Rust is probably the largest enemy to the little cars we all love. If you have found a 914 without rust, you likely just haven’t looked hard enough. But, with proper maintanence an owner can fend off potential rust problems fairly easily.

One of the primary areas that the 914 tends to rust is the floor boards. Moisture gets under the factory “tar” on the floors, and the next thing you know you have a rust hole in the floor.

How do you avoid this problem? Take the floor board “tar” out before the rust sets in. To remove the tar-like material installed on the floors by the factory, just heat it up with a heat gun and scrape it off. You can use a cheap gun from a hardware store. It works great.

Once you have scraped all of the tar out, wire brush the metal completely bare. I use a wire wheel on a drill. Next, treat the metal with Ospho to kill any lurking rust. Then prime the floor boards with epoxy primer, and top coat with paint to match the exterior of the car, as it came from the factory.

We went through this process on the 1972 Project Car a couple years ago, and it worked great. Most importantly it is holding up well.