TheSamba.com :: View topic - December 58 Ghia cabriolet lifetime restoration project

Fri Sep 26, 2025 11:59 am

A note of caution. These collars have not been time tested, so I don't know how well they will work over time. My biggest concern is that the steel set screw would get stuck to the brass collar over time, due to galvanic corrosion, especially in wetter climates. That's why I suggest using anti-seize on the set screw. I don't know if the rubber boot covers that I put on them will help protect them, but I figured it couldn't hurt, especially for the one on the side badge that is exposed to the elements and road debris.

Fri Sep 26, 2025 1:00 pm

Loren wrote: A note of caution. These collars have not been time tested, so I don't know how well they will work over time. My biggest concern is that the steel set screw would get stuck to the brass collar over time, due to galvanic corrosion, especially in wetter climates. That's why I suggest using anti-seize on the set screw. I don't know if the rubber boot covers that I put on them will help protect them, but I figured it couldn't hurt, especially for the one on the side badge that is exposed to the elements and road debris.

My Ghia doesn't live in a wet climate. Well, it doesn't come out when the climate is wet. ;)

Sun Sep 28, 2025 7:59 pm

This week I was able to clean the dome light door switches and get them wired and installed. I painted the faces of the switches black to protect them. I seem to remember they were black before I cleaned them, but I cleaned them so long ago I can't remember for sure.

It took a little research to find out how the switches are wired, but thanks to my 59 coupe I was able to figure it out. The right side of the car only has one brown wire. It runs under the glove box and goes down through a small hole with a rubber grommet next to the defrost tube. This wire runs inside the car and goes back through an oval hole where it's wired to the switch.

The left side has two brown wires that go through a hole in the inner fender. This hole does not have a grommet. The wires then go down the A pillar and connect to the switch. I found it easiest to snake a spare piece of wire down through the hole and out the oval hole in the A pillar. I taped the two brown wires to the snake wire and pulled them through. The two brown wires in my new loom were soldered separately on the ends, where as they should have been soldered together. It would have been easier if I had soldered them together as tight as possible out of the car, since they both have to fit in the same hole in the switch. I had to file the extra solder off the ends in order to get them to fit.

Not the best picture, but this is the hole the two brown wires go through.

The red wire is my snake wire and I used blue tape to secure it to the brown wires and pulled them through. Once I got them through the oval hole I could untape them and feed the brown wires through the round hole for the switch.

Tue Sep 30, 2025 4:18 pm

This week's update is coming in a little early. Next week I am taking the rear and front seats to the upholstery shop. I have original covers for the front seats for them to duplicate and an original upholstery 63 Ghia rear seat that they can use as a reference. The goal here is to get them looking as close to original as possible.

A little over 20 years ago I had more time than money and was able to make a new rear seat for my Ghia from scratch. Mine was long gone, but as luck would have it a friend had a dry rotted 58 Ghia cabriolet rear seat that worked great for measurements, so I was able to make seats for both of our cars. I tried to make them as close to original as possible, duplicating all the joinery and routing in all the details. For a simple looking seat they are actually quite complicated to reproduce.

Here is the original upholstery 63 Ghia cabriolet rear seat that will be used as a reference to get the job done right.

Unfortunately, the seat hinges were bent back to make them easier to ship.

Here is what it looks like with the hinge removed.

Sun Oct 12, 2025 4:33 pm

This week I was able to restore the vent system and get it installed. first on the list was to get the vent controls painted and assembled.

Here is the special lock tab washer. One end gets bent up to keep the securing nut from unscrewing.

Once the knobs were assembled it was time to install the actuating cables.

Once the cables were secured to the vent knobs, the side covers were bolted on. Next the cables were greased and the cable sleeves were pushed over the cables and secured by the control box clamps.

Then I cut a new gasket for the housing and glued the two wide sides to the housing.

Here are the vent pipes all cleaned and painted. I even painted the cable sleeves black. Originally they were copper plated, but most of the copper had worn off and I liked the look of the black sleeves. It's funny that one of the vent pipes has a ton of spot welds. I wonder what the guy was thinking when he assembled and spot welded it.

With all the parts cleaned and painted it was time install them. This is one of the most frustrating jobs to overcome. The vent pipes don't fit very well and there isn't any room for your hands to get the rubber sleeves in place. After a lot of trial and error I finally found a formula that worked to get them in.

The first thing I did was dry fit the pipes so I knew how they need to be pushed and pried into place. They don't line up perfectly so you have to find the sweet spot and dry fitting them made it much easier for the next step. After the dry fit I removed them and slipped the rubber sleeves over the back and bottom tube openings. I pushed them on about half way then doubled them over on themselves, making sure they didn't hang over the tube opening, otherwise the seals might get pinched during installation. I used some glide lube on the bottom seal so that it would unfold easier. I put the front rubber sleeve on the pipe coming out of the inner fender and not on the vent pipe itself. I doubled this seal over too.

