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mastershredder
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2011
Posts: 26
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
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 Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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Its been a couple of months but we have made slow progress. We dropped the donor engine and are now in the degreasing stage. I managed to do a decent filler section on the rear quarter panel. Currently we are spraying the areas weve worked on in black primer.
Passenger side window area
Something weird going on with my doors, as I have heard the hinges go bad and create door-sag, I am considering a house of ghia rebuild or similar method. Any ideas?
The way the doors fit makes me feel like they arent correct for the year or the body is warped. Can anyone confirm?
The opposite side looks about the same on the body side but needs work
Questions? Comments? Ive really loved working on this car |
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lxu5008
Samba Member
Joined: March 17, 2013
Posts: 5
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:35 am Post subject: |
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| It appears that the car has suffered from a rear hit that caused the center of vehicle to bend up and possibly in, while the back bends down. This is not a easy fix. Personally, I would look for any filler to analyze the extent of the hit to find any other irregularities. Then my recommendation would to be redo the rocker panels because they seem to be shortened or the gap between the rear quarter skin and the rocker is too short should be about a 1/4 of an inch). Make sure you support the rest of the body in the proper area's so the door actually close. |
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KGCoupe
Samba Member
Joined: July 01, 2005
Posts: 3580
Location: Putting the "ill" and "annoy" in Illinois
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 11:25 am Post subject: |
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| lxu5008 wrote: |
| It appears that the car has suffered from a rear hit that caused the center of vehicle to bend up and possibly in, while the back bends down. This is not a easy fix. Personally, I would look for any filler to analyze the extent of the hit to find any other irregularities. Then my recommendation would to be redo the rocker panels because they seem to be shortened or the gap between the rear quarter skin and the rocker is too short should be about a 1/4 of an inch). Make sure you support the rest of the body in the proper area's so the door actually close. |
Ouch!
I bet that's not exactly what he wanted to hear.
... but very helpful, none the less.
The extent of the advice I had to offer was thinking about pointing out the Karmann Ghia Body Shop Manual that can be found here in The Samba under the Technical Tab (in the Karmann Ghia owner's manual section, under the 1960 model year) because I believe there is a section on alignment of the doors.
After looking at the pictures again, it seems like both doors are probably out of any range of simple adjustment, however.
If I'm not mistaken, when the Ghias were produced there was some individual "tuning" of the door gaps with molten pewter so that the doors from one Ghia may not simply bolt up with correct gaps on a different Ghia.
Maybe he could get away with modifying the door and/or the opening enough rather than replacing the rockers again if they are not currently rusted out.
I suppose a lot depends on just how "accurate" and/or expensive he wants the restoration to be. |
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mastershredder
Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2011
Posts: 26
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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| The rocker panels have been replaced as well as the floors, I had considered the rear end collision. We are going to compare the doors we have to a second set that came with the car. I'm hoping that they will at least be able to open and shut properly. The goal behind this resto is simply to get it running and driving for fun. We lack the resources to do a show car quality job on it. More updates soon! |
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secretsubmariner
Champagne Wrangler
Joined: January 08, 2011
Posts: 3104
Location: Tulsa, OK
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| Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 7:29 pm Post subject: body |
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We have had an awful time with our doors. We suspected it got hit or torqued weird during being towed at some point. They were wonky when we got it and we are finally investigating.
I measured a few passenger side body openings on a friend's ghia today. The green arrow in this diagram I made measured about 13.5 inches on his. On ours it was 12 inches. Purple arrow measured 37.75 inches on his. Ours was 37 inches.
Another thought,
Did the window opening change size throughout the years? His is earlier than ours.
Diagram is not to scale 
Any ideas or advice is very appreciated!
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI |
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varagon
Samba Member
Joined: November 03, 2013
Posts: 116
Location: SE Kansas
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| Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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I have a 73, but it's a convertible. I'm in SE Kansas, but could take some measurements for you if you want.
_________________
1973 Karmann Ghia Convertible |
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carl4x4
Samba Member
Joined: March 20, 2012
Posts: 679
Location: United Kingdom
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secretsubmariner
Champagne Wrangler
Joined: January 08, 2011
Posts: 3104
Location: Tulsa, OK
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 6:36 am Post subject: |
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| varagon wrote: |
| I have a 73, but it's a convertible. I'm in SE Kansas, but could take some measurements for you if you want. |
Please! That would be extremely helpful  Thanks!!
| carl4x4 wrote: |
| The VW workshop manuals used to detail how to change the rear of the door gap by adding shims to the rear-most body mount where it joins to the shock mount. I'm pretty sure it's been documented on here recently. Kiwighia68 mentioned doing it in his thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...p;start=20 |
Thank you, when I have a free moment I will check out the thread!
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI |
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