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Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:10 pm

Here is what I would do. The headlight bucket is held in by a bunch of spot welds. Carefully drill them out and remove the bucket. You then have full access to the bent panels and you can hammer that out very quickly. If the buckets are good you simple pop em back in and do some plug welds. 8)

Sat Mar 02, 2013 9:33 am

Here is a more 3/4 view of the whole front fender and nose area.

The yellow areas are where the metal is actually gashed and can see daylight.

The red-orange areas are where the ripples and depressions are.

I am by no means someone who is a body work expert, but at a guess it would be far easier to locate donor metal. Or failing that take 16ga steel and patch in new areas.

And I still have not found out how extensive the cake of bondo is. It could be much worse.

Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:37 am

That bucket looks like a replacment bucket not the original.
Weld in the cracks, or cut patches and massage the rest. I am no expert but I have found it is not near as hard as you think. You can rough it out and if you want have a good body guy do the finish work or just do it all. Headlight sections are NOT EASY to find that don't need lots of work themselves and if you do find them $$$.
You have nothing to loose by removing the buckets (looks like bad glob welds you can remove with a dremmel cutoff wheel) and massage the area. Get it pretty straight, weld in the cracks, then finish smoothing out. If it dosent work you find your replacement sections.

Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:49 pm

I would remove the headlight bucket and replace just the bad metal, and
reconstruct the flange around the opening. It would be less expensive and less time.
Without the bucket in place, the metal will easily move, so be keen to secure original shape.
I would only work one area at a time, because there are inherent stresses between the
headlight and nostril, each dictating the others' shape.
I would love to have a lowlight to play with.

Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:46 am

Well I am calling a halt to grinding off the bondo to find damage.

I have to stop or will get discouraged from working on the car. The sheet metal in line with the bumper mounting hole is also rippled. And it looks like I have found a thin layer of fiberglass right under the bumper bracket mount hole. Pulled some of the fiberglass away to find dented metal underneath.

Also went digging through the paperwork I got with the car. Found a bill from Maaco for almost $1400. And under Body Labor is the price $600. Well I certainly appreciate an owner who omits such crucial information.

Fri Mar 08, 2013 11:15 am

Don't get discouraged. When I started working on my Ghia I ran into a similar problem. The more paint I removed the more damage I found. I found that if I focused on one part of the car and resolved its issues I could then move to another part and so forth. If you look at the whole project it is easy to get discouraged. I would remove all the paint from the front of the car and using a propane torch remove all the bondo and under coating. Once this is completed you can see all the damage and decide on a plan of attack. Once the front of the car is stripped I would find a good body man and see what he thinks can be done. You would be amazed at what a good body man can resurrect.

Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:50 pm

I hope you are right Loren. I just keep finding more bondo.

http://omiaghia.blogspot.com/2013/03/acceptance.html

Bought a propane torch, but not used it yet. Think that will be tomorrow.

Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:47 am

Don't get discouraged. Often hack shops use lots of bondo instead of pulling the dents and doing the job right. When I got my car I scraped a ton of bondo off the door and there wasn't any damage! I guess they did a thick coat to make it flush with the rest of the body instead of adjusting the door. You might be in the same situation and find that all you have to do is pull a few dents, massage the panels a bit and not have to use any bondo.

Mon Apr 01, 2013 6:59 am

Thanks for the words of encouragement there Loren. Not getting distressed or discouraged yet. I have moved on to finishing up stripping the body down. Leaving further discoveries until later.

This weekend my brother's father-in-law approached me. Seems he knows someone who is trying to fix up their dad's Karmann Ghia. Don't really know anything at this point but I gave him my card to pass on. Offered to help in any way. Will see.

Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:43 am

ghiarossa wrote: Thanks for the words of encouragement there Loren. Not getting distressed or discouraged yet. I have moved on to finishing up stripping the body down. Leaving further discoveries until later.
Dave, you're making more progress on your '58 than I am on mine. Keep chipping away at it (no pun intended :( ) and you'll git 'er done!

See that bottom rear section of my front fender? Big flappy piece o' bondo, I'm not sure how much metal remains underneath. And there's evidence of a skim coat in other places as well - part of the joy of doing projects! I've already got new lower fender sections from WolfParts, but your car will probably be done before I fix those on mine (several other car/motorcycle projects ahead of it :oops: )

Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:54 pm

Well I decided to finish removing the paint and bondo from around the driver side headlight bucket. It too has taken damage but far less than the passenger headlight bucket. I think its very fixable unlike the other.

And Bill thanks for the encouraging words. Perhaps should combine our two to make one low-light. ;) Will check out WolfParts for prices to see if they will leg or arm in payment.

Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:30 pm

I just got a pair of new low light lower front fender sections from Danny at Gab-Fab to test fit on my 57 and 59 Ghias and the fit is excellent. If you need lower front fender sections I would hightly recommed them, the quality and attention to detail is excellent. I did a side by side comparison between a set of Wolf Parts sections and a pair from Danny so you can decide for yourself:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...p;start=80

Sun Apr 07, 2013 2:24 pm

Loren wrote: I just got a pair of new low light lower front fender sections from Danny at Gab-Fab to test fit on my 57 and 59 Ghias and the fit is excellent. If you need lower front fender sections I would hightly recommed them, the quality and attention to detail is excellent. I did a side by side comparison between a set of Wolf Parts sections and a pair from Danny so you can decide for yourself:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...p;start=80

Thanks for those pictures Loren. Now must resist sanding those areas as I am still trying to map the canals and arroyos in the nose area. ;)

Sun Apr 14, 2013 8:33 pm

ghiarossa wrote:

So is this set up correct for my Nov. 1957 produced KG? is it possible to use a split window bus housing or bulbholders instead of these pictured.
they look very similar,, is there anything that will interchange?

Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:14 pm

56-58 Ghia bulb holders and collars are Ghia specific. Ghia bulb holders are very similar to the bus and beetle versions, but they only have one terminal while the Ghia holders have two (Ghia signals are used for running lights and turn signals so they need two terminals and use a dual filament bulb). The Ghia collars are chromed and the drain hole is at the bottom while the drail hole on the beetle and bus collars is on the side. The very early chrome collars from 55.5 - 56 have a round drain hole while the later ones have a triangular one (thr triangular hole broke the water tension better than the round hole and allowed the water to drain out).

Here is an early pair of Ghia collars with round drain holes

Here is the Ghia collar on the left with a triangular and the one on the right doesn't have any holes (it might be the earliest version, though I have no evidence to prove it).

Here you can see the two terminals on the back of the bulb holder and the collar is the early style with a round drain hole.

If the chrome base is bad on your Ghia bulb holder, or the holder breaks when removed (which is often the case) you can remove the bakelite terminal section and install it in a beetle or bus base so don't throw an orignal broken base away, you might be able to save it.

Mon Apr 15, 2013 5:20 am

my t/s were replaced with later 59-64 units
other than the housings being crome is the profile the same?

it looks like i would have to relocate the drain hole and paint but that's no problem.

the lenses look the same as split bus, will those interchange?

Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:37 pm

The lenses are all the same for Bug, Bus and Ghia

Tue Apr 16, 2013 6:27 am

Loren wrote: The lenses are all the same for Bug, Bus and Ghia thanks, i have some lenses; looks like i need bulbholders and housings