TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:46 am

I have never made a thread or link before so pardon me if I make a mistake in posting this. I have begun another build and hope I can help people restoring a Ghia by posting my project and its progress. This will be the 26th restoration I have attempeted. In the hobby now for 20 years I have learned a lot from a lot of people and would like to somehow pay my little bit of knowledge forward. I do not claim to be some pre-madona restorer, just someone who is dedicated to bringing these cars back to life. I keep a journal of everything I do when I restore a car both, written and photographical. I will post some picts at the end of every day I work on the 59 cabriolet. Thanks Bryan (guy in the photo) for helping lift the car on to the dolly, my back still hurts. Hope my fourm link is helpful.

Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:08 am

If you live in The Bay Area and don't know Scott maybe you'll remember his fantastic '65 Show Judson Ghia from a couple of years back:

This car I'm sure Scott it too modest to tell you was about as good as it gets. A meticulous restoration that now resides as part of the personal VW Museum of Casey Gunther, owner of the largest VW dealership in the US.

I for one will be following this build every step of the way. :D Welcome Scott.

Fri Jun 11, 2010 12:37 pm

look forward to the progress- You can't beat a 59!! 8) :wink:

Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:33 pm

Paul_Revere's Ghia wrote: look forward to the progress- You can't beat a 59!! 8) :wink:

-Slap!- A 59 VERT!!!!

Looks like a great shell to start with. I'm green with envy.

Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:19 pm

Nice choice of project car! I will be watching with great interest.

Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:30 am

The more detail the better on this one! I'm in the process of getting rid of my '70 project because what I really want is one of those. Do your best to bog down Everett's server with photos. I can't wait!!!

Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:09 am

spectre6000 wrote: Do your best to bog down Everett's server with photos. I can't wait!!!

Check Scott's Gallery...a lot more there already.

Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:57 pm

I will also be lurking and learning ( I hope)... The starting point looks like a nice way to start, The 65 Judson is a beauity :)

Cant wait for this to get rollin!!

Sun Jun 13, 2010 10:11 am

Thanks for the feedback. I am glad to see of the interest in the restoration. I spent 8 hours yesteray stripping off the gallons of laytex under coating which the previous owner had sprayed on. I will be taking it to a media blaster to have it glass beaded then soda blasted. It is wise to take as much of the grime and crap which is on the underside and interior as possible prior to blasting. Media as abbrassive as it is will bounce off of the rubber undercoating and when you get you car back it will still be on it. I prefer to strip it mechanicaly first with a power blade (such as the dremel multi-max). In the case of the current project that gets off the big pieces. Then I chemical strip with tri-strip or jasco, messy but it works good. For the real hard areas I use a torch and putty knife.

This car looks to have good metal and was de rusted before at some time. By looking at the photos I recieved with the car, It looks to have been the 90's. The good news is metal is very good (so far), bad news is the car was a rust bucket and a lot of the metal had to be replaced, including pan halfs, nose, fenders,and allof the typical spots. The car was shipped into New Orleans when it came from Germany so the time it spent in the South did it absolutly no good. It loks like the body and fender guy who did the work was a poor welder, so when I get it bare I will be re welding and metal working it to my satisfaction.

All in all this car is not too bad definatly not what I was told it was prior to going to get it; but a car I have always wanted. I have a set of nos low light feders which I hope not to have to use, but I will see in a couple of weeks when this car is naked. Thanks to all of you who responded to the thread, I will post more later tonight.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:12 am

Scott, great job... looking forward to seeing another early cab back on the road.

Tue Jun 15, 2010 11:15 pm

After well over 100 hours of manualy stripping a truck load of undercoating, The cabriolet is at the metal striper for a blasting to see what is underneath the muck.

Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:52 am

I'm looking forward to your build and the progress. I already checked out your gallery and am eager to learn. Thanks for paying it forward...

Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:21 am

Karmann Geezer wrote: Hello Scott. Enjoying your post of your '58 Cab project. I spent three years living across the SF bay in the 60's. My father purchased a '58 Ghia cab and gave it to me in '66. I'm just curious, is it expensive to have the car media blasted? (Have '58 Ghia cab & '59 Ghia coupe) Thanks in advance and look forward to more posts.

