Commander
- Apr 20, 2021
- 2 min read

Porsche Restoration at Bowman Vintage Restorations

Air Brigade recently took a trip to Hickory, North Carolina to visit to Bowman Vintage Restorations, an Air-Cooled Porsche restoration shop. Suspension work was needed on “Racer”, the 1968 911HR (Hot Rod) recently acquired. The suspension was making a lot of noise under hard cornering and probably hadn’t been touched in the last ten years.

Restoring an air-cooled Porsche — Champagne Yellow Porsche 356 Restoration | Bowman Vintage Restorations

Asheville, North Carolina is a nice place to live but it lacks resources for Air-Cooled Porsches. My local mechanic had an injury that sent him to the hospital and so I was in need of someone who could perform this work. It was decided to look to Hickory, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina to determine if there were any options to consider.

Bowman Vintage Restorations (BVR) was one shop that came up in my search and peaked my interest. BVR had recently relocated to Hickory from Denver, North Carolina. Their web site showed extensive facilities offering paint and body work, machine work, upholstery and ground up restoration.

They did not bill themselves as a mechanical shop, but the early 911 Hot Rod also needed some paint and upholstery enhancements to prepare it for this year’s show circuit of Werks Reunion and Porsche Parade.

While conducting a search of their Instagram page I noted that the Ingrams of Road Scholars followed BVR so I knew they must be good. A few phone calls to Porsche contacts and it was nothing but glowing recommendations on the work done by BVR, particularly owner and craftsman, Cody Bowman.

Restoring a Porsche — Air Brigade Porsche 911HR Arriving at Bowman Vintage Restorations

The Air Brigade was off to Hickory!

A first arrival by the Commander and the 1968 Porsche 911HR was planned to discuss the work needed on the car. The short order was suspension upgrades, paint fixes, door panel upholstery and installation of a vintage roll bar. Cody displayed confidence and knowledge to get the job done, so the car was left for service.

The real defining moment was seeing the shop; 33,000 square feet of Porsche after Porsche in various stages of restoration. There was an extensive parts room and a space of donor Porsches and potential projects. In addition there were a couple of Hot Rods for body and paint and even an outlandish International Harvester Scout Hot Rod build.

BVR just oozed in Porsche restoration from paint and bodywork to mechanical restoration. The first vision was a Porsche racecar and as we went down the line there was a Porsche 911 stock restoration, a Porsche 356 body-off rotisserie restoration, and Porsche 911 Slantnose project and various other Porsche projects in various stages of completion.

Enjoy some photos from the shop visit and watch the post-report when “Racer”, the 911HR is picked up and the initial work by BVR is examined and evaluated.