This one is sure to please the Porsche fans, given it’s a stunning Porsche 912 restomod, designed to look like a 356 with so much dedication and skill behind the build that it blew YouTuber Magnus Walker away. On his YouTube channel, Magnus Walker Urban Outlaw, the gearhead meets up with Drew Hafner, the brains and the muscle behind this stunning Porsche 912 rebuild, who describes this car as his dream come true.

Hafner has spent the lion’s share of the last 18 months of his life working on this classic car, and the effort shows in the stunning and sleek lines of the restomod that many fans appreciate, in car shows and even on Drew Hafner’s Instagram account. Walker too seems mighty impressed with the build, as he and Hafner have a detailed conversation about it, talking about the original sports car icon to what all the process entailed.

Drew Hafner Built His Porsche Outlaw At Emory Motorsports

Hafner grew up emulating his father who restored cars, and from early on, dabbled with metal forming before landing his dream job with Emory Motorsports. Known for making the best Porsche restomods, Emory Motorsports builds are often dubbed “Outlaws”. Once Hafner started working there, he spent a lot of his time on the premises, working on his pet Porsche project.

For Hafner, walking into the building of Emory Motorsports is like being part of the family, and doesn’t feel like “work” to him. It’s like hanging out with your favorite group of people, working on cool cars, and going to even cooler events.

While there’s a definite modern twist to this Porsche 912 outlaw, Hafner admits that he built it as a driving car, more as something fun to drive than to just show off at events. He loves its ‘60s look, but there’s a ton of work hours put into this build, which is probably why it quickly turned into a show car once people saw its clean beauty.

This Is A 3,000-Man Hour Porsche Restomod

Walker asked Hafner to put a number on the kind of work hours he put into the build and the young man estimates it took him about 2,000-3,000 hours on it, although he admits this could be the lower end of the estimate.

While Hafner works with Porsche builds all day long at Emory Motorsports, this is the first Porsche he’s built for himself. This particular car started as a 1968 Porsche 912, although by the time Hafner got his hands on it, it had a cheap 930-style fiberglass body kit on it, something that became popular in the 1980s. Hafner had the Porsche 356 in mind as inspiration and given his first car was a Volkswagen Beetle, he wanted to incorporate a bit of those memories into his car as well.

If you look at the Instagram account above where Hafner shows off the before and after versions of the same Porsche 912, most fans can’t believe how much change there is in the silhouette. Then again, Hafner is a master metal crafter, and he shows Walker what he does at Emory Motorsports, pointing to a modified metallic frame of a car that started life as a 356 B Coupe but with Hafner’s skill, is turning into a Pre A cabriolet.

This is what Hafner’s dream job is all about, taking cars that look totaled and beyond saving, and using raw materials to build a new shell for them, to give them a fresh lease of life, much as he did with his Porsche 912. If you too are inspired and want a Porsche 912 to DIY, the average prices are about $51,000, as per Classic.com.

Not Just A Rebuild, This Porsche 912 Is A 356-Themed Rescue

Hafner explains how he ended up with this Porsche 912 after he saw it standing in a parking lot in North Hollywood, where they had gone to get some parts for Emory Motorsports. This car was in bad shape and also not a Porsche 912 that tops collector’s lists, though it should. Released in 1965 as a successor to the iconic 356, it offered better power from its 1.6-liter flat-four engine. While it came with better handling than its predecessor, it wasn’t so great in the looks department. So Hafner decided to give it the 356 treatment.

Porsche 912 Engine Specs

(Specs sourced from the official Porsche website, not indicative of the actual car in the video)

That said, when he acquired the car, it was full of trash, and there was water in the floor pan given the busted windows. So Hafner started by stripping the car of not just its cheap 930 widebody kit, but also all the rusted metal. He vacuumed it all and ripped everything but the bare essentials. He first repaired the chassis and all other working parts, before turning his attention to the shell and looks of the car.

It wasn’t an easy journey though, as Hafner admits that he worked on the car during his free time. Sometimes he’d even end up sleeping on the shop floor and catch some winks on the couch before getting back to it in the morning. This Porsche 356-themed restomod is a work of passion, and the love just shows. Hafner admits he loves driving it, mostly with his wife beside him.

There’s a Surprise Hiding In Every Aspect Of This 356-themed Porsche 912

If you peer under the hood of this Porsche that doesn’t look like the 356 or the 912 but is a stunning amalgamation of the two, the engine is also a surprise. While it started life as a 3.2-liter, 6-cylinder engine from the ever-evolving Porsche 911, Hafner milled the center two cylinders. This Porsche 912 restomod may bear a strong resemblance to the Porsche 356 but comes powered by a 180-horsepower, 2.1-liter, 4-cylinder mill.

Reminiscent of the Porsche 356, the one-piece body-and-fenders are what catches the eye. While on the 356, Porsche kept the quarter panels, rocker panels, and fenders as a single piece, later, the 911 and 912 had these split for easier replacement. Again, while the latter is a practical choice, Hafner had more aesthetic ideas. He wanted to make his Porsche 912 look close to the 356 with fixed fenders. All it removes, technically, are the gaps between the fender and the cowl and the fender to the locker.

Despite the amount of work that went into realizing this gapless shell, Hafner feels it was more than worth it, at least to him. There’s a lot more of the 356A on this Porsche restomod too, like the beehive tail lights, the single-grilled deck lid, and even the rolled rocker panels. Keen-eyed Porsche fans will also admire the sectioned front bumper as well as the custom roll bar that emulates the B-pillar. A ton of thought, hard work, and love later, Hafner’s Porsche 912 not only looks like the Porsche 356 A, but it’s also his dream car come to life and that’s something all gearheads would go starry-eyed over.

Sources: YouTube channel Magnus Walker Urban Outlaw, Instagram/drewhafner, Porsche, Classic.com