The Wyant Group family stands behind our Porsche technicians as they beat out nine other Porsche dealerships from across the country to be crowned winners of Porsche Cars Canada’s Classic Restoration Competition. Vaughn Wyant graciously accepted the win in Quebec early this October after nearly a week of judging.
“To take this from where we started to a concours restoration of a Porsche classic really speaks volumes about our incredible team,” Vaughn says. “Winning the first Porsche Canada Restoration Challenge is just icing on the cake and completely validates the precision and expertise of our team. My thanks to everyone. Looking forward to the 2020 competition!”
The restoration began with a pile of car parts, a rusted-out body of a 1964 Porsche 356 and a committed team of Porsche classic enthusiasts in August of 2018. After over 1800 hours of work, the restoration team at Porsche Centre Saskatchewan is happy to share their hard work.
The body that served as the foundation of the restoration spent most of its life in the northeastern United States, subject to humid conditions ideal for the formation of rust. This meant much of the body needed to be fully stripped down in order to complete a period-correct refurbishment.
Team lead Wes Moskwa says, “I loved seeing the car progress month after month. It was great watching everyone work together to bring a little bit of classic Porsche onto the prairies.” Sixty percent of the parts required for the restoration were designed, hand-crafted, and installed in-house. Jesse Rieger, project metal fabricator, says “the taillights were rusted out and we had to cut apart lots of the body. When we first got the pieces, it was kind of a hopeless project, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at it now.”
The brilliant sheen of the Porsche 356 is compliments of Byran Thiessen who oversaw the painting of the vehicle. Byran estimates they spent three weeks on the glossy finish. This included five wet coats of Porsche Slate Grey paint, six rounds of sanding, and two stages of polishing.
As the project autobody technician, Greg Teichroeb, lead the bodywork and is proud of the details in the vehicle. “My favourite part is the straight blocking of the body. That never happens in the factory, but it was important to us to put in that extra effort to make it special.”
From the sourcing of parts to fabrication to researching Porsche Classic designs, the restoration project was truly a team effort for the staff at Porsche Centre Saskatchewan. After being a part of the project for almost a year, Dave Salt, Ian Janssens, and Sergei Akhmentshin are most excited to see the wonder on customers face when they witness the fully restored 356 for the first time.
The Porsche 356 is on display at Alloy Event Centre, where the rest of Vaughn’s personal collection can be admired. Search #PorscheClassicCompetition #Porscheoftheprairies #PorscheRestoration on social media to see the progression from scrap metal to national champion.
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