TheSamba.com :: View topic - Restoration by "La Guêpe" of a GHIA 66 for a custo

Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:41 am

Hello guys, I'm "La Guêpe", and I'm a upholstery man in France at my own account, since 15 years.

You can see my job on my website: http://www.selleriegomez.com/, or the shop daily life here on my blog: http://sellerieguepe74.skynetblogs.be/

I'm the owner of two Karmann Ghia: Low Light 56 vintage and a 67 in restoration since 5 years, yeh!

In june, a customer ask me more than only the upholstery, he was lookink for sombodu to restore in totality his Karmann 66, it's a second hand, and my customer bought it in California.

Ok, I can do ut!

At the beginning at my shop:

Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:15 pm

La Guêpe wrote: Hello guys, I'm "La Guêpe", and I'm a upholstery man in France at my own account, since 15 years.

You can see my job on my website: http://www.selleriegomez.com/, or the shop daily life here on my blog: http://sellerieguepe74.skynetblogs.be/

I'm the owner of two Karmann Ghia: Low Light 56 vintage and a 67 in restoration since 5 years, yeh!

In june, a customer ask me more than only the upholstery, he was lookink for sombodu to restore in totality his Karmann 66, it's a second hand, and my customer bought it in California.

Ok, I can do ut

Thats a beautiful looking lowlight you got there- We'd love to see more pictures of that and the other project as well-

Keep us updated on your customers car! Alway's good to see how the pro's do it! :wink:

Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:31 pm

For the Low, I'm the third owner, the Karmann was at first in Germany, in a local VW dealer for his wife.

After it was sold at a guy in France, who was a customer of mine, I did for him all the interior of a Ghia 63, and a few days after he tols me that he want to sell the Low... I bought it quickly!

The Ghia 63 of the second owner of the Low

The Low is all original, only not for the motor because I have a double carbs on it, it's a kit Autotechnik. But it was sold with the Low!
The Low run well, it's my week-end driver, and my last trip with it was in may, and I made 1500 kilometers in three days, cool vintage car!

Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:52 pm

Wow, c'est beau! 8)

Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:10 pm

execk2 wrote: Wow, c'est beau! 8)

Cool un francophone...., nos cousins du Québec, ah voilà une contrée que j'aimearais découvrir, à l'automne pour profiter des images de l'été indien.

For the english guys, I'm happy to meet here a guy speaking french, like Mike from Quebec.
And it's a land, I would like visit, in autumn if possible to see the landscapes of the" indian summer".

One day maybe.

In waiting, some jod is wainting me, like this 66.
And firstly, I put the 66 all in parts...

And after, direction my body shop, for the cuts and weldings.

Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:41 pm

Bon si jamais tu viens a Quebec, "mi casa est su casa".

Translate: If you ever make it to Quebec.... (enter spanish here)

Check notre site, 66 Ghia et 57 Speedster...

Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:59 pm

Nice low light! I also saw the tread on the 66 on the french ghia forum and it is a really nice job:
http://forumkarmannghia.forum-actif.net/projets-de...-t2028.htm

There is some french Vw guys in Québec like Jérome with his 59 low light and Fred that work at a Vw motor shop in Montréal...He started a job on a 68 mean and low that he sell to another frenchy friend in Québec...so the wolrd is small....<

here some pics of that 68 ghia

http://monwest.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=773

En passant c'est vraiment beau un low light!

Claude

Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:25 am

We cut all rusty parts on the body:
. up of vthe both front fendres.
. low of the front and rear fenders.
. low of the nose.
. the rear right fender was smatched by the first owner, and repared like shit!

The low of nose:

The four low of fenders were like that:

There was a lot of cut and welding work!

Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:24 am

After the cut and welding job, all the outside of the body has bee prepared and painted with polyester primer.

It's look better, like that!

And at this time, we took the body to the sandblasting.

Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:42 am

Nice work 8)

Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:30 am

Thank you Rich, but for me the better was coming..
And just few words Rich... "I love your Low Light!" :shock:

So all the low parts of the body, and all the interiors have been sandblasted with a sand call 'corrindon" in Europe, I don't know his name in english, if someone know...

With the "corrindon", we can sandblasting all the body, the fenders and the top without damage.

See the result after 10 hours of sandblasting.

We found some rust in the rear fenders.

Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:53 am

Nice work ! I like the the approach you took to repair the headlight bucket and headlight fender section. Minimally invasive surgery as they say. Looking great !

Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:06 am

72Ghia wrote: Nice work ! I like the the approach you took to repair the headlight bucket and headlight fender section. Minimally invasive surgery as they say. Looking great !

Thank you 72Ghia, in fact in all my restorations, I prefer preserve the old and original steel as possible, than welding shit repro steel!

I think, the old steel is better than the new, witch is finer, no?

Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:11 am

Excellent restoration work! :)

Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:02 pm

I agree with 72ghia and La Guepe. Make the repair as small as possible and throw away the leftover patch. I wish I would have known that when I started!

Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:11 pm

superb work, where in france are you? I have spent several months in france and love the country

Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:14 pm

gregmporter wrote: I agree with 72ghia and La Guepe. Make the repair as small as possible and throw away the leftover patch. I wish I would have known that when I started!

Same here Greg..When I first started working on a Ghia, one of the first jobs I did was replace the headlight buckets and headlight sections.
I realize now that this was overkill and made extra work.
As La Guêpe mentioned the repro sections can be pretty bad sometimes.
Only issue I had with the headlight buckets was the lip for the rubber seal seemed a little on the shallow side.
Never even thought of repairing it the way La Guêpe did. One side had the same type of rust & that method probably would have worked saving a lot of time and expense.

By the way La Guêpe.. how did you manage to fabricate a lower spare tire cross stamping. Looks like it took some time to make.
Looks like the ideal car for a full restoration. I just checked out your website too and saw great looking Beetle. Did you install the interior?
It looks as perfect as could be.

Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:46 am

slafa wrote: superb work, where in france are you? I have spent several months in france and love the country

I'm leaving near the town ANNECY, in the north ALPES. Look here!

Some pictures of the areas...

And you Slafa, where was you in FRANCE?

Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:44 am

La Guêpe AKA the Wasp.
I too have seen your web site Jerome, and your work is fascinating to say the least.
What I love is the wonderful rural farmland setting in which you have your home and workshop; I can only fantasize of living and working in the East of France with the snow covered mountains in the background.

As here in Australia it’s a very dry flat place especially on the western side, that’s why we live all around the fringes, but we still call Australia home.
Kev.

Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:01 am

I spent one month in Mormoiron near Avignon and another month in a small town 1/2 hour west of Paris. the map shows where I traveled, I drove through the Alps to Nice in a '67 Deux Chevaux, my arms and shoulders were exhausted! :|

I am very excited to see the rest of the work you will do on the '66, Bon Chance! :D

Steve