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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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 Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:22 am Post subject: |
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The guy that provided this information went on to add:
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The story I told you was told to me personally by Dieter ....can't think of his last name...Unterreiner ? (maybe) while I still worked for VW in the 80s or 90s. I'm quite sure he passed away before I left in 1995. It sounded like they tried to slip these cars in "under the radar" after negotiating directly with Karmann which was a big No No. I know of no official documentation, couldn't find anything back then but I am far from the Karmann Ghia historian. I was simply in the right place at the right time, I was Parts & Service Director for a VW dealership here in Libertyville and we were closest to the VWoA Midwest zone office. I used to prep all their demos & repair their personal cars. I had just bought my 'Special' and had bought it to work with me to weld some patches on the front beam. He happened in and his face immediately lit up and out came the story.
I bought a 71 Ghia coupe a few years ago at a local repair shop, car had been abandoned after quoted for a new engine. It still had plates on it from Apache Junction Arizona. It has a full roof fabric sunroof and needed paint. No rust, no dents except the rear floors were shot due to the leaky roof. I'm just in the final stages of restoration, it is a gift for my 82 year old Father who is a Karmann Ghia lover who never bought one when he should have. |
Hopefully someone at the Michigan show will have some knowledge/documentation on this car. |
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retrowagen
Samba Member
Joined: October 11, 2004
Posts: 1857
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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 Here's a scan of the other known (Karmann) factory photo available of the special trim package on a Cabriolet. Note only half of it applied at the rear centerline of the car, just behind the folded top!
And no, I didn't crop the photo, the Karmann photog' did. 
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David Ruby
President, Karmann-Ghia World Club |
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sunroofghia
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Phoenix,Arizona
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:44 am Post subject: |
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BTW, don't expect VWoA or Karmann US or europe to have any info either. I had all three respond that their records don't go back that far 
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72 ghia coupe w/Electric Golde slider
65 fiat 600D |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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| sunroofghia wrote: |
Ed,
Wow....that is incredible  I am so jealous that you found someone who had first hand knowledge of that package. Authentication and documentation seem's to be the absolute hardest part of this hobby.
Keep the news coming. |
Yes, I know and the guy said that I probably won't find any official documentation about the package. Reason was is that VWoA kinda went around the backs of VWAG direct to Karmann Co. to get this trim package and when VWAG found out, they put the keebash on it pretty quick which ended the Sport Ghia production. But, even emailed info can give a bit of credence, I suppose. |
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sunroofghia
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Phoenix,Arizona
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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Ed,
Wow....that is incredible I am so jealous that you found someone who had first hand knowledge of that package. Authentication and documentation seem's to be the absolute hardest part of this hobby.
Keep the news coming.
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72 ghia coupe w/Electric Golde slider
65 fiat 600D |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I seemed to locate a guy who knows a little about this car and it does, in fact, seem to be a bit rare. Here is what he wrote:
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Hi Ed,
WOW ! This is the elusive and OH MY GOD RARE "Special Sport Ghia" !!
I'd bet you only 10 people on the face of the earth would know what it is !
I was lucky enough to see one sitting brand new on the showroom floor displayed with a yellow sport bug back in '73. I fell in love with it and spent about an hour sitting in it while my sister had her beetle serviced. About 20 years later I was talking to another VW nut, Lance MacDonald from Keenyville, IL (near me) and he remembered it too.
This was a factory built, not dealer add on package and was done specifically for USA dealers on special order only.
I had one back in the early 90's probably the same one I had sat in years before since I lived in the same area all my life...but it was very rough and sadly was totaled soon after.
I had done some research on it at that time when I worked for VW and got this information from a gentleman named who used to be VWoA's Midwest sales manager and had been with VW for 30+ years at that time.
Here is what he had to say about them:
"There were only maybe 30 of these cars produced and at that was by special order only, it was not an allocated car. Only 4-5 were convertibles" This was a "test market" car, the K-G along with the beetle was getting a little "long in the tooth" and were not selling as well as they once had. The thoughts were to generate some excitement and promote sales. VWoA had ordered "X" number of KGs for 73 and sales were down. VWAG soon veto'd this idea and no more were built. Some toes were stepped on and things came to a grinding halt.
The cars were all "Pulsating Saturn Yellow" have the black wrap-around stripe with tips up to the headlights, black stripe between the chrome moldings, black rocker panels, sport steering wheel, and 15x4.5 rally wheels w/standard tires because the factory felt there may be tire clearance problems if they used the 15x5.5 wheels 175/70/15 tires from the sport bug. They were to have black trim & bumpers but did not due to the cost of having non chromed bumpers made VS using the hundreds of chromed ones already made up.
