Planar partial $3$-trees are subgraphs of those planar graphs obtained by repeatedly inserting a vertex of degree $3$ into a face. In this paper, we show that planar partial $3$-trees have $1$-string $B_1$-VPG representations, i.e., representations where every vertex is represented by an orthogonal curve with at most one bend, every two curves intersect at most once, and intersections of curves correspond to edges in the graph. We also that some subclasses of planar partial 3-trees have L-representations, i.e., a $B_1$-VPG representation where every curve has the shape of an L.