The Official 356Talk Forum

Trying to help a friend locate a reputable 356 and early 911 maintenance and repair specialist in or around the Virginia Beach or Richmond area. Anyone know of a good place to go for excellent service and support?

Try Lufteknic in Richmond. They are on the other coast, but service a friends roadster. http://www.lufteknic.com

Thank you, John. If you happen to learn of any other option I would appreciate you thinking of me. Richmond being almost 2 hours away may not be ideal, but I have heard good things about the shop and have seen some of the cars they built. Quality shop!

willis werks in alexandria
j

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Anyone familiar with Stuttgart Services in Williamsburg? Looks like someone there owns a 356: http://www.stuttgartservice.com/photos.htm And they advertise as a shop that ONLY works on Porsches.

When I bought my car, I had a "post-purchase inspection", I guess you'd call it, done at Stuttgart as it was the only shop I knew. I wanted them to alert me to any major issues that would prevent me driving it on a regular basis and do a state inspection.

They missed a bunch of stuff that I would've appreciated knowing about, such as a non-working generator light (I was a newbie - be gentle) and a charging system that wasn't working. When I got the car back home (an hour away) I stopped for gas and the car wouldn't start. No juice in the battery.

They did have another C coupe in the shop when I was there that they were in the process of mechanically sorting. But based on my experience I'm not sure I'd call them experts in the 356.

My .02 based only on my experience 4 years ago. YMMV.

Chris at Lufteknic's personality is pretty down-to-business, but he does own a Speedster and just restored a beautiful C coupe for a local guy. He restored my front spindles and did a little front end work - expensive but very well done. He even shot photos of the restoration process for me to keep.

-S

Excellent local info Sean. Thanks.

Eric, you are welcome to visit my shop in Virginia Beach. We have plenty of 356 business and I own several 356s and early 911s. I’m on the travel assistance network. Can give you other shop names if we scare you off. Shop is at 217 First Colonial Road unit 103/104, 23454
Phone: 757 469-7219.
We can talk Porsche for a good bit of time
Rusty

Eric Wills, I try to stay away from too much self promotion, not that there is anything wrong with it.

I’ll vouch for “Rusty’s Shop” after knowing / working with him for about 6 years. Rusty has been working on 356’s for a long time and knows his stuff. He’s restored several cars over the years and normally has a few 356’s on hand at any one time (mine included). I will say that he doesn’t cut corners and is an adherent to “fix it right” so it may not be cheap depending on what issues need sorting.

Greg

Rusty, I look forward to connecting with you on my next trip down. I will be in touch in the next 2 weeks.

Greg Carter, thank you for the referral and the insights. All sounds good to me.

John Brooks - thank you as well. I plan to stop there as well as they may be ideal for my race car.

also need to give a shout out for Perception Motorwerks in Powhatan, Va, just 20 miles west of Richmond on Route 60. Mike and Rachael Clark are straight up one of the best shops I have seen. They only work on German makes and have been using them for the past 10 years. They maintain my 997 and wife's 650i as well as my 62 356 coupe. They are also a full race shop and have maintained/upgraded my E36 track car for the last 5 years. They also maintain and provide race support for several local E46 NASA championship cars and one Porsche cup car. Rachael is a certified instructor, she and Michael spend a lot of time at VIR as well as other tracks up and down the east coast. Check them out at perceptionmotorwerks.com, they are also on facebook

Wanted to add that I also recommend Chris and Robert at Lufteknic, depends on the type of work. If its restoration related, hands down would go to Lufteknic. For just straight forward mechanical work I always go to Mike and Rachael. On my 356B they have replaced tach cable, rebuilt suspension (king and link pins), also wouldn't hesitate to have them rebuild the engine and its the original engine, hope this helps, robb g

robert e gwaltney wrote:Wanted to add that I also recommend Chris and Robert at Lufteknic, depends on the type of work. If its restoration related, hands down would go to Lufteknic. For just straight forward mechanical work I always go to Mike and Rachael. On my 356B they have replaced tach cable, rebuilt suspension (king and link pins), also wouldn't hesitate to have them rebuild the engine and its the original engine, hope this helps, robb g

Robert that is good info for precision. I called them for an alignment some time ago on my 356 and they suggested I go to the dealer. FYI if you need an alignment in the Richmond area, Euroclassics did a nice job on mine. Good machine and a fella that could set it up to factory specs.

For basic maintenance I prefer to do my own work, but these are all good options for tougher work.

In Virginia Beach: Ladislav "Lutzo" Kovacyk

Porsche trained technician with 42 years of Porsche experience. Crew Chief for Rolex/Grand-am race teams.
https://www.pcarshops.com/virginia/lmn- ... a-beach-va