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Angus Dowrie
Samba Member
Joined: March 07, 2005
Posts: 341
Location: Kangaroo Point, Australia
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 Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| I 'll take a photo early next week if you haven't got one by then, was aiming to go down Tuesday afternoon. |
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PFN
Samba Member
Joined: September 26, 2013
Posts: 159
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Angus Dowrie wrote: |
Digging up an old post, came across this as I was checking photos of RHD dashes (as you do....)
The comments about some Australian made components may have been true at some point, but every component on my oct'62 build australian delivery coupe was German - gauges, relays, handles, escutcheons. Low mileage car, so things hadn't worn out.
They are physically the same so it may be more the case that when say a speedo died it was easy to find an oz speedo from a beetle.
Don't know for certain, but it is another possibility. |
As you do indeed!  I'm really grateful to you for sharing that information about your Ghia being all German parts. I'd love to hear more from other Australian owners. Also the fact that yours is low mileage does indeed mean that it's less likely to have been messed with. Any replacement pieces in the first 10 or so years of our car's lives would have been replaced with .au made parts when possible, and I know mine was in a pretty serious collision with front and rear damage early on in its life.
Speaking of speedos, is yours German or Australian? And the other thing that puzzles me, is your shift knob a Beetle part or the Ghia specific one? That's a whole other issue that has me confused regarding .au delivered vehicles...
_________________
1962 1/2 Australian Made Beetle
1961 factory RHD Karmann Ghia
(gone now)
1964 RHD Conversion Karmann Ghia
1956 RHD Beetle
1972 Kombi |
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Angus Dowrie
Samba Member
Joined: March 07, 2005
Posts: 341
Location: Kangaroo Point, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| PFN wrote: |
| Angus Dowrie wrote: |
Digging up an old post, came across this as I was checking photos of RHD dashes (as you do....)
The comments about some Australian made components may have been true at some point, but every component on my oct'62 build australian delivery coupe was German - gauges, relays, handles, escutcheons. Low mileage car, so things hadn't worn out.
They are physically the same so it may be more the case that when say a speedo died it was easy to find an oz speedo from a beetle.
Don't know for certain, but it is another possibility. |
As you do indeed! I'm really grateful to you for sharing that information about your Ghia being all German parts. I'd love to hear more from other Australian owners. Also the fact that yours is low mileage does indeed mean that it's less likely to have been messed with. Any replacement pieces in the first 10 or so years of our car's lives would have been replaced with .au made parts when possible, and I know mine was in a pretty serious collision with front and rear damage early on in its life.
Speaking of speedos, is yours German or Australian? And the other thing that puzzles me, is your shift knob a Beetle part or the Ghia specific one? That's a whole other issue that has me confused regarding .au delivered vehicles... |
Speedo, clock, fuel gauge etc are all German vdo. 52k mile car so nothing worn out. I had the speedo cleaned and serviced, and the mechanical fuel gauge also. The clock was converted to a tachometer, all done by NHS. From the date stamps they are all original to the car.
I believe VW built up enough local 'credits' through building the beetles and kombis that they could bring in the relatively small number of Ghias in fully imported. We are talking hundreds of Ghias vs tens of thousands of beetles/kombis.
I've also had two other Ghias, 1960 and 1961 that had had tougher lives than my current one. One had a German speedo, one an Australian one. They both had electric fuel gauges from memory, but I'm not certain about that, too many years ago!
The gear knob in the car was a beetle one, but the original Ghia one was in a box of bits. They'd changed it years ago as it had fallen apart in the oz sun I think. I bought the car from the widow of the original owner, and she could recall her husband doing that.
Happy to compare notes on oz-delivery Ghias, they are getting scarce! |
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PorschepowerGhia
Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2018
Posts: 14
Location: Victoria Australia
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| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:06 am Post subject: |
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| Angus Dowrie wrote: |
Digging up an old post, came across this as I was checking photos of RHD dashes (as you do....)
The comments about some Australian made components may have been true at some point, but every component on my oct'62 build australian delivery coupe was German - gauges, relays, handles, escutcheons. Low mileage car, so things hadn't worn out.
They are physically the same so it may be more the case that when say a speedo died it was easy to find an oz speedo from a beetle.
Don't know for certain, but it is another possibility. |
My November 1962 built Australian delivered coupe i just bought is the same, has all German parts. |
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PorschepowerGhia
Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2018
Posts: 14
Location: Victoria Australia
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| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:10 am Post subject: |
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| Mellow Yellow 74 wrote: |
Your clock and speedo are in the opposite positions to my 62 RHD and the UK lowlights posted earlier - does anyone know which year this changed? |
The clock and speedo on my recently purchased November 1962 built Australian delivered coupe are in the same position as your cars and my speedo has a trip meter. |
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BrettAnderson
Samba Member
Joined: January 20, 2011
Posts: 33
Location: Busselton Western Australia
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| Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 1:32 am Post subject: Re: RHD Ghias, UK and AU |
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Does anyone know about this car looks like a UK registration? |
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John Moxon 
Samba Moderator
Joined: March 07, 2004
Posts: 13957
Location: Southampton U.K.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 3:18 am Post subject: Re: RHD Ghias, UK and AU |
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| BrettAnderson wrote: |
Does anyone know about this car looks like a UK registration? |
Just checked the car on the UK's registration authority website and "65 CUR" isn't registered. Probably means the car has been scrapped or exported.
Of course Lowlights all left the factory LHD but there were a couple of places in the UK offering to convert to RHD. IIRC there are about 5 period Lowlight RHD conversions known to still exist.
I think "65 CUR" is the picture used in this advert as the "CUR" part of the registration denotes Hertfordshire, the same location as the company doing the conversions...
The same picture is also in The Samba Archives under "Press Photos - Ghia" but no other information...
_________________
John.
Judson Supercharger Information on The Samba
My 1958 Shorrock Supercharged Karmann Ghia
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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rbsurfguy
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2008
Posts: 1757
Location: Fairfax, Northern Virginia Formerly Huntington Beach, SoCal
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| Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 4:58 am Post subject: Re: RHD Ghias, UK and AU |
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That advert is cool! I like the choice of a 'Fixed-head' or convertible. Is that an old British word for coupe or as we say Hard Top? I'm always fascinated by words/slang meaning the same thing from different countries.
Jeff
_________________
1971 Ghia convertible (Body off rebuild)
2019 VW Atlas 4Motion
2012 Passat-Sold
See my build on The Samba at:
Jeff's 71 Vert Restoration/Reassembly http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight= |
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John Moxon
Samba Moderator
Joined: March 07, 2004
Posts: 13957
Location: Southampton U.K.
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