I'm refreshing Rose. My 70/71 bastard child.

[jeffrey8164]

They call it Copper. It’s surprisingly thin and takes two days to get hard.(wait...that sounds like me!)

[Evil_Fiz]

^^^ WOW, you derailed your own thread. It usually takes someone like me or C21Darrel to do that. Good work, carry on
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“…It's not just about what's interesting. It's also about what's helpful, and it's helpful even if it helps just one other guy working on a Ghia.”
kiwighia68

See my build on TheSamba at:
The K_R_A_K_E_N_N : a 70 Ghia Convertible reinterpreted

[Mellow Yellow 74]

Nice progress - what brand Kafer bar did you use? It looks different to others because it has the two angle rods on each side.
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1962 Karmann Ghia
1974 Deluxe Microbus
1985 Caravelle (Vanagon)

[jeffrey8164]

It’s from CoolRydes.
Took two days and some massaging of the parts to make it fit.

[KGCoupe]

[Evil_Fiz]

[jeffrey8164]

I'm the second owner of this Ghia. It was tapped in the front drivers headlight bucket which was properly repaired after the body was water blasted which is when the damage was found. So, no there is no frame damage.

The major installation issues were the mounting tabs that attach to the shock tower had to be tweaked about three degrees for the trailing arm rods to fit without binding. Out of the box there was too much stress on the clevis pins.
Also I chamfered the clevis pins so they wouldn't dig into the mounting tabs.
The metal in the tabs is much softer that the clevis pins.

[jeffrey8164]

Repainted the trunk this weekend

[jeffrey8164]

And painted the tank, steering column, ignition housing and some other things while the paint was out.

[jeffrey8164]

Started getting the turn signal switch and ignition switch sorted out as well

[jeffrey8164]

I finished my Mini Me project.

Here is the full size version

It has a few blemishes. Its hard to block sand something so small but I think it came out OK.

[Exaktaphile]

That's pretty cool!

[jeffrey8164]

Ok. So, it's been a while. I put in the newly painted steering column with the new turn signal switch. I got a reproduction steering wheel. The description said up to 71. Rose is a 70 with a bunch of 71 parts in the mix. The steering column is from a 71. I had forgotten that the 71 column was one year only. The new steering wheel came with the wrong horn ring for my 71 and the splines were different so the wheel wouldn't fit. So I did what any self respecting garage tinkerer would do. I used a triangle file on the splines of the steering wheel to make the wheel fit on the shaft and performed minor surgery to fit a 71 horn ring and canceller.

[jeffrey8164]

Then I started putting the trunk area back together starting with a new master cylinder since the old one was leaking just sitting there. The old brake light harness was crusty so I found a NOS harness from a nice lady in the Philippines.

Then I reconnected all the headlight wiring that I disassembled to paint the trunk and started on the front suspension

Finally getting to use the dropped spindles I got in 2001.

[jeffrey8164]

After installing the new ball joints and tie rod ends I’m going to do a preliminary tape measure alignment. I plan to take it to my local shop to have a real alignment performed once the new engine is installed and broken, or broken in, whichever comes first.
Toe seems to be pretty straightforward but I’m using flat bar strapped to the spindles. I plan to make them equal even though I know there should be an 1/8 inch between front and back measurements.

Question is, what degree +/- should the camber be? As I move the camber eccentric that changes the toe so I think I need to do the camber first. I’m also not up to speed on the geometry changes in the suspension. Does the camber stay the same throughout the travel or does it change ?

[TDCTDI]

The car needs to be on the ground to get the alignment correct, toe changes as the suspension is cycled up & down.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[jeffrey8164]

OK, so what if I compress the suspension half way?

[jeffrey8164]

Well it has been a few weeks since I've been able to work on Rose. My wife had some other ideas to fill my time.

I did however come across some old video tapes that had my old Fisher Buggies commercials on it. I converted them to DVD and uploaded them to YouTube so I could share.

https://youtu.be/tWVPSiucSnM

[c21darrel]

Thank you. those commercials are classic. Can I have your autograph?
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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!

[Tanoki]

Good looking car!
Those commercials are great! 😃😃

Cheers!
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“Let me know the rules so I can ignore them”
My Ghia build : https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=703728