68 Regatta Blue Karmann Ghia Vert 22,350 Original Miles

[Marcdeb]

Hi,
Congratulations on your 68 Ghia Vert.
Interestingly, I have a model year 68 owners manual that says wheels that year are 4's, but in the Samba Technical section is a model year 68 that says wheels are 4.5's. So 68 was the change over year.

My 68 has all 5 of its original 4.5 wheels. I bought 165s. It is a very tight fit for the spare, but keeping the pressure down helps. There are two metal brackets welded on the sides to cushion the spare and bending those in a bit also helps give a little extra room.

I try to keep both my Ghia's as original as I can. I have 4.5 wheels and 165s on both cars and both are stock height. I couldn't tell you what can or can't fit but others here have that information. If you do a search in this forum, there are several threads on tire and wheel size.

Here's one thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=293605&highlight=tire+size

Here's a list of threads,
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc..._chars=200
_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[jas0ncarr0ll]

[Marcdeb]

[mouse action]

Marc,

[Marcdeb]

A few weeks ago, I repaired the Heat Exchangers. Overall all, they are in really nice shape except for where the muffler attaches which had a lot of rust. One had several holes. I bought the short repair pipes from JBUGS.

The plan was to avoid any welding. Using a drum sanding bit, I cleaned out the inside of the pipe where the short repair pipe will go. The new repair sections were too large and I ended up grinding them down just enough to get a tight fit. I then used Versachem Muffler Weld around the new repair pipe and hammered it in. Also gave the junction a good coat of the stuff. I have no experience with this product but it seems like it should do the job.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[Marcdeb]

Getting behind on posting my progress. I got another new hip 2 weeks ago but it hasn't slowed me down any more than usual except I'm falling behind on posting.

Most of the painting I needed to do is done. I would prefer to keep everything looking original, not restored, but I also want to protect and preserve the car's condition so some painting was needed.
I tried to just clean the intake manifold but the old paint was just flaking off.

I took it all down to bare metal and gave it a few coats of Duplicolor New Ford Gray Engine Spray Paint. Like KingKarmann has posted, it's a near perfect match to the original.

The heat exchangers looked pretty bad as well so I had no choice but to strip and paint them.

Repainted all the engine tins except for the firewall tin and the Fan Shroud which didn't need it. The rest of the pieces had chipped paint and some surface rust in places so I used Rust Oleum High Heat Ultra, Semi Gloss rated for up to 1200 degrees. It's the best color match I could find in high heat paint.

The car still has all it's original Tar Boards but they looked terrible. It looked like something had gotten splashed all over them but that doesn't make much sense as I see no signs of any kind of spill anywhere else in the engine compartment. Has anyone else seen tar boards look like this? It's not a very pretty sight!

I was able to clean them up though. I sprayed some GUNK Original engine cleaner into a jar. I dipped a denture brush into the GUNK and applied it to the tar boards in small areas. I let it sit for about 2 minutes and then scrubbed it with the brush. The GUNK acted on the tar as if it was engine grease. After brushing, I wiped off the black residue on the surfacr with lots of paper towels. Then followed up with Simple Green and rags. Worked great.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[Marcdeb]

Installed a new Torque Converter Seal. Last summer, the car had a slow ATF fluid drip which is not surprising as it still had the original torque converter seal from the factory. It goes on very tight and needs to be peened in several places to keep it from coming off. I greased both surfaces to avoid damaging the inside surface of the seal. I would get it completely seated but these go on so tight that before I could get my self in position to peen it, it would slide back off on it's own. So I cleaned off all the grease and that helped. I've read several threads where these leak after replacement so I hope that won't be the case.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[Marcdeb]

Cleaned up and rebuilt the autostick oil pump which is a dual pump. The two rubber seals in the thick steel plate that divides the two halves were not leaking but it made sense to change them after 55 years. There was a pretty good ATF leak from the ATF side of the pump.

Getting the old paper seals off was time consuming. There must be an easier way to do this but I resorted to slowly and carefully scrapping the paper seals away with a Stanley blade. The steel plate was easier but the other side was aluminum and I had to go slow to avoid scratching the soft metal.

Another step forward. It looks a lot better.

_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[Braukuche]

Very nice detail work Marc.
_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[mouse action]

[Marcdeb]

[Marcdeb]

I've really fallen behind with posting progress.
I think my worst leak turned out to be the base of the generator stand. It was clear from the pulley tin that the oil was coming from the right side.

I had noticed part of the thin paper gasket between the generator stand and the case was hanging out but I didn't realize it was this bad until I took the stand off. Strange but seems like a little bit of sloppy work from the factory.

Most of the car and engine still have most their original parts including the ground strap which had a little fraying on the edges due to a clip that had been rubbing. It cleaned up nicely and I soldered the little bit of damage.

