Claudia's 68

[John Miller]

[John Miller]

Well, what a difference a week makes. Here are a few pics of last weeks repair fixing my mega screw up.

Finally here is the gap I ended up with. You can now shut the door with your pinky finger. It closes nicer than by daily driver.
Sorry about the pic I have no idea why it loaded like that.

The next day I was able to get the filler on and ready to go. So this week I called about the paint. The local store is a PPG dealer and he said he could color match the crappy respray color in an acrylic enamel and with enough reducer, hardener, primer and thinner to do that rear quarter I would be out the door for about $110.

While e-mailing with Dave and trying to get our schedules together he said that without to much more trouble or expense we should just go ahead and paint the whole car. I did a little checking and he was right. So I started checking on taking it back to L-554 Cherry Red.

While looking in the gallery I ran across this pic by Samba member "semajnai" in Denmark.

It is probably the nicest example of Cherry Red that I've ever seen. The PO that resprayed my car only did the exterior surfaces so I have plenty of real nice original paint everywhere and it looks exactly like the pic above. So I sent the above pic to my wife (since it's her car) and told her I was thinking about painting the whole car back the original color to see if she liked it. Well she LOVED it. She liked it so much she decided to do the black roof also.

So today after the weekly mowing was done I got to work. A couple of hours later...

The only casualty was the dash pad. It started crumbling as I was taking it out. The split in the speaker section was all the way down to the metal and over an inch wide and some water had gotten in at some point because there was extensive rust to the metal frame of the pad, but not the dash, weird?

While I was staring at the dash trying to come up with a plan on what to do about that fake woodgrain contact paper the wife came home. When she left the car was drivable so she was quite surprised at it's current state. We talked about different options and she has decided that the dash pad will be left off, the contact paper will be removed and the dash will be painted body color.

Here is the current state of the dash.

Tomorrow I'll take out the gauges and try to start taking that contact paper off. Any suggestions on how to get it off? I tried a small section and it is so old and brittle that it breaks off in VERY tiny pieces.

Also what are my options for the speaker area? Does anyone make a metal cover for that area of will I need to cut it out and weld in a section?
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[c21darrel]

Lots of good stuff and progress, congrats. 3m makes a product that should get rid of the contact paper mess, i remember Vince mentioning it in the past. You will have some oval holes to weld up on the 68 dash so it is all smooth, its never easy when you go "custom". I remember someone made a Karmann Ghia cover for the speaker that was selling a few or you can weld a flat cover over and make it all smooth. Cherry red/black is a great color choice!

[John Miller]

Thanks.

I spent yesterday with a wire cupped brush hitting every little spot that I saw on the car. It was pretty much what I expected with a couple of exceptions. Two very small bubbles in the paint turned into major repairs needed. Here's a few pics of what I found.
This one should be an easy fix.

Still deciding whether to patch it up or just replace with repair panel.

and SURPRISE!

the culprit

I found a good contact paper remover, wire cupped brush on a grinder. Use a light touch and it comes off pretty easily. Only a few spots taken down to bare metal. I'll give the 3M stuff a try, thanks for the tip.

Minus most of the paper.

And now onto the big project. If I counted correctly I'm going to be welding up a metric buttload (14 on top, 15 in face plus ?? underneath) of holes plus having to deal with the speaker hole.

I'm going to think on this a little longer. Even though it's her car she might get vetoed on this decision. I've not heard any good things about the fit of the repo ones so I might just see if I can find a good used one that I can recover.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[c21darrel]

Mine is patched at the "cross" and all along the bottom edge in front of both wheel wells. The holes in the 68 dash were one reason i grafted in the 67 dash...no holes to fill. I think it was eaiser to swap than patch up the 68, maybe. Looks like you have all the normal bad spots. I think the smart guys just pay the price and buy a better car to avoid so many time consuming/expensive repairs.

[John Miller]

[c21darrel]

I said they were smart...not fun

[John Miller]

*blows dust off*

Shortly after my last post work on the car came to a screeching halt. Over the last few weeks I've been able to free up a little time to get back to it.
Still working on rust repair and getting some patch panels made.

Crudely cut out antenna hole

And finally a decision was made. After trying to make patches for the "cross" area I thought better of it and just went ahead and did it.

Hopefully I'll have more progress soon.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[WavesSandAndSun]

I just got a wild hair to check on the status of Ghia after all these years, and after some hardcore scouring of the internet I dug up your thread again.
Looks like there have been some unfortunate surprises along the way, but I'm glad to see the project wasn't abandoned.
How funny that just last week you posted an update...I'm saving your link this time and I look forward to seeing your progress!

