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My 1969 Ghia Coupe
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KarmannMarco
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Joined: January 03, 2010
Posts: 263
Location: Woodland Park CO
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:44 am    Post subject: My 1969 Ghia Coupe Reply with quote

Hi guys.
I'm finally getting somewhere with my Ghia semi-restoration now that I moved to a place with a garage.
I've done several threads to point me in the right direction over the years but never a build thread.
So here it goes.
I bought this Ghia in 2011 before doing much research or asking too may questions. I used my heart and not my brain in my decision and there was a good amount of pity for the poor car that was being repaired/modified with gallons of bondo.
The previous owner drove it into the back of his garage and crushed the nose.
His solution was to cut a monster size hole where the nose was. Add chicken wire for a grille and top it off with bondo. The result was a monstrous ugly duckling resembling a Volvo P1800.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

My plan was to find a donor front clip and everything else was going to be ok.
At this time I moved for work to a place in Southeast Texas with no garage. Between my new very busy work schedule and the horrid 100+ degree humid summers very little progress got done on the car.
So it sat under a car cover neglected for about two years sadly. About a year ago I decided it was time to get some work done on the car. I was on a very low budget but that didn't stop me from my mission. I could easily have bought all new sheetmetal but that would have costed me more then I paid for the car itself , not to mention my nearly non existent budget.
So I drove out to Waco , TX to pick up a super rusty 67 that I could pillage some some parts from. A couple years before that a nice fellow on this forum has sent me a somewhat dented center nose section for the price of shipping and I bought some rough but usable headlight bucket sections off the classifieds. Between all the sheetmetal I had collected I had sections from 4 different ghias and all of them needed some work before I could frankenstein myself a front clip. I knew from the beginning with my limited bodywork skills this was going to be a long learning experience and my final result will not be as nice as a fresh front clip. But that didn't discourage me. There was no way after all it would look worse then what I had started with.
So I began cutting and cleaning the front clip on the car. The whole front end from the center of the wheel well onward was crumpled , tweaked and rusted. The inner sheetmetal was pretty much the same. The rest of the fender area from there to where the fuel filler is had a good 3/4 inch of bondo on it. So... chop chop chop...
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Now I needed to gather all my sheetmetal pieces and measure , cut , weld , hammer , weld etc....
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


After 4 months of blowing holes through paper thin metal and getting to know my body hammers very well It finally came together this past July.
At this point I was getting ready to move from Texas to Colorado ( yay! )
so I put the project on pause.
In September we were moved into out new place in the mountains. The weather was glorious and I had a garage.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Time to put the project on high gear!
Within a month on my weekends off I was able to weld on fresh inner sheet metal. Por 15 the inside . Weld on the outer sheetmetal clip to the new inner metal. Por 15 the inside of it as well. And finish the detail work with very little body filler.
Here's the car as it sits now.
It's not 100% but it's very close.
Please excuse my horrendous primer job.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


That's where I'm at for now.
I'm taking a brake from all this bodywork and I'm focusing on getting the engine running and the electrical finished.
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motorhead364
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey man that's awesome. A lesser man would have used your car for what good metal was left. Good to see these cars getting put back on the road. I pretty much replaced the lower six inches all the way around the bottom of my car. Good job and keep us up to date.
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c21darrel
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great, now how are you going to get air to the radiator? Cool
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=481184
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-Zodiac-
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

c21darrel wrote:
Great, now how are you going to get air to the radiator? Cool

Hahaha, I literally laughed at this!
Good looking car!
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1973 karmann ghia - current, not the last VW.
1947 Chevy stylemaster - gone, but not forgotten.
1995 Ford F-150 - gone, hatred for it lives.
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KarmannMarco
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Location: Woodland Park CO
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

c21darrel wrote:
Great, now how are you going to get air to the radiator? Cool


Electric fans of course!
lol

Thanks for the comments guys. I know it's definitely not concourse work but I made it happen with the little I had available to me and I feel great about it.
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c21darrel
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You should feel great. Nice work.
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KarmannMarco
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Got a little dilemma some of you guys can shed some light on.
As Im going over the electricals I noticed the 1969 wiring diagram is a bit off. The wiring in my car is actually identical do the 1970 diagram. Thats fairly common in late mode 1969 Ghias I figured , but today I looked at my vin number ( 149 040 704 ) and according to the samba that vin number is a early 1969 model.
Am I reading this wrong or is it possible for a early 1969 car to have 1970 wiring ? The wiring is original and the wire colors match and the numbers on the car are all matching as well.
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1962 Karmann Ghia Coupe
1969 Karmann Ghia Coupe (SOLD)
1981 BMW 633CSi


Last edited by KarmannMarco on Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:35 am; edited 1 time in total
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KarmannMarco
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Joined: January 03, 2010
Posts: 263
Location: Woodland Park CO
KarmannMarco is offline 

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Got a little dilemma some of you guys can shed some light on.
As Im going over the electricals I noticed the 1969 wiring diagram is way off. The wiring in my car is actually identical do the 1970 diagram. That fair common in late mode 1969 Ghias I figured but today I looked at my vin number ( 149 040 704 ) and according to the samba that vin number is a early 1969 model.
Am I reading this wrong or is it possible for a early 1969 car to have 1970 wiring ? The wiring is original and the wire colors match and the numbers on the car are all matching as well.
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1962 Karmann Ghia Coupe
1969 Karmann Ghia Coupe (SOLD)
1981 BMW 633CSi
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Abscate Premium Member
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It is certainly possible that someone grabbed a later loom for a 1969, if in fact the looms for the 1970 model were already being made. Its surprising, but not as outrageous as Bigfoot. (Bugfoot?)
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carl4x4
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My uk 1969 ghia has a loom that resembles a 67/68 wiring but with 70/71 switches and relays.

So i guess it's not uncommon for them to vary through the year of production!
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