TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Nov 11, 2019 5:15 pm

Can anyone offer some opinions for how to proceed with the window scraper area. The car arrived with new window scrapers, but they were both loose and one of them was cut too short. The rubber scraper was not installed under the chrome and that is partly why the chrome and rubber were so loose. But that is not the only problem.

I've searched the forums and the doors for 1971 are supposed to have a metal lip that holds the window scraper. These are both gone. Most likely rusted beyond repair as I see some areas of rust damage along the inside of the window opening. Are these metal lips something that can be replaced? If so, can these be ordered? Or is it easy enough to make new ones? Is there any other methods to deal with this as is? Is there an alternate window scraper that can be used without the metal lip??

In the VW Shop Manual, there are round plastic buffers (B) on the outside edge but the diagram does not show any on the inside edge? My car has them on both sides of the glass. Is this correct?

Thanks for the help.

Mon Nov 11, 2019 5:52 pm

Im so sorry to see what they sold you. Its obvious that they didn't do a good job at all!
Im currently doing a full body off restore on my 69 Ghia, the pan is all finished, Im just working on the body.
The steel strips that hold the door seals in place were rusted out on my car, I did a search but didnt find replacements so I made my own. You can see in the picture that they are folded over steel strips and are welded in place.

Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:35 pm

VolkzBitz wrote: Im so sorry to see what they sold you. Its obvious that they didn't do a good job at all!
Im currently doing a full body off restore on my 69 Ghia, the pan is all finished, Im just working on the body.
The steel strips that hold the door seals in place were rusted out on my car, I did a search but didnt find replacements so I made my own. You can see in the picture that they are folded over steel strips and are welded in place.

Thank you Tim. I appreciate the kind words.

I can see your welded on metal in the 2nd photo, but the first photo isn't clear for some reason. The VW manual shows a piece of metal that is straight, I don't see any bend or fold?

What's the measurement for the height above the top edge of the door? It looks like it's about 1/2 inch, maybe 3/8?

Is the 69 a coupe or cabriolet?

Sun Nov 17, 2019 2:42 pm

Moving Day. By the way, that's not a dent on the side of the car, just shadows and reflections.

3 days ago, I received the call from the body shop that he is ready to start working on my car. Unfortunately we are having another early winter. We had our first snow storm a week ago. We already have 6 inches on the ground, an additional inch 2 days ago, and more snow coming each of the next 3 days. Unfortunately the body shop is on top of a mountain and the last tenth of a mile before his drive way is Class 4 road, and to make things even more complicated, his 600 foot driveway is all up hill. Today was the only chance to get the car moved so we took advantage of the nice weather. The tow truck dropped the car off here where the town stops plowing.

From here we had to use an old farm tractor and a chain and tow the car the rest of the way to it's temporary winter home. Since the car is not running, I haven't been able to drive the car, but today I got to drive my Karman Ghia! Sort of!! :) As we proceed around a corner in the road, I get my first look at the 600 foot snow covered driveway. !! The picture doesn't show it well, but it's very steep.

I found myself thinking about how small the tow ring is on the front of the car. It's a light car but under these conditions, I was a bit nervous. I had my foot ready on the break in case the car broke loose. But all went well. We made it up the hill with no issues.

I must say, the sunny winter scenery made for a great Karmann Ghia Day.

I will be helping with the body work and prep for the new paint job as much as am able but strictly as a helper.

First thing to get attention is the Drivers side Rocker panel. The car has already had all new heater channels, stiffeners and rockers, but the alignment is terrible. There's not enough space under the bottom of the doors to allow for the door sills and the exterior bottom edge of the door is practically laying on top of the rocker panel - no gap what so ever. The body work behind the Drivers Door will get some attention as well.

Sun Nov 17, 2019 3:23 pm

What a crisp fresh post! Thanks for sharing your adventure and best of luck with your repairs— you deserve it!

Michael

Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:43 pm

Trylon wrote: What a crisp fresh post! Thanks for sharing your adventure and best of luck with your repairs— you deserve it!

Michael

Thank you for the kind words Michael. It was a fun day. I'm going to miss going out to the garage to work on O Ghia, but it's only temporary.

Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:00 pm

Glad to finally have an update on progress. Christmas came early: The mailman delivered a package today which turned out to be my rebuilt carburetor. This carburetor is not the exact unit that came on this car in 1971, but it's a stock, period correct VW Solex 34PICT-3.

This carburetor had been sitting unused for many years before the PO put it back in service without so much as a cleaning, let alone a rebuild. Needless to say, it was not working properly at all. My plan was to rebuild it myself but decided a professional rebuild job by Tim at VolkzBitz would be money well spent.

This is what it looked like when I shipped it to Tim at VolkzBitz a few weeks ago.

Tim does an amazing job including a full cleaning, and rebuild. He replaced the throttle shaft bushing and basically turned this old unit back into it's new condition. I did not opt to have my steel parts re-plated but they came back looking better than I expected.

