1964 Ghia Coupe Restoration

[John Moxon]

[Rome]

Getting the 1500 H-based engine into your Ghia with its (most likely) original transmission is not difficult. The bellhousing of the transmission is slightly too small to fit the larger-diameter flywheel of the 1500. You just need to grind off a few small areas to get the FW to fit in. You can find photos of this clearancing in the gallery.

You can keep that muffler. I would suggest installing heater boxes for those clear, 40F spring or fall drives. All you need to do is to feed the hoses from the fan shroud outlet through your rear breast plate, and then directly into the heater box rear inlet snout. After you remove the J-tubes, you should chase the threads of the head studs with a metric M8x1.25 die. That size is the most commonly used on VW bodies and engines. You can slip the heater box mounting flange barely over those studs, while guiding the rear pipe into the muffler. Apply anti-seize grease to the head studs before you put the fastening nuts and washers on. All easy to do with the engine still out of the car.

Then you'll need the complete "sled" tin set that goes under the engine and fills the space between the sides of the case and the inboard curvature of the heater boxes. Good used German beats aftermarket new any day, even if you have to de-rust and repaint the tins.

Do you know if your Ghia already has a 12V starter? That's the next piece of the puzzle.

Does your 1500 engine already have a pressure plate and clutch disc? The PP must be compatible with your transmission's throwout bearing design. The 1200 tranny T/O bearing would mate up to an "early" 1500/1600 pressure plate that has a metal ring in the center.

The overall width of the 1500 is slightly more than the 1200cc 40-hp engine, like 1/2", but it will fit in the engine bay no problem. You probably know that the rear breast plate is only installed once the engine is in place. Chase all the holes in the tin for the tin screws with an M6x1.0 tap.

[djkeev]

They used to make cars with no heaters.
Then they made heaters an option, you stopped, climbed out and twisted a water valve to turn it on. You could by a kit and install it later if you liked.
Then they made heaters standard by geopgraphical region,
Now all cars have heaters and almost every new one also has Air Conditioning.

There is a reason heaters became standard eqipment on cars, they are really NICE TO HAVE!!!

Have you ever owned a car without a heater?
I have ..........

I kept an ice scraper handy for the INSIDE of the Windshield.

Why be miserable motoring around in your Ghia?
Put in heat.

Dave
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[Evil_Fiz]

[Peter D.]

Hey, thanks for the great advice on the head studs and clutch For some reason I'm not getting notifications on replies to this thread. I'll add a metric die to my tools list.

Of course DHL lost my order from CIP1, so I without an engine stand and flywheel I'm at a standstill. But I did purchase all the engine missing tins I needed along with the thermostat and flaps. I guess they're not critical but I do want to be as close to correct as possible on this project. I also found heater boxes which the seller is getting ready for me.

This Ghia actually didn't come with a starter. I'm doing a 12 volt conversion so I know I'll need a some kind of hybrid starter that will fit into a smaller housing. I don't know what kind of transmission is in there now but it may have already been ground out when the car got it's flame paint job in the 90s. I'll have to take a closer look.

Today I disconnected the steering column (which involved lots of liquid wrench and pounding with a punch) and removed the last two body bolts. I wasn't aware that there were two more hidden up behind the rear seat. I pulled off the old vinyl strip and there was a vertical piece of compressed fiber board. I removed that, found the bolts and also found two sound deadening socks! I felt a little bit like Indiana Jones These are definitely going back once I get it repainted.

The inside of the car is unbelievably crusty. I'm wondering how heavy the body is to lift with the doors, trunk and window installed. I could take them off first but storage is tight.

[Peter D.]

I used my 73 Beetle as a daily driver, even in the winter. It had a gas heater and the heater boxes worked fine but one winter the windshield turned to ice on I95 during a snow storm. That was fun! I had many near death experiences on the highway trying to keep up with tractor trailers and SUVs.

I'm not really sure what my vision for this Ghia is yet since I'm still taking it apart at this point. But I might as well put some heater boxes into it. Not that the heat was ever great when the car was brand new!

[c21darrel]

Are you going to re-use the 6 volt flywheel? Run 12 V thru a 6 V starter?
If you use a 12 volt flywheel you can run a auto stick starter and never worry about bushings again.
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[Peter D.]

