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Fixing up the Ghia body
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OvalNick
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Joined: January 02, 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 7:31 am    Post subject: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

Hi folks.

Done a ton of body work on the ghia and the main body is now very flat. I have an issue with some of the "internal" body parts and would like a community view of what to do.

The POs have kindly drilled a ton of holes, and there's also some mediocre repair from where speakers once lived. You'll also note the modifications to the engine bay where injectors once lived.

I want to repair all of this, but not sure the best way to do it, I'm not aware of any panels I can purchase to graft in. I did mig up a few holes but even on the lowest settings my mig makes bigger holes.....so I considered a more wholesale approach to replacing panels.


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infiniteLoop
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 5:22 pm    Post subject: Re: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

For the top pic I would grind the welds down and hammer/dolly it straight. For the patches that overlap I would remove them and do a better job. With filling in holes you should practice on a piece of scrap. Practice on only depositing metal without making a pool. You could use copper to back the holes up but I just fill them without. I put in spot welds to thicken up the circumference first. I keep the outside of the pool just away from the edge to help from overheating it and burning through.
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kman
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:18 am    Post subject: Re: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

The left side of the engine deck is sold. https://airheadparts.com/vw-part/engine-compartment-left-inner-deck-141-813-161-e/#wc-tabs-wrapper

If you are having trouble butt welding the sheet metal or its just too far gone to weld. (It does take a lot of patience) try backing the seam with a copper or brass block to take some of the heat away.
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OvalNick
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:04 am    Post subject: Re: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

All good advice. I will see what replacement panels I can get before embarking on any more major hole fixing.
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kman
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:00 am    Post subject: Re: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

If you have some coin Gabfab makes great looking stuff.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1157244
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Rome
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:28 pm    Post subject: Re: Fixing up the Ghia body Reply with quote

OP's Ghia would be a late '63 build '64 model year to '65 only- that time period has the smaller "simple rectangle" pressings, and still has the battery clamp hold-down latch and stud to the right of the engine. Ghias thru midway '64 model year have the larger "double rectangle" pressings seen in GabFab's panels. '66 Ghia no longer has the battery HW to the right of the engine because the new air cleaner pod is there; the battery was moved to the left of the engine.

OP's engine side panels are in remarkably good shape despite minor surface pitting on the right side from being under the battery. Effort would be worthwhile to carefully cut out those injector trays, and make patches to flush butt-weld into the existing metal. Patches should be easy to make because you only have a single 90-degree bend.
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