Chris' 68 Ghia Build Log - From the Woods back to the Street

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:35 am Post subject:

In keeping with my "get it sitting right first" objective, my next step was going to be doing a short axle swap, getting my rear wheel offset figured out, and dropping the rear torsion bars ..

I picked up a set of good used short swing axles and tubes out of a '65 Beetle from Austin Veedub, but once I looked into what was involved with doing a swing axle swap:

http://www.latebug.com/index.php/axle-removal.html

.. and then discussion in the following thread with fellow sambanians who have experience with this:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=527679

I have decided to table the short axle swap until it the time comes to pull the engine and trans out of the car.

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:38 am Post subject:

So I have decided to turn my attention next to something that has been bothering me .. the rear deck lid. The lower part of my deck lid is so rotted, it is about to break in half. Everytime I close it, piles of rust fall out of it onto the floor.

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

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:40 am Post subject:

A look inside and things only get uglier. The inner support structure/rain gutters/storm sewers are practically gone ..

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:47 am Post subject:

As there are no patch panels available to cure this (amazingly the only rusty part of the car where there are no patch panels available) I was scratching my head as to how I was going to fix this. I was considering fabricating all of the inner struture by hand, and finding some other car with a similar curve to cut the sheetmetal out of for the exterior. But I knew that with all the time and effort I would put into it, I would never be happy with it. Further, that would create more places inside that would be great for trapping moisture and bubbling up through my paint job later.

My solution, locate an original rust free deck lid!

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:52 am Post subject:

So here is what I found. Some of you who peruse the Samba Ghia Classifieds may have spotted it. Some of you may have even been sorry that you didn't act fast enough and bought it. It is a solid straight rust free original '69 Ghia decklid from Texas. I bought it from Austin Veedub for $350 plus $50 UPS ground shipping. I feel it worth every penny to keep me from worrying about my rotted old deck lid.

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:56 am Post subject:

Although Austin Veedub packaged it nicely, with lots of bubble wrap and extra layers of cardboard inside a heavy cardboard box, it did get dropped/kicked/bumped during shipping on one corner. I can't fault Austin Veedub, you can't expect to ship something halfway across the country and not expect some minor damage. The other option would be to crate it and ship it truck freight, which nowadays is very expensive! (I got a quote for shipping a pair of NOS '70 Chevelle SS Fenders halfway across the country, crated truck freight I was quoted $900 for shipping!!!)

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:58 am Post subject:

.. a little light bumping with a hammer and dolly and it's back in the ballpark. Will need to fit it to the car to finish it up.

One thing I was concerned about was the varying tolerances of a handbuilt car such as the Ghia .. I hope it fits ok, I have seen many pictures of Ghia's with ill-fitting decklids.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:51 am Post subject:

Trial fitting the new deck lid to the car. As I figured it wasn't a perfect fit out of the box.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:55 am Post subject:

Not only was the upper left corner that had taken a hit during shipping higher than the body, but the upper right corner is higher than the body by the same amount. The upper center was lower than the body.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:57 am Post subject:

By placing a pulling hook between the body and the lid at various places and pushing down on the outer corners with hand pressure only brought the center up to level with the body. The corners went down a little but not much.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 11:00 am Post subject:

I realized that the stiffness of the support structure under the top of the deck lid would not let the corners come down. And I figured exerting enough pressure to bend the support structure would probably damage the decklid, I decided to make a few carefully placed relief cuts in the inner structure. A couple 2x6's clamped together gave me leverage to tweak the corners down a little.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 11:03 am Post subject:

The spread in the V-notch shows how much the corner came down. A tack weld holds it in place until I can weld it all up and finish it.

Now the corner of the decklid is even with the body.

I just need to repeat the procedure on the upper right corner.

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 12:51 pm Post subject:

I am eliminating the "VOLKSWAGEN" name plate from the deck lid so I decided to go ahead and weld up those holes.

sputnick60 · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:49 am Post subject:

I'm enjoying this. Cool

If Lazarus was a car, this'd be it.
Nicholas
_________________
'66 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet...
'65 Porsche 356C Coupe...
2005 Mecedes Benz C180 Kompressor Estate
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cseay1 · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:10 am Post subject:

cseay1 · Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:44 pm Post subject:

Have not touched the Ghia for months now. Between the cold weather and other projects and life in general - haven't even started it up or even looked at it much. Today was kind of a warm day, so hopped in turned the key and fired right up. Drove it around the parking lot of the shop a few times. Trying to give myself a motivational bump to get back on it.

DrakeB · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:51 pm Post subject:

Actually, there is a patch panel for that section of your deck lid that was completely trashed, but it is quite cost prohibitive by the time you pay for the panel, shipping and the lovely VAT on top of it all.

http://www.csp-shop.com/cgi-bin/cshop2/front/shop_...ann%20Ghia
_________________
Bondo? Bondo? We don't need no stinking Bondo!

How is it 'NOS' if it has been modified?

The Thread Killer.

cseay1 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:07 pm Post subject:

cseay1 · Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:30 am Post subject:

I wanted to do something on the Ghia as I felt that I had been neglecting it, but still don't have time to commit to anything serious. So I put a couple of chrome slash cut non-baffled exhaust tips (Empi 00-3694-0) on it.

I know, I know .. putting shiny chrome tips on a rusty muffler hanging off the back of a rusty car is kind of like polishing a turd, but it made me feel good and gave me a reason to take it for a blast down the side road to hear what it sounded like Very Happy

cseay1 · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 2:35 pm Post subject:

Just had a new gas station open up across the street from the shop, so I thought I would take the not quite street legal Ghia over there to fill up the 2 gallon fuel cell.

These short little trips make me want to work on the car - but jeez life keeps getting in the way Wink


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Chris' 68 Ghia Build Log - From the Woods back to the Street
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