed operation.. I love this machine: After the sealant dried and I removed it I decided to glaze the car as well… At this point I was out of pads for the cyclo, so I used the flex set to 1 and a grey pad: Bucket of single stage paint from the soaking pads and MF towels: Lastly, the finishing touch… Adam’s Patriot Wax. Overkill? Probably, but what kid doesn’t want to brag that his car is waxed with the best stuff on the market? That may be a overstatement. Who cares.. Patriot!! We finished up the detail work, tires and plastics treated with SVRT (several coats as the dry plastics just soaked it up). Glass sealant applied to the windows, and looking back the pictures I can’t believe I forgot to photograph the engine bay with the beautiful dual webbers… DOH! Alas, it was complete: Enough… To the SUN! This thing was a true pain in the rear, I didn’t think such a small car would take me nearly as much time as it did. 1 yellow pad, 2 orange pads, 2 white pads, 1 grey pad. + the tester MF pads and about 10 various towels… For as much destruction as this car did to my gear, today when he picked it up and drove off made it all worth it: Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did. Chewy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-CM- Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Wow, I bet that kid was really pleased with the results you got! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbjones85 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 wow, great transformation, looks like a totally different car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimitedDodge Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 As much of a pain as it can been when doing it, it's hard to beat that feeling when it first pulls out in the sun! Specially knowing it's going to a kid that has already worked hard on getting it running. Excellent turn around! Hopefully he won't be like most new drivers and wreck it in a week (only took me 2 days to wreck my first car)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmyAcadia09 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Wow great job!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorsager Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Nice write up. The car looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaSHOOOOSH Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Nicely done.. Good work man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlack151 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Awesome write and and results man! I've never been a Porsche fan but always loved those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylander Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Nice job, and neat car -- I've always liked those, too. That's one lucky 16 year old kid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Looks GREAT Ryan! I wonder if the kid ever watched the Wheeler Dealers show where they flipped a 914. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myredc5 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Ryan, Great write up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE Mook Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Way to bring that sucker back from the Danger Zone, Ice Man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ryan Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Looks GREAT Ryan! I wonder if the kid ever watched the Wheeler Dealers show where they flipped a 914. The deal is, he can keep the car as long as he wants. When he's ready to sell it his Dad is going to buy it back from him for the sum of how ever much money he puts into it. It really was a fun detail for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Dude, you CRUSHED this one!! Nice work. In that 2nd to last pic, it looks BETTER than new. Awesome job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxcustody Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Great job and nice write up..........enjoyed the pics, car looks awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
694doorbird Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Simply BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbweatherstein Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 What a difference you made, great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsford Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Wow huge difference!!!! Should have thrown some revive in there lol I just love it so much. Nice shirt BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Nice shirt BTW. Oh yeah, +1 on this. GO COLTS!!! Kingsford 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc2hill Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Great work Ryan! So I can call you "Mr. Rinseless" now? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paoutdoorsman Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 You did a heck of nice job on that one Ryan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortplainman Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Awesome writeup! I know on my dads single stage paint it is so thin you can see some areas the primer underneath. Glad to see some depth still in that paint that you could work with and not too thin where all you could use is revive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kornercarver Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 That really brings back some memories. I had a 914 back in 1970. I should have kept that car and never gotten rid of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Nice job Ryan....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRZN Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Good job Ryan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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