What did you do to your ghia this week?

[moogie32]

I keep thinking that this weekend will be my last for top down touring but summer refuses to leave the Northeast. This was taken in front of a garage in Stony Creek.

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RIP HBB (1984-2009)
Du liefst so gut
Du warst so schön
Doch leider musst du von uns gehn

[lasslo]

Not much, but i took it for a spin today
+15c and sun in november, not normal in Sweden:)

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65 DD klenbus
57 Karmann Ghia

[cool karmann collected]

Did some engine assembly today, for some reason I couldn't get my head around the idea of getting the 'bump' on the rods to face upwards when the crank was installed, got 3 out of 4 wrong despite have the Bentley and Wilson books open on the bench! Highly annoying given that the I'd already loctite'd the nuts

On the plus side, I was pleased with the oil-pump o-ring mod. I machined the groove in the pump without checking how far the body went into the case - I just picked the mid-point between the large oil inlet hole and the end of the body, just got away with that one!

[Fiatdude]

Mine looks different

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Remember, as you travel the highway of life,
For every mile of road, there is 2 miles of ditch

[alansvwTwinCab]

Mendeola front end and Herbert Racing narrowed rear.

[Fiatdude]

What's the difference in weight between the Mendy and a normal Beam????
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Remember, as you travel the highway of life,
For every mile of road, there is 2 miles of ditch

[alansvwTwinCab]

I'm actually not sure. I have sold beam so cannot weigh it. You do need to do some very minor work to the frame and where the shocks come in contact with the body , and it was a much bigger job than I thought to fit , took much longer than the time quoted as parts were not correctly fitted but in the end very happy. You can actually fit 17 x 9 wheels on the front with clearance but you could only drive in a straight line.

[ccihon]

Added 5" amber foglights to the over rider bars using some motorcycle peg clamps from ebay to avoid drilling etc. The clamps were less than $10 each. Wired through a Bosch relay and used a 914 fog switch. Maybe more for style than fog, though they work quite well.

[KGCoupe]

[crocteau]

Finally stirred my stumps and installed a fuel shut off ball valve under the tank.

[vegasSTEVE]

new 7 inch rear wheels and tires, rolled fenders completed - it's a roller!

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56 Oval Sunroof
59 Ghia Coupe
68 Single Cab
Las Vegas Volkswagen Club-1997 (Founding Member) An Officially Licensed VWoA Club

[CiderGuy]

Took advantage of the warm weather and grinded off some more paint and lots of Bondo. Found patch panels and dents that were not hammered out before former owners made repairs, and they just filled dents and much of the car with 1/4 inch or more of Bondo. Not sure how I will address this yet. I may cut out the repair panel and fix the dents and weld back together. Any thoughts ?

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Cars Currently Owned:

1970 Karmann Ghia Coupe
1973 Karmann Ghia Coupe - Project car for sale
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible (Body off restoration)

Timing is everything

[bhartwell59]

After 16 years being garaged and on jack stands, my Dad's autostick Ghia is alive!

Bought in NY... August 1974. 77,000 original miles.

Last Christmas had it reregistered and retitled. Got the horns working back in May. This Christmas put a new carb on, fuel pump and rebuilt the rear drums. Also replaced the crumbling door panel substrate with .125" ABS plastic and installed new door check straps.

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'74 Zambezi green Ghia vert, autostick, 101k
'87 Jeep Wrangler, 4.2, 330k

[Paul70Ghia]

This winters job has been bumper rechrome. Previously a bit battered and chrome very faded and rusty in places.
Very happy with the rechrome and took ages masking off the bumpers to spray the backs silver. Also used the chance to clean up and repaint the brackets and covers as they were showing their 45 years age.
I'd never realised exactly how much of a pain in the neck assembling bumpers which are in eight pieces plus brackets plus seals could be. Unfortunately I also used a bolt that's too long and left an outward pimple on the over rider so it's gone back to the chromers to be redone
Still eventually it will make the car look much nicer.

[thruhiker74]

[kgj]

Never done a body off thing before but today was the big day. I (well, 2 helpers, a lorry hiab crane, and an engine lifter) split the body from the pan of this '58 I've had for a few years. I'll start a thread soon.

Made a wood frame on top of a pallet so I can move the body around easily.

Engine removal took about 3 minutes without any of that bodywork stuff in the way...
Yes, I know. Stale air heating but later fan shroud!
Anyone seen an exhaust like this?

And now the process of scraping off all this tar type substance they sprayed all over the bottom of the car sometime in the past over in South Africa.
Zero rust though.

Thanks for looking.
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1958 coupe

[Brassneck]

Changed out a leaking fuel line (Between the center channel and rear firewall). Simple to do, and all buttoned up.

[crocteau]

Maybe because I'm a novice I find it nerve-racking to drive the little plastic posts in to attach the molding clips. Even after pulling the posts out of the clips and applying some silicone lube to them it seems they typically require a dozen sharp whacks to get them fully seated. Between trying not to strike a (reversed) punch too hard in order to avoid dimpling the body and holding the punch in a death grip until my fingers start to cramp it's one task I'm happy to put behind me. The procedures of fitting the rubber gaskets around the fresh air inlet grills or behind the headlight rings are like a walk in the park compared to this. Ok, I just wanted to whine...

[lasslo]

My car is too old for a fuelguage, so it's good to have a tripspeedo

It's acculally a bug speedo from 1960, I took the cromring from the org speedo, so now it's allmost a lowlight trip speedo
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65 DD klenbus
57 Karmann Ghia

[Brassneck]

Finally decided to swap the stock seats for something a bit more supportive. My hesitation has always been losing the stock look. But after a 2 hour ride a few weeks back, my back was killing me, and made me not so excited to keep driving it.

About 3 years ago I had picked up a set of Z3 seats for cheap. Removed them from their bases (sat too tall for my height and I lost all the Power motors in the seat...oh well) and welded up a new base to mount the seats to...then I bolted it to a set of scat seat adapters...which then bolted to the stock rails on the floor pan. It was a bit of a puzzle...ha ha.

They work great! And feels SO MUCH BETTER... unfortunately, they're black leather seats...so I have seat covers on them to try and match my tan interior (not great looking but not horrific). Overall, I love the new support and love driving the Ghia so much more...glad I did it.

Down the road, I may or may not get these seats covered (the expense to do that is a bit higher than I want/or need right now)... for now, I'm just going with it.