Triple Karmann Ghia Restoration Project

[profpetrof]

Hi All,

I am a Mechatronic Engineer from Cape Town, South Africa. For the past few months I have been looking for a Karmann Ghia restoration project. Little did I know that I will end up with three. The previous owner of the vehicles does not have the time to complete either, and I negotiated purchasing all three. Herewith a brief overview:

1966 Karmann Ghia Body and Pan
The body was sandblasted sometime in the 2000's to be finished off, but was left outside to rust. There is a matching pan, but no engine, and no gearbox or interior.

1967 Karmann Ghia Complete
The owner stopped driving it due to an oil leak, removed the engine and parked the car under a shade, and it's been standing ever since. The vehicle is complete, with everything in place.

1966 Karmann Ghia Complete Restoration 60%
The owner started restoration. Body stripped and repainted. Engine professionally rebuilt. Pan stripped and repainted. Complete set of brand new rubbers. All interior and trim in boxes, detailed logs of restoration in hand, down to the labeled bolts.

I have purchased all three, and are in the process of moving everything to my garages. Luckily I live on a farm, so I have plenty of space.

The overview restoration process I was thinking of is as follow:
1. Have the rusted body sandblasted, repaired and painted. Place in dry storage for a later day (2015-)
2. While step 1 is performed by outside company, strip 1967 KG down to body, have it sandblasted, repaired and repainted.
3. While step 1 and 2 is being outsourced, start assembly on 1966 in order to complete.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or words of encouragement will be appreciated.

I will post more photographs as the parts and body's start arriving at my place. I hope everyone is ready for assistance, because I will be relying heavily on TheSamba as an information resource.

Oh yes, one last thing, I am a purist, so I am planning to repair all three to their former unmodified glory.

Regards to all from a 32°C Cape Town.

[70 140]

I wouldn't do anything to the 67. Shine the paint up, blend in any bad spots with matching paint, and get it running. Being that you are a purist, it would be the most original car of your fleet.

[calexican]

I agree with above. They are original only once. What a great find. Ghia heaven!

[lowmitsu]

X 3

[pabloghia]

I think I see it differently. Keep the plan the way it is now.
Send the first two off and use the almost finished '66 to figure out how all the stuff goes together.
Once you have done that, the other two will be ready and you can use what you learned to complete the '66 and '67.
Either way, what you are attempting to do should be saluted and I thank you for saving these great cars.
_________________
67 Ghia Cabriolet

[70 140]

Original paint can look pretty good:

[profpetrof]

Dear All,

I would love to keep the 1967 as original as possible, but there are some rust spots in the usual places. Can the door sills of a Karmann Ghia be repaired while the body is on the pan?

I further have a query as to the white paint on the 1966 model of which the body has been restored. I know the original colour is Lotus White, but how can one verify the exact shade?

Thank for to all the words of encouragement.

[cool karmann collected]

Sills can be repaired with the body on the pan, click on the link in my sig below to see how I did it. I've just finished the other side also but haven't uploaded the pics for that yet, it was basically the same rust although there was a good bit more around the door hinge pillar area, I did a couple of things differently with bracing the door gap too. Let me know if you're super keen to see the pics and I'll update the thread.

Good luck with your projects, for what it's worth, getting one on the road asap even if it's not perfect would feel like a great morale boost to me, means I could take my time on the other two!

Ant

[Basketcase]

[profpetrof]

Today I prepared for the arrival of the first of the three Karmann Ghias. The 1967 model. The wheels was pumped, and it was towed with an A frame.

A photo of it's fresh arrival on the farm.

A photo of it's interior.

A photo of it's door interior.

Here is the sill that has me worried.

I would appreciate some suggestions regarding these sills. I would have liked to have the sills repaired while on the pan. But I have found that the pan has a few rust spots, some straight through. So the question is, do I first repair the sills and then pull the body of the pan, or do I reinforce the body, pull it from the pan, and then repair the sills and the pan? Either way it will be done by a professional company, but I would like to dictate the methodology.

A further photo of the sill.

A photo of the rear of the Karmann, with my father's Type181 hiding behind it. The 181 is completely restored and in exceptional condition.

The original badges for what it is worth.

I am really excited to get started on the Karmann's and I try to keep this post alive with updates.

Happy Ghia...

[70 140]

Never mind my previous comments about saving the paint, its already been resprayed.