I opted to have Tim install a screwed in barbed fitting as the push on fittings can come loose after all these years in service. Now this old carburetor is ready for another 50 years.

I plan to get it back on the car next weekend.

Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:03 pm

Man, are you sure that’s not brand new?!

One step closer to the dream, Marc...

Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:40 pm

Trylon wrote: Man, are you sure that’s not brand new?!

One step closer to the dream, Marc...

It's almost too perfect! Hopefully the car will some day look equally impressive. :?

Sun Dec 15, 2019 2:31 pm

I made it up to the body shop to check on progress and to install my newly restored Carburetor.

When I received the car in October, there was no gap at all at the bottom of the Drivers door, even with the door being adjusted slightly high at the back. When I tried to install the door sill plate, the door could not close. There was not enough space between the door and the door sill. The door sill had to be dropped some how. The passenger door has the same issue though not as bad.

This is Bill. He's an expert with body and paint. He has been rebuilding and painting cars for over 50 years. He's an artist when it comes to metal work and paint. He did a show car for me 35 years ago.

He drilled out all the spot welds and released the bottom of the rocker panel. This allowed the back portion of the door sill to be lowered. The front however was unmovable. He made a cut at the forward end of the door sill just before the hinge pillar which allowed the sill to be lowered. He will be doing the final fitting of the front fender this week and welding it all back together. The door still needs to be adjusted a little at the back edge.

Turns out the car has 4 coats of paint so we will strip it all off and start fresh. A good decision as we suspect we will find some surprises along the way.

I installed the freshly restored carburetor. With fingers crossed, I turned the key and pumped the pedal to get the gas up into the empty bowl. It took about 6 seconds and it fired up and stayed running!!! that's a first! It idled smoothly. Quite a difference. I let it run long enough to see the fast idle come down. Success. It sounded like a totally different engine!! Amazing. Thanks Tim / VolkzBitz. For now, I left the throttle positioner and altitude adjuster bypassed, though they will be put back in use when the car is ready for the road. Other than having a 1962 Dash, my intention is to keep the car as stock as possible.

Sun Dec 15, 2019 2:46 pm

Such great progress Marc! Really sorry that you have to go through all this but it is going to be great fun to watch!

Sun Jan 05, 2020 10:54 am

A few weeks ago, I happened on to an original VDO Kienzle 12V clock on the Samba Classifieds. Not only does it run, but the chrome is excellent and the build date on the clock is 4/71. Perfect to go along with my 71 VERT. It even came with the bulb and the mounting bracket. Nice find.

Even though My car has a full dash of Gauges, more than it had when new, this car would have had this same clock originally. I decided to buy it and hold on to it. Maybe some day I might want to install it in the car. The clock runs great and is in over all excellent condition, as advertised. However, I soon realized that something was not right. The clock would only run for about a minute or two and then stop. I could hear it running but the hands would not move. Turned out the center black button was not coming back out after adjusting the clock. the center post and spring under the button, were corroded and rusty to the point that the button would not move in and out. Attempts to pull the button out over time had led to a small crack in the plastic lens and rust stains have seeped into the crack.

Searching turned up no information on how to repair this. I was hoping a new button could be the answer but apparently it's part of the front lens and I wanted to avoid opening up the clock if possible. I decided to attempt a repair. Using mineral oil to try to lubricate the shaft only did not help other than liquify some rust which I then soaked up with a paper towel.
I was able to remove the broken rusty spring.
With the button completely retracted, I used a wedge of wood (a shortened half of a clothespin) to hold the button up.
I scraped away at the center post, using a jewelers screwdriver with a curve in the tip, making the shaft smooth and shiny again.
The black button now freely moves in and out.
I continued to apply small amounts of mineral oil, exercising the button, while absorbing the dirty oil away.
Used a vacuum putting the hose on the center of the lens to draw out as much dirty oil as possible.

Used the center portion of a spring from a BIC pen to wind back around the center post.

Success. I was not able to get all the rust stains out, but the stains and the crack are not visible unless I look up close. :D :D :D

Sun Jan 05, 2020 11:02 am

Well done!

Sun Jan 05, 2020 11:24 am

This is where your luthier skills come into play! Looking forward to more such delicate exploits!

Sun Jan 05, 2020 4:30 pm

With a long list of things to do, I made it to the body shop to work on the Ghia yesterday. With all the snow we've had, I wasn't sure I would make it up the 600 foot steep driveway even with my studded tires. I made it to within 50 feet of the garage. I could have had to park at the bottom so I was happy.

The LS rocker panel was all welded back in place and it looks great. Bill was able to lower the rocker panel significantly. There is a normal gap under the door.

I wasn't happy with the hood alignment. This is what it looked like when I received the car:

This was a trial and error routine. Loosen the bolts holding the hood to the hinges and move the hood, tighten and close the hood to see if it got better or worse. On the 3rd attempt, apparently we adjusted it in such a way as to create pressure on the latch pin because now the hood would not open. I had to dislodge the horn boot and get my hand up in there and release the hood. After this I loosened the hood pin just enough to allow it to move while we adjusted the hood. Eventually we got a much better alignment.

