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1964 Ghia coupe, resto in progress, first posting
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DorianL
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Joined: June 06, 2013
Posts: 717
Location: Belgium
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ummmmm, why in the world would you make postings rare????

More posts are better. Laughing Laughing Laughing
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SchnuppiePup
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Joined: November 07, 2014
Posts: 67
Location: San Jose, California
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yesterday, I sent the email below with photos to my brother-in-law, who sold us this '64 coupe a few years ago. (Tricia is his sister and my wife.)

Hi, Mike:

I took these snapshots of Pedro earlier this evening. Tricia and I took him on a few laps around the block before dinner. She could send you the video if you ask.

Pedro hadn't been driven in about 15 months. Back then, in April 2014, I reinstalled the engine with new cylinder heads but hadn't begun work on the body. In the meantime, the dents got pounded out, the rust in the floor pans got welded up (Bryan lent me his welder), and the original paint scheme went back on (cough, cough: I learned the importance of wearing my respirator while spraying). New door panels and most sections of new carpet are in, fabric sections sewn together on your grandmother's 1922 Singer.

Lots of the original parts are still waiting reinstallation: bumpers, seats (we loaded it up with cushions to sit on), the little swing-out windows, mirrors, etc. But today we passed a milestone: car running well in its new/original paint configuration with some semblance of a restored interior.

Oh, yeah, and the paint is in the process of buffing, which explains all the white crud and dull (sanding) patches.

Cheers.

.....................................................................................................

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Anyway, progress. Soon to come, of interest to a few of y'all Sambanistas, is work on the dashboard pad. I'll post photos.

I'm particularly pleased with the cute door pocket visible in the first photo. I stuffed it with maps to show my wife how I was preparing for our Ghia road trip next week down the central California coast. It's not happening now because we need to tend to our daughter who severely sprained her knee.

The second photo actually shows the reinstalled windshield: hard to see due to the windshield's cleanliness. The installation of the rubber gasket on the windshield and their installation on the car went remarkably well: altogether 2 hrs of solo work. During this effort, I discovered the trick for wrapping the gasket onto the glass, sprayed diluted detergent along the car's opening for the windshield, and used the wire trick to get the inner gasket flange to wrap itself into the car body. Ha ! Very little pressure or pounding was necessary.
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1964 Ghia coupe
1968 Honda CT 90
1980 Honda CT 110
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SchnuppiePup
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Joined: November 07, 2014
Posts: 67
Location: San Jose, California
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:43 am    Post subject: How I rebuilt the dash pad and parcel shelf pad Reply with quote

kiwighia68 wrote:
I for one, would be interested to see what you did with the dashboard pad and rear parcel shelf and the instruments.


Dashboard pad

I started with this:

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and this
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So I removed the pad and yanked off the vinyl. The naked base board was in halfway decent shape, but I wanted to structurally beef it up before recovering it. I obtained some 3/32-in. (2 mm) three-ply luan plywood. I cut out a long section of this plywood and glued it to the underside of the original base board using construction glue (the stuff in the tube you use in a caulking gun). The area of the speaker holes and vent slots were shot, so I removed and replaced the original board there with more plywood. Several miscellaneous gaps and cracks on top were filled and reinforced with body filler and more wood glue. The board was provided with holes for the grab bar bolts and with two new bolts that fit the attachment holes in the metal platform.

The specially shaped edge facing and the little wings on the ends were potential weak spots. I reinforced these using a continuous strip of common fiberglass fabric and resin. See below. The cured fiberglass job is nearly transparent, not that that matters; it's just difficult to see in the photo. Thus, the original shape of the pad was retained while the strength was substantially increased. The photo also shows some of the underlying plywood and where some extra construction glue was stuffed in for more strength.

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I wanted some padding and to duplicate the original pattern of speaker holes and, of course, the original vinyl. The padding was "dish foarm". This stuff comes in a roll at the hardware store and is used for wrapping your dishes in when moving. For the holes, I used a section of the original holes to make a paper pattern.
• A pin was used to precisely place holes in the paper pattern.
• The pattern was placed on the underside (white cloth) of the vinyl by pressing a marker to the pinholes. The paper pattern was then discarded.
• A sharp leather punch was used to cut out the holes in the vinyl.
• The holes in the vinyl were used as a pattern for the holes in the dish foam. First a marker was used to mark the hole locations, and then a leather punch was used to cut the holes.
• The holes in the vinyl were again used as a pattern, but this time for the holes in the base board. These holes were made using a drill.

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All three sets of holes were subsequently lined up, of course. The dish foam was glued to the top of the board with an even layer of brushed-on wood glue and then trimmed (not wrapped) all around the edges. The vinyl was warmed in the sun, glued to the dish foam using spray-on rubber adhesive, and wrapped around to the underside of the base board, where it was trimmed and attached with Gorilla Glue. Lots of spring clamps were involved. The vent slots were made with a long central slice of the knife and a few relief cuts on the ends; then more Gorilla Glue and clamps.

The final product is below. The gray triangle is merely some artifact of the flash photography, perhaps a windshield reflection. I'm happy with the results. That's also a freshly painted dashboard, steering wheel, and steering column.

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


Pad for rear parcel shelf

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


The original rear parcel shelf pad was completely trashed, and so I needed to duplicate it from scratch. Otherwise, its rebuild was similar to that of the dash pad. I used normal plywood, maybe 3/16 in.(?) The raised rear edge was a separate piece bent and glued on at an angle. I used lots of construction glue and clamps for this joint. Two bolts were installed for attachment to the body. Dish foam went on top. Some 3/16-in. recycled batting material was glued onto the bottom (you can see some of this material in the photo above on the tunnel: I'm also using it as carpet padding). Same vinyl fabric. In the rear, I sewed a curved piece of vinyl to the main piece: it's the only practical way to make the vinyl conform to all the curves of the base board. Same methods of gluing as the dash pad.

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

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Better a life-long learner than a life-long know-it-all.

1964 Ghia coupe
1968 Honda CT 90
1980 Honda CT 110
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CiderGuy
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Joined: December 23, 2013
Posts: 1351
Location: Bucks County, Pa
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 5:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow you put a lot of time and effort into that dash pad, nice work. How long did it take you to do ?
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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)

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SchnuppiePup
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Joined: November 07, 2014
Posts: 67
Location: San Jose, California
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gosh, who knows. Hours and hours and hours.
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1964 Ghia coupe
1968 Honda CT 90
1980 Honda CT 110
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