FWIW, if you are pulling the body off the pan, it is much easier (and if you are paying by the hour) and much less time intensive to carry out the repairs to the sills and to the pan while the two are separated. Have them brace the A post to the B post before cutting the sills apart.

[Noel62]

I have a 67 just like it. In fact possibly closer related than one would think. It was exported from South Africa to West Australia by an owner who emigrated a few years back.
Quite an unusual car. 6 volt, ball joint disc brake front end, 4 stud rims, a mechanical cable interlock from the 'A' pillar to the seat back release. A one year only interior mirror, and ignition switch.
Worth restoring as original as possible if you can.

[profpetrof]

Hi Unterkafer,

Can you shed some light on several details, did this 67 come with painted dash, or is my fake wood interior just missing? The second observation, this one definitely has disc brakes in front, but I have a suspicion that it does not have the ball joint suspension. Is this possible? I still have the original 1500 motor, and it is in very good condition, much more so than the body.

I was further thinking of having the A and B frames reinforced even before removing from the pan, for just in case.

Happy Ghia.

[70 140]

I've never seen or heard of a link pin disc brake spindle. I would suspect it is ball joint.

Lets see some photos from the underside just to clear it up.

67's in the rest of the world had the faux wood grain over the painted dash. 67 was a one year only wood grain, due to the in-dash recessed ignition.

[Noel62]

I cant say for certain but I have seen a lot of info that suggests the 67 came with a 'stick on' fake dash. However, I expect we would have no chance of ever getting a new replacement, for the sake of authenticity. the main reason being that although they are still available for right hand drive from the UK, the 1967 'one year only' ignition switch would not be catered for in the moulding. that's my best guess.
Or, maybe the fake dash started for the following years model. ??

As for the front end, I am fairly certain it should be a ball joint beam. If you have disc brake link pin beam then it is due to non-factory disc brake caliper adaptors.

happy to compare notes, feel free to ask if you want me to check something.

[profpetrof]

The big day arrived.

Wednesday was a public holiday in South Africa and that was the day I decided to move everything to my home from the previous owner.

I decided to take a lowbed instead of a truck. It is much easier lifting a body onto a lowbed 500mm high than a truck 1200mm high.

Photo of the front as it arrived.

Photo of the rear as it arrived.

One of two completely restored pans, painted with a heavy duty paint highly recommended for this purpose. I will get some more info on the paint.

The first pan will be used for the white Karmann Ghia, and the second one I will use to transplant the Blue Karmann onto.

Freshly vacuum packed "lack of" power. The 1300 motor for the 1966 white Karmann, all neat and tidy. Ready to be fired up.

Painted front suspension and brake drums. All the engine shrouds are also painted black.

I have a box of brand new body and suspension rubbers waiting to be unpacked. And all the nuts and bolts are labeled.

So I guess now I can start playing the game of "where does this part go".

Regards to all,

Happy Ghia.

[profpetrof]

Today I started sorting out some of the parts. The previous owner kept a complete record of all parts, with sketches and an index with numbers, corresponding to each part which is also numbered and labeled. However, some parts missed the system, and some are extra.

Guess which part goes where:

1. An easy one. I guess this goes behind the front intake louvers?

2. A bit more difficult, must be a locking mechanism, the torsion spring looks strange, I have not seen it used in locks before.

3. Now this one I am not sure of. Any guesses?

4. I know there is an exhaust heat exchanger in air cooled VWs. What is the valve for, and how does heat get transferred without mixing with exhaust gasses?

5. This is a difficult one. There are two of these parts, and they fell out of a box. I recon they go somewhere on the engine assembly, but not sure where.

6. Here I am at a loss. A seal of some sort? Not sure where it goes.

7. Part of the lights I got was a pair of Low-light brake lights. I only have 66 and 67 vehicles. What should I do with these lights?

Enjoy your weekends.

[sputnick60]

[John Moxon]

[profpetrof]

Hi All,

so there is light at the end of the tunnel. Today the chassis was put on stands, and the assembly of the front suspension and gearbox is underway. The gearbox was previously sandblasted, and I am planning on painting it black to match the rest of the suspension and pan.

The rims were painted a mat gray. But one started to rust in storage. Now I am going to have them sandblasted, and would like to know do you spray it, or should I have it epoxy coated? And what colour? The Body is white, I was thinking of a red interior, and was thinking black rims, with chrome hubcaps.

Now an interesting thing that I discovered is that the roof lining should be done before the front and rear windows go in. So here too, I would like to know opinions and colour options.

Enjoy your Ghias!

Regards,

Andries