"Shamrock Shake" Kathy's 1971 Karmann Ghia Coupé

[DadaCheese]

My wife Kathy (Shamrock Shake's Owner) doesn't tend to be on TheSamba, much... and I am typically over in the Split-Bus forum, which is why we don't tend to get too many posts up on this thread.

However, we've saved our pennies, and although I am half-way decent at repairing our VWs as needed, and keeping them well tuned-up and maintained, I don't do body work.

It may take as much as a year, but there's a big project going on for "Shamrock Shake"

I'll write more at some point about the planned repairs, improvements and changes, but in the short-term here's some teaser videos taken of/by the folks that are doing the pan-off work.


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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[Marcdeb]

Exciting. I'll be looking forward to more posts.
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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

[DadaCheese]

Not much to report (yet) on Shamrock Shake's progress... but we have been doing a few things.

Below is the side-project of getting some OEM wheels cleaned up.

No; I don't know that the wheels are original to THIS Ghia (I doubt it), but when we bought the Ghia, they were the ones on it.

We've been using temporary JBugs Wheels for a year or two now, but always had the plan to go back to white with the VW wheels.

Jason did an amazing job with them; media blasted, primered and powder coated.

I'll need to grind some of the powdercoating off of where the lug-nuts seat, as some people have lost wheels by NOT checking/doing this.

Meanwhile, these are now so clean we should use them to eat dinner off of.

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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[todmeg]

Very cute car. Looks to be in good shape too.

Jeffery.... all due respect... Our Ghias are not cute! My daughter in law is always giving me a hard time telling me my car is "cute" I told her "men don't drive "cute" cars. Now, if a lady owns a Ghia, cute could be the perfect compliment. But she kept on to the point that the final purchase for my body off resto was a personalized plate that reads NOT QT. I have told the story countless times at countless car shows and the only negative response has been "I hate when people call my car "cute" Why didn't I think of that plate idea before you did? " I tell them they could always move to another state. (yuk yuk yuk)
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1770 DP Bad ass heads dual weber 40mm 010 headers and glass pack. Rivieras. 1971!!!

[kiwighia68]

[todmeg]

Aside from great help and advice, the thing I like about this forum is that everybody has their own taste (opinion). But very seldom does anybody here get nasty to each other. You and I may differ on that or how to describe a car, but if you lived around the corner from me, I would certainly ask you over for a beer and a chat. Aaaaand of course exchange more ideas about our Ghias!
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1770 DP Bad ass heads dual weber 40mm 010 headers and glass pack. Rivieras. 1971!!!

[DadaCheese]

Be careful for what you ask for...

Sorry I haven't been on this thread in quite awhile...
Not much had been happening with the restore and improvements slated for "Shamrock Shake," due in large part to our auto-body restore person having had to move his shop and home.

Things are moving again with the project, and now I am occasionally getting some photos of what's being worked on.

As you can see from the top picture, there's been plenty of paint (and putty and Bondo) on our lovely Ghia.
We can't afford to have it "off the assembly-line perfect", but the major challenges will be addressed, and some rust arrested too.

Here you can see the new ""Stage 1 PRObuilt Adjustable Ball Joint Beam Complete - 2200" by AirKewled now installed, and a small glimpse of the new bottom pans too.

https://www.airkewld.com/Stage-1-PRObuilt-Adjustable-Beam-Complete-2200-p/2200.htm

As you can see, there's still MUCH to be done.

Oh; we also decided to actually dumb-down the power of the Ghia by opting for a 1776 dual-port (instead of the 1904 or so that was in there) which will be using the dual Kardon carbs.

I'll try to provide more regular updates if/as I have them.
I really dream that we'll be driving around in Shamrock again before the year is out... by late summer would be a dream.

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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[mdege]

[Airkewld]

[kingkarmann]

Welcome back!
The chassis looks great.
1776 is a reliable and peppy choice

[DadaCheese]

Fun exciting weekend...

We were at the Kelley Park (San Jose, CA) meet again this year.
It was the 40th Annual.

Regretfully Shamrock Shake is still under the knife, but we did get to talk with a lot of our Ghia friends and meet a few news ones too.

ALSO, a write-up with pictures of Kathy and her Ghia is now posted on the VW Women website:

https://www.vwwomen.com/kathy

As always at the Kelly Park meet there were plenty of wonderful Ghias.

If you'd like to see most all of them, and the other 365 photos or so of VWs that I posted this time, you can click this link below. Hopefully others are adding their photos from the weekend too!

Here's the "summary view" :

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?...ts=summary

More on Shamrock Shake as I have updates.
We decided that we ARE also having the heater channels/rockers replaced.
With the amount of previously hidden rot, I'd just rather do it so that we can drive it for the next 50+ years (provided we live that long).
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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[DadaCheese]

Although we would have loved to go to the Madera, CA "Spring Fling" VW meet today (Sunday, April 27th, 2025), we had actually gone north this weekend.

Kathy and I went up to see "Shamrock Shake" at Bourbon Fabrications at Mario's new shop location in Brownsville, CA yesterday.

Not surprising at all is all of the previous owner(s) attempts to fix, and/or cover up wear and tear, damage, as well as common rust area problems, etc.
It was fascinating to see it in person, now that so much of the Ghia is exposed.

Here's some bad fiberglass cover-up in the back which will be addressed (as a small example):

Mario's been doing an amazing job though getting the metal work fixed, stabilized and re-enforced.

Mario also discovered that a whole large chunk of the front-right part of car, was welded on from a different body; the welds that had been done by whomever did that were NOT very good, and he's already addressed those problems.

