introduction - 1974 Ghia restoration

[Sofia74]

I have been following this site for a while now but this is my first post as my wife and I are getting started on a restoration of a 1974 Karmann Ghia.

I have been driving a 1972 Porsche 911T for 24 years now and am a big fan of simple well designed cars. I have done some of the basic mechanical work on the car over the years but have not done any body work, painting or welding. This will be our first restoration project and the goal is to (try to) do all the work ourselves.

The car came to us through a neighbor who had owned it for 25 years. He was even kind enough to hold onto the car until we were ready. The good news is we are now ready to begin the work. The bad news is, as we started to tear in to it, there is a bit more rust than we had hoped for. But as I mentioned the car sorta found us so we’ll work with what we have.

The project has been in planning for some time now and we have done some research including this website and a number of books. The restoration will be resto-mod, a word we picked up watching auto auctions on TV. We want the car to look generally stock but we will make some safety upgrades, likely brakes, suspension, etc. We don’t intend to go back to its original orange but haven’t made a color decision yet. I’d like to increase the horsepower but haven’t decided how to do that yet, new engine or upgrade current. Plenty of time to decide.

Based on what I have learned I broke the project into three phases – body, mechanicals and interior. We are going to start with the body. I don’t think there is much in the mechanicals or interior that we cannot repair or replace if necessary. If there are any show-stoppers it will be in the body. Which brings us back to the rust. We started stripping the interior last weekend. Driver’s side rocker and floor pan are toast along with some holes in the engine bay. There is some (aftermarket?) insulation we are having to scrape off the floor, so the rust may be worse than we think. The next big event will be separating the body from the chassis.

Due to a lack of space, the car is a couple hours away from home. We will only be able to work on the car about one weekend a month so updates will come slowly. But that will give us time for research and planning. And questions for the forum…

I attached a couple photos. Hopefully I did it correctly….

Matt and Jen

[motorhead364]

Welcome. Nice find. And there's always more rust than you hoped for on these cars. Good luck and post pics of your progress.
_________________
63 ghia coupe

[bobnorman]

Hey, welcome to the Samba, Looks like a great project and a good plan. Rust happens, but it can all be done, and has been done in some of the threads on here. Keep posting with updates and lots of pics, the crowd around here love seeing the pics. All the best with it.
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[bobnorman]

Also, in case you didn't know, and as someone else posted recently, the 74 is one of the rarest years (outside of the earliest cars), with just over 5600 made...
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[bhartwell59]

[Rome]

What a privilege to drive a small-bumper 911 for so long! Is your '72 a Coupe or a Targa?

A small-bumper 911 Targa is my all-time fave car, though I can no longer afford a clean one. But like you, I also have a Ghia; have had my '64 convertible for over 30 years. So welcome to the Ghia group with your '74. It won;'t take too much work or $ to build up your Ghia engine and get similar performance to a Porsche 912. You can read up and ask in the Performance Forum here.

IMO these 914 alloy wheels would look great on your '74; the added width would make the car look less "bulky" due to the large bumpers and taillights.

We look forward to your updates whenever you can.

[Sofia74]

Rome,
Sorry i missed your reply for so long. The 72 911 is a targa but as you can see from the photo (if I attached correctly) I couldn't help modifying her just a bit.
I think the KG will be much closer to stock. I'm not imaging a wide body Karmann Ghia.
Matt

[Sofia74]

Update! I've posted some questions and even some pictures as we have gone along but we passed a significant milestone. The body is off the car and on the dolly. (based on plans we've seen on this site of course)
We appreciate all the help we have gotten. More questions will be inbound soon.
Note: We only get to work on the car for a couple hours each month so be patient.

[Basketcase]

hey neighbor! update us when you can.
_________________
'72 Karmann Ghia Coupe (the Boss's)

[Sofia74]

Thought I would pick this thread back up. It’s been about two years since we started this project. I should say that the car is a couple hours from home and I only get to work on the car one weekend a month. Progress is slow but steady.
Since the last update we spent quite a while disassembling and then stripping paint. Began the welding of new panels. Learned how to MIG weld from YouTube. Quickly realized there was far more rust than I could handle. Unfortunately had to send the body off to a professional. Just one photo to show the missing metal underneath.

Here she is getting blasted.

I am continuing to disassemble – engine, transmission, etc. Also working on the floor pans.

First side is in and will have to wait another month or so before I get to the other side. After that, my plan is to pull the beam and clean it up. Replace all the worn bits – ball joints, tie rod ends, etc. Rebuild the front brake calipers and install a disc brake conversion on the rear along with new brake lines and an upgraded master cylinder. I plan to remove, clean or replace as necessary. Then move to the back. Suspension will be stock with perhaps upgraded bushings, nothing radical.

[Rome]

Glad you're working on it when you have the opportunity. Since you are now working on the floors, consider relocating the battery from the engine compartment to the right rear floor section such as where the battery would be on a Beetle. This visually cleans up the engine compartment. Also, if you decide you want more power than the stock single carb so that you'd pursue dual carbs, the lack of the battery on the left of the left carb really frees up space to get at the jets, mounting nuts, etc. Here are a few shots of dual carb engines with relocated batteries, from the gallery:

And here is one example of the relocated battery, though I can't see the holding bracket.

This is how the engine compartment would look if you kept the battery and fitted dual carbs. The fresh air hoses going down through the rear "breast plate" are not the stock configuration-

[paul_round]

I'm intrigued as to the purpose of putting those hoses there.

[c21darrel]

It looks like they may be heating the inside
_________________
GhiaBuild
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=481184
1967 DC build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=693583&highlight=67+dc
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[KGCoupe]

I traced that photo back to The Samba Gallery, and found the username of the member that originally submitted it (candelaj)

Looking through the other photos in his gallery, I found this similar photo of his engine setup complete with a brief explanation in the photo's description area -

[Sofia74]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I am slow responding because my internet was down for a couple days. Hard to imagine how we got along without it back in the day. My wife was going to move out if I didn't get it fixed!
But I am back. Not near the car so I am doing research for the next steps.

BTW, I like the idea of moving the battery under the back seat. I will probably do that. It both looks good and gets it away from the heat of the engine.
Matt