Once the seals were installed I forced the pipe into place the best I could. Then I unfolded the bottom seal. The glide lube enabled the seal to unfold easily around all sides, even on the back side where you can't fit your hand. Then I unfolded the other two seals and was able to pull and pry them here and there to get them fully seated. I didn't used glide lube on these because they would be too slippery and I couldn't get a good grip on them to fully seat the seals. Needless to say the first one took about an hour and the second one only took 10 minutes.

I installed the passenger side vent pipe first, then the vent controls. I put masking tape over the long sleeve to keep the paint from scratching off. I installed them from the driver side, slipping the long sleeve in behind the dash and was able to push it far enough into the passenger side fender to get the vent control box past the hood hinge. Once the control box was past the hood hinge I was able to push it into place. Next up I connected the long cable to the vent pipe lever and secured the cable housing under the dash. Once this was done I was able to install the driver side vent pipe and hook up the control cable. With that done, I set the control box in place and screwed it down, making sure the control knobs were centered in their slots by rotating the box left or right to center them.

Her you can see how I set the rubber sleeves and doubled them back on themselves.

Wed Oct 15, 2025 8:22 pm

Excellent work. Keep it up my friend.

Fri Oct 17, 2025 11:02 pm

This week's goal was to install the glove box. The first order of the day was to figure out how to replicate the bumpers for the glove box door hinges. These are actually "springs" that compress when the glove box door is closed and help push the door open when the latch is released. My original ones were badly deformed and brittle. After some thought I decided I could make a close reproduction that would do the trick.

Here is an original one from my Ghia

Here is the bracket it fits into. There is one under each hinge. For the 60 model year Ghia, VW eliminated this bumper and put a spring on the driver side hinge to help pop open the glove box door.

Here are dimensions, in case anyone else wants to make some:

The bumpers are 5/8" deep, so I wen't on E-bay and bought a 6" square by 5/8" thick rubber pad. This would be enough material for 36 bumpers. With the pad in hand, I used a 7/16" hole punch that I could chuck in the drill press. I set the drill press to the lowest RPMs so I wouldn't burn the rubber. The 7/16" hole punch was a little smaller than the original hole, but it was the closest I could find. I used a little Glide Lube to cool and lubricate the punch when drilling the holes.

After I had a few holes drilled I cut the rubber into squares. I was able to find a 7/16" diameter by 5/8" long plastic bushing at the hardware store, along with two washers, a bolt and nut. I secured the washers to the bolt and chucked it in my cordless drill so I could run the drill and grind the washers down to match the diameter of the original rubber bumper.

With all the parts in hand, I put the plastic bushing in the hole in the rubber pad and bolted the washers to the outsides. This would give me a guide to cut the rubber to.

Next I used a sharp knife to cut away as much excess rubber as I could and I sanded it down until it matched the profile of the original bumper. I was lucky to have access to a picture framing shop that has a hand operated disc sander. This was the prefect tool to sand the rubber down. I had complete control and was able to avoid burning the rubber or sanding down the washers.

Here is my reproduction on the left and the original on the right. Not a perfect reproduction, but very close and it fits and works great. I don't know how good the rubber is, but I'm hoping it will last and keep the glove box door opening like it was designed to for many years to come.

With that project behind me it was time to tackle the glove box. Over the years I was lucky enough to find a really nice one, but the outside was stained a little where the securing strap sat and the inside was stained and dirty. The first thing I did was spray the exterior with a mat clear coat to help water proof it. This made the stains stand out more, so I hit it with a coat of flat black spray paint to even out the finish.

With the outside done it was time to finish the interior. The first step was to lightly sand it to remove some of the old flocking. Then I blew it out with compressed air to remove the dust. Next, I painted it with a coat of off-white latex paint to block the stains and provide a good base for the flocking adhesive. After the paint was dry I applied a coat of white flocking adhesive and while it was still wet I used a hand held colander to dust it. The next day it was dry and I was able to tip the box over and knock all the loose flocking out.

The last step was to carefully fit the glove box behind the dash the tighten the strap with a 25mm long Rashche bolt. Getting the bolt started was a pain, and it took me a fair bit of fiddling to finally get it to catch.

I'm happy to check another tough project off the list!

Yesterday 10:41 am

Loren, I really enjoy you finding solutions for what's not available and coming up with a "MacGyver" idea to get it done. Brilliant!