Primed Ghia
Posted on February 5, 2010
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Ghia after chemical stripping and priming at Surface Processing. She’s in quite good condition under all the paint and filler, the damage to the right rear quarter isn’t nearly so bad and there’s a couple small holes here and there but overall in good condition
Away for cleaning!
Posted on January 23, 2010
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
The little car went away on Wednesday the 20th to be chemically stripped and then e-primed!
Surface Processing are doing the work for me, and expect it will take around three weeks.
As well as the bodyshell, the doors, bonnet, and bootlid were sent away as well.
Got nuthin’
Posted on December 29, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Work continues on the Ghia, but at a snail’s pace (what with actual work getting in the way).
Everything for the chassis/frame has been powdercoated and is ready to go back together, and the body ships out on the 20th of January to get chemically stripped and primed.
Carbs
Posted on October 7, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | 1 Comment
Starting to get things powdercoated… in fact the only things that aren’t coated yet are the floorpan which needed a bit of welding work and the front beam.
In the meantime, my carbs arrived… a pair of Dell’Orto DRLA 40s, complete with hex linkage.
Shotblasted
Posted on September 12, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Got the floorpan and accessories shotblasted earlier this week…
Floorpan is in pretty good condition. There’s a twenty-centimetre strip that I’ve cut out of one of the edges with a replacement piece to weld in, but apart from that… it’s in pretty good nick.
All the other bits and pieces are fine as well, which is nice.
It’s all going to be powdercoated a nice gloss black later this week!
Floorpan lifted
Posted on August 29, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Lots of work going on.
Floorpan successfully seperated from bodyshell:
No rust on it at all, save for that which you see on the surface.
Bodyshell isn’t too bad either…
The area forward of the rear left arch was a bit dented, but Neil was able to beat it out with his madskillz. The other side needs some work however, as there’s lots of random dents and filler covering. No pics of that yet.
One thing I found when I was stripping the remnants of interior out; the original colour!
The pale blue is what the previous owner put on; the maroon colour seems to date from the car’s South African days. The white, found under the window rubber seals and under the headlining, is likely the original colour; so the car shall be restored in that colour.
The floorpan and some ancillaries are going for shotblasting on Tuesday!
Grindhouse
Posted on August 13, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Whilst stripping the car down, and preparing it to lift the body from the floorpan:
I found that one of the previous owners had cunningly welded the body to the floorpan with this sketchy weld:
So, time to get the grinder out and use my sketchy grinding skills to cut away at the bit of metal without damaging the floorpan or body…
Fortunately, it seems that my line was a good one…
Gauges
Posted on July 30, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
I mentioned I took the clocks out of the car the other day; well, two of them (I couldn’t get the aftermarket Brazilian fuel gauge out).
The gauges are illuminated by the teeniest little bayonet bulbs I’ve ever seen (complete with funky West German dashed wire).
Rather than replace the bulbs with… well, replacements, I think I want to swap the bulbs with LEDs. I tried a couple of colours, and white looked best.
VIN Checks
Posted on July 29, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Just checked the VIN against the database on TheSamba.com… I thought she was incorrectly registered in the UK as a 1965 model as the 146 prefix suggests 1966; and indeed she is a 1966MY, and according to the VIN built sometime between January and July 1966.
Engine out
Posted on July 28, 2009
Filed Under Karmann Ghia | Leave a Comment
Big day today – engine was taken out of the little car.
It took us about half an hour to get the engine out – not too bad at all, given it’s the first time I’ve done this (Neil is an experienced hand at this, though).
There’s a lot of space in there!
I’ll rebuild the engine, replacing any worn components and put some twin-choke Weber carbs on there to replace the single-choke Solex unit.
keep looking »
