Stock 69 - Germany - California - Japan - New Zealand

[TheFop]

This week was a crazy week, I received an email out of the blue from another Ghia owner I had bought a decklid off several months ago asking if I was interested in buying his Ghia, he had imported it about a year ago and had never got around to getting road legal due to a combination or cash/time and a 914 Porsche he had bought at the same time.

The Ghia was being offered to me before being offered to the wider market as the seller knew I was a genuine enthusiast and passionate about Ghias (he also probably felt sorry for me having me explained my car several months before) Not being one to miss an opportunity I got round to see the car as soon as I possibly could as I recalled it being a nice original car albeit with some rust.

Long story short the last 3 days have been a haze of convincing my wonderfully patient wife, the bank to lend me some cash, a friend to lend me a trailer, a vehicle repair certifier to discuss structural rust repairs sensibly and having the owner (who is one of the nicest people I've met in a long time) put up with me through the whole process.

The end of all this being that I now have a very stock and very original 69 sat in my garage.
From what I can work out it was imported to the US where it spent most of its life and then got shipped to Japan and has now found its way to New Zealand, (a very well traveled car).
I have a strong suspicion that the 88,000 miles on the clock may be original as the there isn't that much wear and tear on the various interior parts, I will find out more as I get time to investigate.

So what needs to be done? well she needs a couple of plates welded into the inner sill, one near the bonnet catch and 2 in the wheel arches, a set of new seat belts as the originals don't meet NZ requirements, a windscreen, 2 mirrors and the deck lid painting.
Great news is that it came with everything bar the seat belts and windscreen which I have anyway, it even came with new rubber seals for where the existing ones are tired and had just had the engine worked on with new seals etc and she fires up on the first turn and runs beautifully.

So where does this put my 61? well I'm going to continue with that as ultimately I want a RHD and I need to finish it for those who are facing similar mountains to show it can be done given time and enthusiasm.

If your reading this thanks Ralph, you are a legend!
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Rusty 61 RHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Resto in progress....slowly
Stock 69 LHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Driver
67 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Being rebuilt
63 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Going Baja!
86 T25 Westfalia - Family Fun car

[[email protected]]

wow, drop dead gorgous, inside and out. My goal would be to drive it. But a quick look at the pictures.

There is a fuel filter in the engine compartent, move it far away from heat and sparks. I also have a fire extinguisher withing reach of the drivers seat. search "fire" on the Samba and get a rude awakening.

Missing the sheperds crook from the carburator to the vacuum advance on the distributor. Gas will travel down the rubber hose an rot the rubber in the vacuum advance.

I see one little hole in the tin on the right, plug it.

And it must be an optical illusion, it does not look like there is a cap on the brake fluid resevoir.

[John Moxon]

I can see why temptation got the better of you...nice score.
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John.
Judson Supercharger Information on The Samba
My 1958 Shorrock Supercharged Karmann Ghia
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Greezy Joe]

NICE
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Current:74 Ghia Coupe w/ 2276
71 Ghia Vert w/ 1835
07 GMC Truck
12 Jeep Wrangler
73 Harley FLH 93 cid
89 Harley 883 Sportster (1200)


Owned before: 58, 69 Ghia Coupes, 64 Canvas Sunroof, 68, 72, 73, & 74 Bugs, 63 Single Cab, 65 Bus, 66 & 70 Camper
" Duct tape can't fix stupid, but it'll muffle the sound".

[KGCoupe]

[jpjohns]

Awesome steal! What is that....2 now that you're working on?
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-Jared

"Scrapyards are for quitters" - Beetlenut (a Samba member)

[sactojesse]

Beautiful oriole yellow '69. Best non-lowlight year for ghias, IMO. Makes me miss my old '69 coupe.
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1966 Karmann-Ghia convertible

[retrowagen]

Looks like a good'un - Congrats!

(Exterior mirrors look to be from a non-Karmann Ghia, but easily sorted for maximum originality points )
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David Ruby
President, Karmann-Ghia World Club

[TheFop]

I opened the doors to my garage this morning and this greeted me....Santa Claus is real I swear.