Grace

[John Miller]

Hey Grace, glad you found it. For those that haven't figured it out this young lady is the previous owner. I'm hoping to have all the bodywork done by next spring and painted by summer. We'll see how that works out.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

*blows dust off AGAIN*

Well my last post didn't quite work out like I planned.

I had gotten to the point of selling the Ghia, and actually listed it, after the wife informed me that she really liked driving my new toy (94 Corvette convertible LT1 6 speed) and would prefer to drive it over the Ghia. Since I still have the 62 beetle I just decided to sell the Ghia. After a few weeks and dozens of REALLY stupid questions I decided to keep it and finish it.

So I spent most of the weekend trying to finish the welding up. Ran into a couple more spots that need to be addressed and found a rather large dent in the rear deck lid that I had never noticed. I think I can get it out but if not I'll be looking for one. So if the weather will cooperate I'll hopefully have the welding done soon.

Since the wife is no longer the decision maker of the build I may change a few things that were previously planned. I have a spare complete H case 1500 that I might just have to play around with to see if I can get a little more oomph out of it. We'll see.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[kiwighia68]

Well, John, I'll say this. You have stamina. I have a '68 too, and my restoration project is in the early stages. I've decided to go the body-off ground-up route. I don't have your skills and my wife - bless her - has given me $4500 to spend on the car. I need to do 4 big jobs: body in acid bath and blasted with new panels welded in where needed, chassis with new floor pans, engine recon, and complete interior (carpets, seats and headliner). I'm getting the experts to do all that work. I hear you asking 'Where's the fun in that?'

No fun in watching, I can tell you, but only if you can do the job yourself -which I can't. I had to save this car - found her on the side of the road with weeds growing through the floor pans: An irresistible challenge.

[KGCoupe]

I understand the "challenge" aspect of restoring a car that needs a tremendous amount of rust repair, and if you have the mad skillz required to accomplish it then more power to you!
Looks like a lot of blood, sweat and love have gone into this Ghia so far, and the same could be said for all the others that have taken on a similar challenge themselves.
Congrats! All your efforts are clearly adding up to something special.

My question comes in for those that are considering paying for others to perform a similar amount of work on a similarly rusty Ghia, and that question is this - "Have you seen what decent Karmann Ghias are selling for these days?"

It's downright depressing how cheap some of them are selling for, and I have to wonder if some people that are planning to pay to have their Ghia restored realize that it could easily end up costing more than double the current value of the car.
But then - as they say - if it's a return on investment that you're looking for, there are probably many, many smarter ways to spend your money rather than using it to buy a hobby car.
If you're doing it for the love of the car, then I guess you simply have to consider the value of having a beautifully restored Karmann Ghia to drive and cherish as "Pricele$$".

[alex3012red]

I couldn't have said it better! It's all about love and passion for the ghias...

[John Miller]

Thanks for the responses. I hope I can keep putting up progress pics. But as evident from my previous posts you may not here back from me for another year.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[kiwighia68]

It breaks my heart to see how some really special cars are (have been) neglected. When you think of all the very special people who have contributed to building a car, say a Ghia, and to think that one person could come and make a mess of it. It starts with the men and women who mine the iron and copper, who turn it into steel and electrical wire, who design, engineer and manufacture every component, and who assemble all parts together in a beautiful, cohesive and functional whole, then you have to wonder about the mentality of the person who neglects it as if it were a disposable lighter.

I don't subscribe to that philosophy, and when I saw my 68 Ghia rusting away in the open for months I felt compelled to do something about it. I know it's going to cost money, but for me the satisfaction will be to do something special.
_________________
Festina lente - hasten slowly
1968 Ghia named Emiko
Resto completed Dec 2015

[John Miller]

[c21darrel]

Way to be persistant, no one likes quitters.
I vote you paint it yourself, you have done everything else, why stop now!
_________________
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!

[John Miller]

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of doing it myself. I have several bug hoods and fenders laying around to practice on. I'll have to see how that goes first before I make the final decision.

The one quote that I did get, when I finally got someone to even price it, was enough to make me SERIOUSLY consider doing it myself.
_________________
The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[bobnorman]

Great work. I wouldn't worry about the pace, you're getting it done, that's the main thing..lightening fast compared to mine! I'm in, let's see the rest!
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

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