Legend of the rust repair “factory”

[reachme]

Porsches, especially the pre-galvanized and 356’s have been rusting since day 1 and if you need restoration we know it is a slow, methodical process that takes months to years and has become expensive with waits to start and a few highly skilled marquis restorers doing it.

Then there’s a story that goes like this. “All those air cooled car flippers roaming the world buy up cars that need work and send them to a factory where all they do is replace Porsche steel, repaint and the cars are in a showroom in Germany the next month.” I’ve heard it’s in Europe and staffed by Romanians who replace panels all day though I doubt a word of that is true.
But if you look at the volume of work that needs to be done on a regular basis, and the sales volume across 356 and longhoods that does seem to exceed what can be done by some of the high end restoration places but I’m still skeptical.

Does anyone know where all these rusty cars go when they are gathered and shipped to come out shiny on the other side? Does the magical high volume restoration factory really exist or is this just folklore and if it is who is doing the volume work?

[Jose_JGC]

Hi, I never heard of a high volume factory or such and don't believe it exists. But I might live the day a factory for this is started up in China.
Jose

[Matt Monson]

I never heard the legend of which you speak. Though a lot of cars go to Europe and there are dozens of workshops. In 2007 when I sold my 70T it went here:
Willkommen
2 years later it sold in Berlin for 55,000 Euros. It's the signal orange targa in their finished cars section with Colorado plates.

[Racekar]

Labor is the most expensive part of rust repair, Eastern European countries have a lot of high skilled labor that used to work for much lower wages than Western Europe. For a time after the opening of the east there were enterprising people that brought restoration work there and saved big on the labor. The difference is still there but not as great as it once was. It would not pay to ship a car there from the USA and have work done and ship it back.

[KNS]

I've also heard that a lot of classic car restoration (rust or otherwise) is happening cheaply in Eastern Europe. In fact, I think it was a Wheeler Dealers episode that Mike picked up a car in Europe and sent it to Poland (?) because the panel repair and metal work could be done so much cheaper.

[Matt Monson]

When I was at Carquip we sold several cars to a guy named Ed in Poland. He used to send back the most amazing during and after pictures. Really high standard of work. All steel and lead, no bondo.

[toddu]

I've been to this shop, pretty amazing work that they do -
http://carolinacoachcrafters.com

Todd

[Jose_JGC]

There are many shops all around the world doing amazing restoration work on Porsches... CPR, is a California based one that has a portfolio with lots of pictures. I refer to it when looking for correct details. Here is their link HTTP://cprclassic.com/portfolio/
Jose