Next I wanted to pre-drill holes on the engine lid for the very old license plate bracket I just received from a wonderful TheSamba member. This beautiful aluminum bracket came with all hardware. It appears to be made of thick aluminum with rust resistant hardware. Much nicer than the repro plated brackets. I think it might have originally been used on a VW Beetle.

The car arrived with no bracket and no holes, although it's easy to spot where there had been holes to mount a license plate directly to the engine lid. The PO has filled in those holes as part of the body work done before he painted it. I don't get why he bothered to fill them if he wasn't going to finish the job properly! :?

The main item on the list was to remove the windshield - one way or another. Being new, I hoped to save the seal but I was prepared to cut it if needed. I've done this before 35 years ago on a 61 Pontiac. Back then I just layed on the seat, put both feet on the glass and pushed them out quite easily. However this windshield will not give. I've tried twice and had no success. I'm amazed the glass had not cracked from the pressure.

I wanted to try a different approach. I pulled back the rubber on the inside of the car, and push a smooth round wire with some liquid soap in hopes that this would leave the rubber seal slightly parted and ready to give. Bill happen to have a tool he made years ago for getting between the glass and the rubber seal. Wish I had a photo of it but I was too busy at the time to think about the camera, but basically it is a chrome plated round screwdriver shaft, bent into the shape of an old fashioned bottle opener. I inserted the tool between the rubber and the frame along with liquid soap and the tool could slide along the rubber. With the wire in place, I put my feet on the glass and pushed as hard as I could. Bill said he could feel the Frame move but the rubber seal held tight!!! :? :? :? :shock: :shock:

At that point I was ready to get the Stanley knife out and start cutting. Bill wanted to try again though. Honestly I didn't have much left in my legs to try again, but I went along. This time as I pushed, Bill (starting just below the Passenger side upper corner) pulled the rubber seal down from the inside below the windshield frame and pushed it under to the other side. He continued in this fashion, up and around the corner (all while I'm still pushing with both feet) when finally the rubber seal started to move on it's own. I was about to reduce the pressure when the whole windshield popped out and luckily landed on the hood. Neither one of us saw it coming. I had been warned here on TheSamba to have someone ready to catch the glass, but in the moment, it didn't seem necessary. Oh well, job done. We were both laughing.

I was happy to see that the windshield frame was perfect. No sign of there ever have been rust. I noticed that the frame has these stamped on brackets of some sort? Can anyone explain what these are and what purpose they proved?
It wasn't until I was packing up to leave that we noticed the radio speaker grill on the dash was broken. Up til then it had been a perfect day. Still not a disaster, but one step backward!! :oops: Now I'm shopping TheSamba for a replacement speaker grill. Anyone have an extra they would sell?

Bill now is starting to strip the body. There are 5 coats of pain on the car not counting all the primer coats.

Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:24 pm

Marcdeb wrote: I noticed that the frame has these stamped on brackets of some sort? Can anyone explain what these are and what purpose they proved? IIRC they're designed to provide a better grip for the weatherstrip.

Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:31 pm

Braukuche wrote: Well done!

Thank you.

Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:52 pm

Trylon wrote: This is where your luthier skills come into play! Looking forward to more such delicate exploits!

Thank you.
Never thought of it before but a violin and a Karman Ghia have something in common: lots of beautiful curves! :)

Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:32 pm

While I was searching the classifieds for some parts I'm still missing, I ran across a set of 1970 Ghia doors that were in amazing condition & were only 190 miles away in Oxford Mass. I was tempted to look into the doors since the original doors on my car came to me with no metal strips for the window scrapers and considerable rust damage on the inner metal of the window openings. This could have been repaired with some welding but it's a tight opening to work in and the holes for the window felts need to be accurately located. I decided it might be easier to just get doors that don't need the extra work. These doors were only 190 miles away in Oxford Massachusetts. The doors came with glass, regulators, inside door handles and even hinges. I contacted the seller who turned out to be a long time VW enthusiast with 2 Ghias and several Bugs. This trip was going to be too much fun to pass up.
So on Sunday I headed down to Oxford to pick up the doors and had a lot of fun getting a tour of the sellers collection of Ghias, Bugs, and 4 garages of parts and projects. Had a lot of fun and made a great contact.

On my way to Oxford, while passing through Westminster Vermont, I went by this beauty! Apparently the car is in better shape than it's occupants!! :lol: :lol: I had to stop to examine the car closer and it was pretty rough. But I've seen worse basket cases here on TheSamba that have been brought back.

The owner of the doors also sold me some wonderful vintage literature:

Once I got the doors home, I set to work taking them down to an empty shell. This was no big deal until I got to trying to pull the glass out of the door. What a project this turned out to be. I spent even more time trying to research how to do this. I finally gathered enough information to make it happen. I documented my process here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9255317#9255317

Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:50 pm

Sounds like you had some KG fun even without one! Nice!