Yes, 12 volt flywheel. Maybe I'll pick up an autostick starter at the next show/swap meet.

[Peter D.]

I made a little progress on this project in the past few weeks. The body is off and on a dolly. The floors are looking pretty crusty and I think they're beyond salage. The PO tried to patch with roofing tiles. I can save the seat rails and I bought a pair of cross bars from House of Ghia (thanks!).

The curveball here is the hole cut into the center tunnel which I'm told was probably done to fix the clutch tube.

I pulled it open and looked inside but I'm not experienced enough to tell if it was welded properly or not. Should I try grabbing and shaking it? I am a bit alarmed by the amount of rust inside the tunnel.

I know Eastwood sells some encapsulator products. I'll take a closer look this weekend. Lots of loose rust debris that I can hopefully vacuum out.
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2019 Golf Alltrack, '65 Ghia Coupe Restoration in Progress

[Mellow Yellow 74]

[Peter D.]

Yeah, they're totally toast. I already bought new floors from Jbugs. They claim the metal is 18 gauge but I wish Klasicfab made floors for Ghia.

I gotta be honest though, I couldn't fall asleep last night thinking about the rust in the tunnel! I have to decide if I'm going to soak in ospho and coat or cut and weld. That will change my approach in how I go about replacing the floors and taking the rest of the chassis apart. I wanted to do one side of the floor at a time so I can compare and match. But if I have to cut the bottom of the tunnel out I'll need to remove both floors first.


Going to determine how bad that rust actually is when I have some time this weekend. At the least body is solid!
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2019 Golf Alltrack, '65 Ghia Coupe Restoration in Progress

[Sketchy_1]

Muratic acid will eat through rust faster than phosphoric acid. Ospho is great for slight surface or flash rusting. Muratic is also a fraction the cost of phosphoric. I use muratic to remove rust to bare metal, then let it flash rust and spray Ospho. Makes a great base for primer.
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69' Karmann Ghia Convertible AWD Project (FB Build) (STF Build)

[crazy tarzan]

https://www.klassicfab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1FINAL_CODE_LIST_NEW_2015.pdf

Very bottom of list. Call and see if they still offer them?

[Peter D.]

I contacted them earlier this year and they are not making them right now. Heard from Gerson himself. Oh, well!
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2019 Golf Alltrack, '65 Ghia Coupe Restoration in Progress

[Peter D.]

[crazy tarzan]

If you're using straight muratic acid, I'd *carefully* spray it with a plastic spray bottle and let it work with the minimal amount. The straight stuff will chew through quite a number of things - oil, grease, rust, calcium etc.

If you're just pouring it in, keep an eye on it. And watch out for the vapors, as they can be kinda strong.

[Sketchy_1]

You can cut it 50% and it's still very effective...plus I use 3M acid respirator filters (yellow) and face shield which aren't very expensive. After doing several cars this way, on heavy rust it's hard to beat. Not a fan of sealing in rust. Phosphoric takes a long time and considerable elbow grease on heavy rust. You can put the cut muratic acid in a garden pump sprayer and stick the wand in from the shift rod access hole in the front and from the transmission nose cone port in the rear. Pretty much cover everything in the tunnel. Done this many times without injury, I also run water underneath if I am working over concrete so it doesn't etch it.
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69' Karmann Ghia Convertible AWD Project (FB Build) (STF Build)

[Peter D.]

Okay, well I already have a garden sprayer and face mask so that's a start. Does the acid require any kind of neutralizing wash or spray once it's done doing it's thing?

And didn't they use this stuff on Breaking Bad to get rid of the bodies?!
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2019 Golf Alltrack, '65 Ghia Coupe Restoration in Progress

[crazy tarzan]

Rinse with copious amounts of water. The acid will continue to eat anything it can until it's expended/reacted fully.

If mixing (say for spray bottle) acid and water, remember to always add acid to water.

You will get flash rust after using the acid, but that can be treated with different products, just make sure you treat the acid etched areas as soon as possible to limit the amount of rust that develops.

[Peter D.]

Alright, so it's muriatic acid, rinse with water, let dry, ospho, let dry, then paint with Eastwood or Masterseries. Maybe I'll take tons of pictures and post as a tutorial.
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2019 Golf Alltrack, '65 Ghia Coupe Restoration in Progress