How We Restore Porsche 914s
Porsche 914 Paint Restoration
Nothing beats a first impression. Martin Mid Engine helps with that.
You can spend all the money in the world on engine, suspension, and interior work, but the first thing anyone will notice is the paint and bodywork on your Porsche 914 or 914-6. If the body isn’t up to snuff, then most won’t even give it the chance it rightfully deserves.
At Martin Mid Engine, we can give your little Porsche the best possible first impression by offering comprehensive paint and bodywork services. How can we help bring your 914 to look as good as it came from the factory? Let’s jump into it.
Tear Down And Rust Repair
We will be utilizing this 1974 1.8L Porsche 914 to showcase some of our outstanding work. This particular car may look clean on the outside; however, it has been repainted from its beautiful factory green paint. Our task is to bring it back to its former glory. To start this process, we need to shake off the loud and faded yellow paint and see if it is hiding any surprises, potentially of the Swiss variety…
To no one's surprise, this little 914 also has some rust in the typical places for most cars of this vintage. That includes things like floors and clogged drains in the doors and such.
Sealing And Priming
Once we identify what needs to be fixed and replaced, we will go through the time-consuming task of cutting out any rust, rebuilding said pieces, and fitting, welding, grinding, and repeating this process throughout the car to make it 100% solid again and paint-ready.
Next, we break out our primer paint and seam sealer and go to town on the car's interior and subframe. A quick coat of paint is thrown down to seal the metal itself. Then all drain plugs, as well as pinch welds between the floor panels and chassis components, are covered in sealer. Often overlooked by the normal auto enthusiast, seam sealer is absolutely crucial in preventing moisture from seeping back in and causing a similar rust issue in a few years.
Once the sealer is laid and is set, the process of fully priming the interior and exterior begins. For this car, we utilized a fairly standard grey spray-on primer to ensure everything is properly covered before we get to the fun and most stress-inducing part. That's the paint itself.
Time For Paint!
Now begins the most rewarding part, and it is the climax, so to speak, of weeks' worth of work. That is to prepare the car for painting inside and out.
There is a direct relation between the amount of time you spend sanding and prepping, and the quality of the paint itself when spraying a car. This 914 is no different.
Once the car was totally cut and sanded down to remove any imperfections in the body,
we took time re-painting floors, door jams, undercoating, and the engine bay before we tackled the exterior paint. That way, inside and out, the old paint is no more, and the car retains that factory look.
We then bagged the car up, threw it into the paint booth to finally bring this 914 back to the factory green it was meant to be.
We pride ourselves here at Martin Mid-Engine to make every car that it leaves better than it left, and that includes restoring and painting cars like this to look like they did when they rolled off the assembly line. Just like this one!
Visit Our Porsche 914 Shop — Just Over an Hour from Salem
Martin Mid Engine
📍 25858 S Elwood Rd, Colton, OR 97017
📞 (503) 824-2102
🕘 Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm
Just northeast of Salem via OR-214 through Silverton. If you're serious about fixing your 914’s rust the right way, we're worth the drive.