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Rusty 61 RHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Resto in progress....slowly
Stock 69 LHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Driver
67 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Being rebuilt
63 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Going Baja!
86 T25 Westfalia - Family Fun car

[kiwighia68]

[Karly]

Very nice! Projects are cool but a driver is even better I think
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1960 Beetle ''Heidi" daily driver
1964 Karmann Ghia project

[bobnorman]

Nice! Looks great, congrats. That's a pretty cool shot of the two Ghias in your garage. Kinda like your new 69 is standing guard and providing moral support to his temporarily ill buddy.
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Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[retrowagen]

[TheFop]

Time flies doesn't it?...since I last wrote I've spent a little time looking around the car and determining what needs to be done to bring it up from being a bit tired and in need of a little love to a car I can drive and take to the occasional show (not to compete)

The great news is that I'm now pretty certain this is a 90,000 mile car, its a big call but its in such great shape that I can't see it being much more, the interior wear is very minor and I've only found one piece of previous damage repair.

My hypothesis is that this was a US dry state car shipped to Japan as previously noted, this appears to have been around 1991, from there I can't see that it had much use at all, it has a tires on it that have great tread depth but the rubber is badly perished but I don't think it been outside much for a while, this from experience doesn't happen overnight.

Initially I thought the interior trim was going to be a problem as the chrome appeared to be badly corroded, but what I found was not corrosion but significant built up grime which with a little elbow grease came of leaving pristine chrome behind, along with an original period steering wheel in perfect condition.
All of the original carpets are there and in great shape and don't appear to have every been messed with as the floor pans are perfect and all the original tar board is in place as it left the factory.

On the bad side the few patches in the heater channel I mentioned it would need turned out to be a complete heater channel, luckily the car came with all the parts I needed to replace it, so today I installed the new channel.

I also started on the nose which had corroded in the normal place at the front where the drain tubes sit.

Next up is get the welding certified and finish the sill and rear quarter, add some sound deadening to the doors etc, fit new retro seat belts and pop on the Rivieras I picked up the other week.

Happy days!!!
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Rusty 61 RHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Resto in progress....slowly
Stock 69 LHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Driver
67 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Being rebuilt
63 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Going Baja!
86 T25 Westfalia - Family Fun car

[carl4x4]

Crikey, two Ghias in restoration! are you going to try and keep the yellow one as a running car while you do it?
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[TheFop]

[Basketcase]

let the wife drive the '69, she'll fall in love with it and you'll get to keep it.
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'72 Karmann Ghia Coupe (the Boss's)

[TheFop]

So there's been a wee little bit of radio silence on my 69 in recent days as I try and balance work, family and the car something a lot of us are very familiar with, but there has been really good progress since my last post.

So where am I now? well the heater channel is finished and signed off by the repair certifier, he also covered the lower valance and slam panel repair which was great, next he said I could proceed and get the rocker, lower front fender and lower front rear fender welded in, so here it is

Next is a repair patch to the bottom of the drivers door which i'm 80% finished, get all the repairs certified, then fit my new screen (its a fecking green tint....but that's another story), fit the seatbelts and carpets back in and head for the compliance check.

I'm happy how this car has gone so far, there are a few little tweeks to make it a fantastic car but that can be done over the next few months my target is to drive it before Christmas.

Oh yeah as you can see the wheels have changed from the standard steelies to Riveira's, initially I thought they would like naff but I'm starting to really like them especially with the 185/55/15's and they just clear the rear arches by about 1 or 2mm.
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Rusty 61 RHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Resto in progress....slowly
Stock 69 LHD Karmann Ghia Coupe - Driver
67 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Being rebuilt
63 New Zealand Spec Beetle - Going Baja!
86 T25 Westfalia - Family Fun car

[Basketcase]

those wheels look great!
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'72 Karmann Ghia Coupe (the Boss's)

[KGCoupe]