I reused the same VW baffle which since it's likely original? Spent over an hour cleaning it up as those thin paper gaskets on both sides were stuck on really well like they had been glued on?

A lot of the paint on the oil filler and breather tube was coming off in my hands as I cleaned it so it got a new coat of paint, along with a new grommet and rubber breather tip which came with the end already slit open. I was so looking forward to making the slit myself!!

Finally time to put all the cooling tins, shroud, generator, and new muffler back on and set a date to put the engine back into the car.

Even though this is an April 68 build, it had originally had the spade lug supposedly "67 only" generator which was missing. I found a January 68 generator and had it rebuilt locally and now I finally get to see it installed and oriented properly (I received the car with a new generator and it was 90 degrees off). I ended up refinishing all of the tin except the fan shroud which thankfully was in great shape.

I had picked up a new old stock muffler made in Mexico back when I was too green to know better!
After spending several hours trying to install it, I decided to start over with a better muffler. I ended up going with a Dansk/Jopex Heavy duty German made muffler. As soon as I took it out of the box, it clearly was a much better quality muffler. Everything lined up perfectly with only one exception - I had a little bit of trouble lining up the right side floating housing to the back of the heat exchanger. At first it was off by a lot. The top hole in the floating housing was hanging up on the fat section of the flange going to the head. I was able to get a flat screwdriver between the hole and the pipe near the flange to gain some extra movement. In the end it was not perfect but I was able to get the band clamp on. I'm very satisfied with it.

A little bit of unfinished business in the engine compartment. I had some surface rust where the battery sits. fortunately there was no rust through. After some clean up with a wire wheel and a few treatments of phosphoric acid, I gave it a few coats of paint. Installed a new engine deck seal and gave everything got a good wash and polish. Installed the Torque converter and went through my check list and the day I've been looking forward to finally arrived.

The plan all along was for my son to help me put the engine back in but after an unplanned hip replacement five weeks ago, I needed help picking up the engine and placing it on the ground so my son-in-law helped us also.

It was a first time for all 3 of us so we took our time. It took us a little over 2 hours but if I had to do it again, tomorrow, I think we could easily do it again in half that time. We had a difficult time trying to get the first top bolt to line up but it was mostly just lack of experience.

We had a great time doing this together and made some life long memories. Now that it's back in, I think I will likely some day (not anytime soon) drop the engine in my 71 and give it a similar clean up.
This week, I'll start hooking everything back up and keep my fingers crossed that I didn't screw anything up!
_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[kingkarmann]

These are the passions that keep us going 😎
Bravo!
_________________
"Depression is a malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.”

Mike Gerson

What is your "Bespoke Reality"?

[Braukuche]

Nice detail work Marc.
_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[Marcdeb]

[restocal63]

Nice work and excellent documentation.
_________________
63 Beetle
66 Beetle
71 Karmann Ghia Convertible
75 Baywindow

[obus]

Nice job! Looking great
_________________
July 1959 Mango Standard Bus aka Obus L346 L347 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256592&highlight=
June 1973 Pumpkin Orange Thing aka Othing L30H
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=711775&highlight=
1960 Paprika Red Karmann Ghia Convertible aka Schatze L452 built 5/20/60
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...highlight=
66 21 window bus built 8/31/65 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=777273

[Marcdeb]

[Marcdeb]

Engine finally back in and it's a good news / bad news scenario. I love the nice clean engine compartment and even the underside. For as much as I've read up on everything and took my time, I still goofed up the plug wires putting it back together. When I tried to start the engine it would fire every few seconds but then get a weird knock or kick. I checked the plug wires and sure enough, they were all off by one position. I Had left all the wires on the distributor cap and labeled them but my notes were flawed! I should have paid attention to the mark on the distributer. Anyway, took them all off and started over and the engine fired up fine. I was glad to know that the rebuild spade lug Generator was working. I purposely have not removed the fuel pump or distributor yet as I wanted to avoid having too many variables when starting back up, but they will eventually get pulled and cleaned.
Before:

Now:

Now for the bad. After letting the engine run for 3 minutes, I shut it off knowing I would have to top off the ATF fluid. When I came back 45 minutes later, I had a quarter size puddle of ATF fluid on the floor below the opening in the bell housing. I suspect the new Torque Converter Seal is leaking. I've read several threads about new seals leaking. I don't know if it's my installation, or if these after market seals are inferior?

I posted a separate thread to get some ideas from some of the Autostick experts here.
I'm leaving town for a few days so when I get back I'll run it longer and see just how much of a leak I have. I hope I can drive it for the summer and then drop the engine again if needed. Maybe it will magically stop leaking???
_________________
Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[mouse action]

Marc,
As you heard,some problems just fix themselves 😉