Ray

I call 'em Early Karmann Ghias (55-59)

Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:41 am

Hi Ray,

Media Blasting can vary in cost depending on what media is being used, (glass bead, aluminum oxode, corn cob, soda, ect). The other cost factor is what is on the body to begin with,(paint, body filler, under coating, ect). I personally have found that the cleaner you give the blaster your body, the cleaner you get it back. Also the easier the access to all parts of the body, (rotissrie dolly, tilt dolly)the blaster has the better it will come back. It is a hard, dirty, and pain in the ass job. The last thing the blaster wants to do is be laying on his back trying to get the under side of the body. Spend the time in making some sort of body dolly it takes a little time, but makes the project go much smoother. Take into consideration the blaster, body guy and most of all yourself and what you will be doing to the body for the duration of the build. As you know these projects take years so a good dolly which the car body may rest on for that time is in my opinion a wise investment

I just spent a lot of time scapping, burning off, and tri stripping tons of undercoating off of my 59 cabriolet. It is a long, hard ,and BORING job. It looked like roofers put the stuff on it was so thick, which scares me to see what they were trying to hide. At any rate the cost will vary depending on where you go, and how long it takes. The guy I am using is $100/hr with what I figure is at least 8 hours, but I hope less than 15. It will need aluminum oxide for the tough spots, then glass beads and finaly soda. So the long answer (sorry) to your question is around $500-
$1000+. The last Coupe I did was only $600 which I had a powder coater in South San Fracnisco do the blasting.

My wife and I now live in Napa and the choice for blasters are very limited hence the high cost. There is a very good blaster in Berkley which I have used in the past, but your best bet is seeing if any powder coaters with large blast rooms would be willing to do it for you. Make sure they have experience doing it though, you do not want to have someone blast it using a ton of psi and warp the body panels. The heat generated from the media and too much psi can warp and distort. Better to pay a little more to someone who knows what they are doing, then to pay a little less to a blaster who will pulverise your metal which will leave your fender guy smiling and your wallet frowning. If you need some contacts in your area of the bay, contact me and I will give you the names and numbers. Thanks for the interest in this build, and please don't hesitate to contact me for anything. Again I am not claiming to know it all, or have all the right answers but if I can help I will.
Thanks,
Scott D

Wed Jun 16, 2010 1:56 pm

Hi Scott, looks like you took on the former HofG project! Very nice candidate for a restoration, and judging by your past resto, I'm sure this 59 will be just as nice.

If you are still hunting down parts, maybe a list of stuff needed could be included in this thread.

Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:28 am

Well I finnaly got to see my Cabriolet in the buff. I wish I would have wore 2 pair of underwear cause I shit my self when I stopped by the media blaster today. She had A LOT of poor work done to her at some point in her life. It is going to be very challenging to bring this one back starting by undoing the bad work, establishing a good re starting point, and then forging forward to make it right. I thank Mike from House of Ghia in advance for his support and dedication on this restoration project. Mike is the go to guy as you all know and if you need parts he is the man. I have a feeling I will be calling him quite often for the duration of this build. The former body guy managed to sculpt many areas using body filler 2" thick in a few spots. Lets hope for all of our sake he has moved on to another job. Check my gallery for more shots of the Cab in its current state. I have seen much worse, and have also seen much better. If you will please excuse me now, I must go change my trousers.

Thu Jun 17, 2010 12:20 pm

ScottDoonan wrote: Well I finnaly got to see my Cabriolet in the buff. I wish I would have wore 2 pair of underwear cause I shit my self when I stopped by the media blaster today. She had A LOT of poor work done to her at some point in her life. It is going to be very challenging to bring this one back starting by undoing the bad work, establishing a good re starting point, and then forging forward to make it right. I thank Mike from House of Ghia in advance for his support and dedication on this restoration project. Mike is the go to guy as you all know and if you need parts he is the man. I have a feeling I will be calling him quite often for the duration of this build. The former body guy managed to sculpt many areas using body filler 2" thick in a few spots. Lets hope for all of our sake he has moved on to another job. Check my gallery for more shots of the Cab in its current state. I have seen much worse, and have also seen much better. If you will please excuse me now, I must go change my trousers.

This is the ghia i had for sale, and both of us are surprised at the crappy work that was done. Scott and I have been in constant contact and are on good terms. This is not the car we thought it was...not at all, and I feel like dog-crap. Scott wants to continue on even though I have practically begged him to let me take it back and make it right. Since he wants to forge ahead, I will be donating parts to the build until Scott feels the deal is back to fair. I want to publicly thank Scott for being so gracious under these circumstances.

Thu Jun 17, 2010 12:55 pm

For whatever it's worth, I find myself really impressed with the integrity and maturity of Scott and Mike in dealing with this bad surprise. Nice to be in the company of decent guys such as this in our corner of the hobby.

I'll probably be kinda impressed with the car, too, when it's completed.

:)

Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:56 pm

I just want to be the first to say,

Verts have a reinforcement piece in the rocker/ heater channel. Just letting you know in case you didn't. :D

Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:00 pm

retrowagen wrote: For whatever it's worth, I find myself really impressed with the integrity and maturity of Scott and Mike in dealing with this bad surprise. Nice to be in the company of decent guys such as this in our corner of the hobby.

I'll probably be kinda impressed with the car, too, when it's completed.

:)

Well said