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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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 Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:26 pm Post subject: 1956 Ghia Restoration |
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I'm usually over in the split/oval forums but I am now going to undertake the restoration of a 56 ghia coupe for someone. It's been 15 years since I have worked on a pre 57 ghia. I have owned and worked on 5 pre 58 ghia coupes and right now I am helping my brother with his 58 convt. I have a little bit of knowledge with these cars but I will be asking questions about this car. This is the earliest ghia I have worked on. Birth certificate has been ordered to verify if this car was originally a european model. It has a kilometer speedo dated 5/56 , chassis number indicates aug 56 build. Orig color appears to be trout blue. Car came from Florida, so it has some rust issues. Someone installed a type 3 motor and hacked the rear up. Luckily we have a donor 57 car for all sheetmetal. Owner wants a stock restoration but with a little more power. We will be building a 36 horse with a ww okrasa kit, stroker crank, performance cam and some cyl head work. Hope you enjoy the build as we go from a yellow rust bucket to a trout blue restored coupe.
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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some more pics I got to figure out how to resize pics to smaller size.
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aerosilver
Samba Member
Joined: July 29, 2006
Posts: 882
Location: UK
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| Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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Nice project  Look forward to seeing this progress.
Def. trout blue, looks like you have some of the original interior too. |
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djway3474
Samba Member
Joined: August 19, 2011
Posts: 2582
Location: The Real NDK So Cal
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| Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:13 am Post subject: |
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| I will be watching with great interest. Best of luck in your adventure ahead. I have been working on my 59 and have learned where to get a few parts. |
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Altema
Samba Member
Joined: June 20, 2010
Posts: 2904
Location: Lower Michigan
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| Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 7:35 am Post subject: |
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Looks like it's going to be a good project. For some reason the lowlights seem to look better in the more understated colors (the exception being brilliant red), so I don't know why it would have been changed from trout blue to yellow. Maybe they hit themselves in the head while hammering that header pipe, lol
Paul |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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Have been slowly working on ghia the last few days. Body is stripped, ready to take off pan. Waiting for owner to bring dolly made specifically for a ghia to take to body shop. Pan halves ordered from Gerson. Have been buying parts for project. Got an 010 from Glen Ring, rebuilt pedal assy from Scott at Pedal Werks. A correct coded small slot generator from Rick Clark and a redone jack from my friend Al. All persons mentioned above have supplied very high quality parts towards restoration. Owner has also found a few parts for restoration. Located an unstamped 36hp case to be used as the foundation for the okrasa build. Sending to Joe Ruiz for gold treatmant and Rimco for machining and balancing.
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Loren
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2004
Posts: 1701
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| Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:59 am Post subject: |
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| The wiper motor in the pic above is not correct for this car. It looks like a 58-59 Ghia wiper motor. This car needs a 56-57 wiper motor (the wiper linkage is also specific to the 56-57 Ghia too). Learning about all the part changes on these early Ghias is always fun! Love the updates, keep them coming. |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Loren, you are correct, that is a wiper motor for a 58-59 ghia. The one I took out of car is different. Owner of car had bought this one some time ago and was not sure if it was correct. Guess I will be putting this one up for sale, as it will not fit car. |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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Have been swamped with more restoration work than I can handle at this time, so I have not posted anything new lately. I got the body off the pan and off to the body shop, so they can get started on it. I am going to start on the chassis, replace pan halves, then off to powdercoat in a semi gloss black. I found a 56 transmission and front end for car that are going to get rebuilt, as what was on it was not correct.
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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Hello everyone, been waiting for some pan halves from Gerson to arrive, so I can take over to my friend who will install them. Body shop started to strip body and they are waiting for the donor car to arrive for needed replacement panels. The owner and I have been finding parts for car thru samba, friends and swap meets. Here are a few of them, some are nos. Have been sending parts out to be plated, polished, black oxide and cad plated. Engine case is at Joe Ruiz's getting gold finish and then to rimco for some machining. Had carbs redone by Joe, as well as a correct okrasa fuel line. Thats all for now.
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sparkleplenty
Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2008
Posts: 1110
Location: California
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| Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 5:47 am Post subject: |
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Looking good man...The body doesn't look too bad at all. Does the car have the KK badge plate in the trunk area? If so, what #? Just wondering how close it is to mine...
_________________
'56 European Oval Ragtop-Stock
'56 Karmann Ghia Coupe-Stock
'59 Italian Series I Li150 Lambretta-Stock
"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."
"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who is swimming naked." |
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djway3474
Samba Member
Joined: August 19, 2011
Posts: 2582
Location: The Real NDK So Cal
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| Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:18 am Post subject: |
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| do you need to replace the entire pan? the new pan front sections don't match if I have read correctly. The pict is not close up but is a lot of that surface rust? If not a full replace would be warranted. the car is looking great so far |
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Rich's 50
Samba Member
Joined: February 18, 2004
Posts: 10781
Location: San Diego, CA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:39 am Post subject: |
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Basketcase
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2011
Posts: 636
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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looks pretty solid.
_________________
'72 Karmann Ghia Coupe (the Boss's) |
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Altema
Samba Member
Joined: June 20, 2010
Posts: 2904
Location: Lower Michigan
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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Coming along nicely!
Paul |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| djway3474 wrote: |
| do you need to replace the entire pan? the new pan front sections don't match if I have read correctly. The pict is not close up but is a lot of that surface rust? If not a full replace would be warranted. the car is looking great so far |
Will be using the floor pans from Gerson (the green ones) which look pretty dead on as orig. would have liked to have kept orig ones but they have several large holes and have become very thin due to rust. |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you all for the positive comments. |
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Altema
Samba Member
Joined: June 20, 2010
Posts: 2904
Location: Lower Michigan
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| Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:28 am Post subject: |
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| belairman wrote: |
| djway3474 wrote: |
| do you need to replace the entire pan? the new pan front sections don't match if I have read correctly. The pict is not close up but is a lot of that surface rust? If not a full replace would be warranted. the car is looking great so far |
Will be using the floor pans from Gerson (the green ones) which look pretty dead on as orig. would have liked to have kept orig ones but they have several large holes and have become very thin due to rust. |
Hold on a second... Gerson is making Ghia parts now? That would be incredible.
Paul |
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belairman
Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 399
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| Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| sparkleplenty wrote: |
| Looking good man...The body doesn't look too bad at all. Does the car have the KK badge plate in the trunk area? If so, what #? Just wondering how close it is to mine... |
Yes it does have the KK plate, if I remember correctly number was 9067 |
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udo dreisoerner
Samba Member
Joined: February 13, 2005
Posts: 1155
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:12 am Post subject: |
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Hi from germany.
Nice to see an other 56th lowlight will be back on the roead again...
can you tell mem ore about your vin-number? because i'm looking for an specially 56th lowlight 
regards from germany, udo
_________________
Searching for a 1956 lowlight karmann ghia with a VIN number between1273054 and 1273440, and the matching engine with an Engine Number between
1525510 and 1525519 PLEASE OFFER ME ONLY THE CARS THAT I'M LOOKING FOR, THANKS!! |
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