O Ghia's Restoration Journey

[Marcdeb]

[Marcdeb]

[Rome]

I wonder how well/effective a small hand-held fabric/carpet steamer would work to clean the original backrest carpet?

[kiwighia68]

It's always nice to see someone working, piece by piece (no pun intended!) to restore a Ghia.

Good work, Marc, as usual.
_________________
Festina lente - hasten slowly
1968 Ghia named Emiko
Resto completed Dec 2015

[Marcdeb]

My 71 has really taken a back seat to my 68. All that's left is to put the interior together. When this car was torn apart by it's previous owner close to 20 years ago, they intended to turn into an electric car so the back seat area had been chopped up to make room for batteries. Fortunately, that conversion was never completed. They had cut away the rear seat kick panels under the front edge of the rear seat as well as the small metal towers that the seat back rests on when in the up position. Last fall, I decided it was time to get back to work on this project. I was fortunate to find all original interior parts including every piece of tar board that goes inside the car. It was quite a job to clean up all the residual rusted metal flakes from these original floor tar boards but I'm happy I went this route. The kick panels came from a car in Washington state, tar boards from Connecticut, and towers from CA.

I have a complete rear seat that came from another 71 Ghia vert that is in quite nice shape although it does have structural issues. Being a one year only vinyl pattern, it wasn't easy to find. The back rest frame had some warping at the hinges and left hinge mount area had a 10 inch piece of wood broken off. Surprisingly though, no rot, but there was no way to mount the hinge in this broken area. I thought about building a new frame but later decided to try to repair the corner.

Glued the piece of wood back on and added some screws to reinforce the area. I left it clamped all winter to correct some of the warping. The broken area lined up exactly where the two inner screws from the hinge go and there was a sliver of wood missing so I had to chisel away this area and fit a new plug from a piece of maple. Before mounting the new hinges, both areas needed thin shims to get the hinges level.

Repairs complete and temporarily fitted the hinge.

Reattached the vinyl and ready for the car. It still has the original 71 carpet on the back rest. I hope to install the new carpet this summer.

The rear seat towers are not attached yet but I couldn't wait to see the original 71 seat installed.

Now on to the front fresh air, and the heat & defroster tubing set up. Since the car has a 62 dash, I need to adapt the earlier defroster ducts to the 71 body. the previous owner had bypassed the defroster plumbing all together. I'm putting it all back in.
_________________
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

[Marcdeb]

[obus]

Hope things get sorted soon up there Marc.
_________________
July 1959 Mango Standard Bus aka Obus L346 L347 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256592&highlight=
June 1973 Pumpkin Orange Thing aka Othing L30H
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=711775&highlight=
1960 Paprika Red Karmann Ghia Convertible aka Schatze L452 built 5/20/60
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...highlight=
March 1956 Beetle convertible L41 Black

[TRS63]

Car is looking good, sorry to hear about the catastrophe !

Stay safe,

Antoine
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Antoine
My 62 ragtop daily driver:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728873
My 914 restoration&lightweight project :
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9698432#9698432
Resurrecting a 60 ghia : https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713906
My 52 Standard Zwitter :
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10086685#10086685

[Marcdeb]

[mouse action]

Town looks worse for wear,but the car looks Great 😘

[Marcdeb]

I've lived in Barre, Vermont for 60 years. On Monday, after 4 weeks of on and off daily rain, we had torrential down pours for over 24 hours straight. The entire state of Vermont and other parts of New England were saturated and the rain had no where to go. A dam 15 miles from us was close to failing. A used car dealership ended up with half his cars in sink holes. A mud slide came down on the access road and flipped cars that didn't see it coming. I live in a hill and we were safe but others were not so lucky. Many businesses and homes were lost. Roads through out the state are devastated and we've had to learn new routes to get around until the roads get repaired. 12 years ago, Vermont took a hard hit from Irene, but this was much worse and much more wide spread. The clean up will take a long time.

This picture doesn't show much, but past Regatta, you can see our locally owned hardware store just dumping tens of thousands of dollars worth of ruined merchandise out the door. I wasn't able to get Regatta close enough to areas where there's destruction. The national news has had incredible footage of the destruction.

_________________
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

[Marcdeb]

I finally got around to fixing the fuel tank sending unit. The fuel gauge has been reading empty every since I got the car 4 years ago, and wasn't a priority until now. I've had the car a few times and not knowing how much gas is in the tank is really annoying! I have a spare but it had the same failure. There's a great thread in the "Bay Window Bus" forum showing how to repair the sending unit:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...air+method

Works great.

_________________
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

[Marcdeb]

[restocal63]

Nice car as always

Could the backfire be a possible exhaust leak?
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63 Beetle
66 Beetle
71 Karmann Ghia Convertible
75 Baywindow

[Marcdeb]

We had a gorgeous weekend and after a long snowy winter, I just had to go for a Ghia ride. Since Regatta's engine is not quite ready to go back in, my only option was to put OGhia's battery in and start her up. It started easily after 3 or 4 seconds of cranking and although I've not put many miles on it, it ran better than ever. I went for a 30 minute ride which came out to 8 miles - just local driving staying close to home since the car is not inspected yet. I put 600 miles on Regatta last summer and it was easily noticeable that OGhia has more power.

Questions:
I live on a steep hill and when going down the hill at around 35 to 40 mph in 3rd, (no throttle) I can just faintly hear what sounds like an occasional back fire, but I'm not sure that's what it is. The car has no interior, just a bare floor so it's noisy. If it's back firing I would think it would sound much louder? It only happens when letting the engine break, and not very consistent. Never when driving at any speed. I had it going 55 mph at one point and everything seemed very normal. The idle is great, never stalled once. the car has VDO temp and oil pressure gauges but I have no idea if they are accurate. Temperature stayed around 160 which seems low but it wasn't working very hard, The oil pressure would go from around 5 or 6 at idle and up to a little over 22 at 2500+ rpm???? I still haven't gotten familiar enough with the car to know if this is typical.

_________________
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

[Marcdeb]

It's hard not to play favorites but my 68 Regatta Blue Vert gets most of my attention. I had to order some parts from JBUGs so I thought I really should get something for OGhia so she now sports a nice leatherette shift knob.
Truth is I needed to spend a little more to get free shipping!

_________________
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

[Marcdeb]

Thank you Nicolas. My 68 has the jute padding. Is it possible later years no longer used the jute? My 71 has a thin tar board over the tunnel that looks original??
_________________
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

[sputnick60]

Jute padding. This is sandwiched jute fibre, tarboard, jute fibre. about 1 cm thick. It has a beetle part numbers 113 863 861 and 113 863 871
Sound absorber - Frame tunnel. Up to 66 it was one part. after '66 two smaller pieces. On my car the material was in such good condition it was obvious to reuse it. maybe you can salvage something from a wrecked Beetle

The modern stuff doesn't look like plant material.

Nicholas
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'66 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet...
'65 Porsche 356C Coupe...
2005 Mecedes Benz C180 Kompressor Estate
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Marcdeb]

[Marcdeb]