The replacement of the rockers/heater channel will naturally be a major part of the work he's doing as well.
Needless to say, there's a LOT more to be done though.

He'll also be filling in the dash for us so that it appears to have a metal dash like older models instead of the faux-wood grain and top padded surface.
That's not stock, we realize, but it is one of the things that we are changing (for mainly aesthetic purposes) about Shamrock Shake.

After we visited with Mario and discussed how the project is going, what's coming up, etc., we climbed back into my '67 Westfalia, "The Toaster" headed towards Oroville by way of La Porte Road.
Seeing an open winery to try, we stopped and it happened to be a weekend event of the "North Sierra Wine Trail, 2025"

Ended up going to three wineries for tastings. Nice way to end the day after having been briefly re-united with Shamrock Shake.

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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[c21darrel]

Progress is good. I think its a great idea to have a painted dash over the fake looking woodgrain. Its going to be a much nicer ride when you are done. Enjoy.
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GhiaBuild
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=481184
1967 DC build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=693583&highlight=67+dc
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[DaveB9]

Great to see it being done properly. A lot of work as you say, but the only way to truly know what you have got (excepting those lucky enough to have low mileage cared for survivor cars!).

[Steelz21]

Great progress. I am thinking about removing my fake wood dash, please post what is used to clean off the glue residue.

Thanks

[DadaCheese]

Haven't posted in quite awhile...

We're so thankful to have someone who has worked on/restored many Ghias and who also drove one as one of his first VWs, but it is also a lesson in patience for us when utilizing a one-man shop.
Mario is doing incredible work and recently tackled the heater channels.

These are few pictures (more in my photos here on TheSamba) that Mario had put up on facebook about a month ago.

It's amazing to see just how much of the body was faked (fiberglass, putty, etc.) by the last owner who 'fixed it up' and painted it (himself) for a quick buck.

Don't get me wrong; I knew what I was getting myself into at the time.
I was willing to pay the amount I did for the state of the Ghia when I bought it, and that price was mostly fair.
It's NOW that I am finally investing in Shamrock Shake's longevity as well as making it the VW that Kathy deserves.

Meanwhile, we decided to start breaking in Shamrock Shake's rebuilt 1776 Dual-Port, Dual Kardon engine by placing it into "The Toaster".
100 mile, 500 mile, 1000 mile and then a 3000 mile check/tune-up and I'll feel good about it being more or less "broke in."
Plenty of slow back road trips for awhile.

Has anyone done much work to clean-up and/or repair their steering column shaft?
That's a side project I have been putting off.
I am considering the having (metal shaft) parts media-blasted and powder coated, putting new bearings in, and making sure the electronic parts, turn-signal and all are new and working too.

Love to talk with anyone that's gone through that. Looking for some part numbers of some specific parts of it too.
Although Shamrock Shake is a 1971, I am not so certain that all of Steering Column shaft are.
My first question is whether or not the parts are identical to the same year bug or not?

The part number on the key/turn-signal housing is: 141953503N
Ideally I need correct part numbers for:

Electronic Ignition Wire assembly.
Correct Bearing, bushing and snap ring part numbers
Is there also a bearing at the bottom part of this? Bearing and bushing part numbers for that as well.
Best quality Turn Signal (which brand?)
The Rubber cylinder that seals the hole that the column goes through body

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Dada as in dadaism.
Cheese as in the stuff I love to eat.

[Loren]

Great to see forward progress on the "Shamrock Shake". Here is a PDF of the 1972 Ghia parts book. Should have all the numbers you need:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/1972_ghia_parts_book.php

As far as your turn signal switch goes, I would look for a NOS one if possible. I believe this is a beetle part too? but you will want to double check that. There are a few later style NOS switches in the classifieds. Maybe one would work for your Ghia?

[jeffrey8164]

I’ve got what I call my 70/71 bastard child.
I was driving a 71 that was too far gone to save. It was almost entirely fiberglass as far as floor pans and heater channels and every body panel had been hit.
I found solid 70 to replace it with and the intention was to clean it up, make it run and drive it. One screw led to another and the next thing I knew, the body came off the pan and the car underwent a complete restoration.
I preferred the interior door lock mechanism of the 71 so that went into the 70 as well as the steering column.
So here’s what I can tell you about a 71 column:
It’s a one year only column. The turn signal switch, the column bearing and the anti rattle bushings are definitely one off. Oh and the splines on the shaft for the steering wheel are slightly larger in diameter too. I took the entire 71 column and it bolted right into the 70 body no problem but refurbishing the innards was not without its challenges. I ended up buying a lot of parts that I couldn’t use.
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Volkswagen!
Turning owners into mechanics since 1938.

“Let he that is without oil throw the first rod”
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[mdege]

Hi Bryce,

I checked the parts book and the housing is not listed, which probably means it is newer than the book and it seams to be Ghia specific

I tried checking the parts book on the VW site but it is currently down. https://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.com/de_de/service/ersatzteilkataloge.html

I'll try again later.
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- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

I rechecked and the Parts book is online again.

I looks like the housing isn't listed there either. And since yours only has the turn signal switch in it, it must be the one year only for the '71 model.

The correct turn signal switch is then:

111 953 513 C Blinkerschalter-Oberteil ab Fgst. 141 2000 001 bis 141 3200 000

All the other parts you were asking about should fall into the same period.

Some of the parts were used from 68 to 71 (148 000 001 - 141 3200 000) others 68 all the way to the end and others only till 70 (140 3100 000).

Please let me know if you need any more help.
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- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car