At the prep center at the USA port of entrance the cars got flared tailpipe tips, cocoa mats, Sapphire Am/Fm town and country radio and a leather shift knob to match the steering wheel. The shift knob had a beautiful & colorful enameled Wolfsburg crest (I still have mine somewhere around here).
You can clearly see that the package was factory installed as the stripes run under the headlight rings, were installed before the side moldings and before the top was but on, on converts. The coupe had a little smaller stripe around the back as the roofs were supposed to be painted black and tie in with the stripe. My coupe had this black roof, Dieter said most did not.
Hope this helps. |
Anybody else recall any further information or where I might go to find some documentation on this car? |
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Rome
Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004
Posts: 10521
Location: Pearl River, NY
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| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:38 am Post subject: |
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| The lower double-stripe on the NL car is the "same" as for early Rabbit GTi's. But those came out (in Europe) a few years after the last Ghia was made... |
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ou8avw
Samba Member
Joined: February 07, 2005
Posts: 26
Location: Granbury, TX
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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When I was a kid in Memphis, TN my math teacher had a Ghia with this paint job. I was new to the VW scene and wrote it off as "ugly". So there are more than one of these puppies in the US. (unless you bought it off a math teacher from west Tennessee!)
Nice ride! :ghia_blue: |
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pbaptist
Samba Member
Joined: January 02, 2005
Posts: 1206
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, they are a little bid different. I think the striping on your car looks better. It's more subtile
On the Dutch car the black trim is also onder the side trim en even behind the rear wheel.
I guess we have to search for a third car.
_________________
Dutch Karmann-Ghia and coachbuild lover.
1* Karmann Ghia Coupe (1966 Teak)
2* Karmann Ghia Convertible (1958, 1971)
4* Rometsch Lawrence (nr 534, 555, 558 and 561)
Karmann-Ghia Lowlight page and registry
Karmann-Ghia Collectibles database |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:34 am Post subject: |
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Let me try this again.
Could be because the one in The Netherlands is a coupe.
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20‰
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| I would call him a dick, but a dick has a head on it |
Last edited by bljones on Today 4:20am; edited 1 time in total |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:15 am Post subject: |
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Lets see if this photo shows it ok. If not, you can see detailed pics in my profile's gallery.
[img]http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=194307[/img]
_________________
20‰
| Quote: |
| I would call him a dick, but a dick has a head on it |
Last edited by bljones on Today 4:20am; edited 1 time in total |
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pbaptist
Samba Member
Joined: January 02, 2005
Posts: 1206
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:06 am Post subject: |
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The car still has the original paint and is a far as I know not restored. It was bought like this eight years ago in the USA and is the only bumble bee in the Netherlands.
Can you sent some detailed pictures of the thickness of the stiping on your car.
Greetings
Patrick
_________________
Dutch Karmann-Ghia and coachbuild lover.
1* Karmann Ghia Coupe (1966 Teak)
2* Karmann Ghia Convertible (1958, 1971)
4* Rometsch Lawrence (nr 534, 555, 558 and 561)
Karmann-Ghia Lowlight page and registry
Karmann-Ghia Collectibles database |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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| pbaptist wrote: |
More pictures of this car.
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That car is close but I noticed that the lower stripe around the cockpit is wider than the one on my car. I wonder if that car is all original or if its had a resoration done.
_________________
20‰
| Quote: |
| I would call him a dick, but a dick has a head on it |
Last edited by bljones on Today 4:20am; edited 1 time in total |
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pbaptist
Samba Member
Joined: January 02, 2005
Posts: 1206
Location: Netherlands
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pbaptist
Samba Member
Joined: January 02, 2005
Posts: 1206
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:52 am Post subject: |
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Here are some pictures of an other car with this trim package. This time it is a coupe. It was called "bumble bee" and problably only available voor USA and maybe even only for california.
The car is locatied in The Netherlands, but was originally form USA.
The car is for sale
The VIN: 1432620592
_________________
Dutch Karmann-Ghia and coachbuild lover.
1* Karmann Ghia Coupe (1966 Teak)
2* Karmann Ghia Convertible (1958, 1971)
4* Rometsch Lawrence (nr 534, 555, 558 and 561)
Karmann-Ghia Lowlight page and registry
Karmann-Ghia Collectibles database
Last edited by pbaptist on Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rome
Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004
Posts: 10521
Location: Pearl River, NY
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| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:45 am Post subject: |
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EdW, thanks for that photo of your steering wheel. That is indeed the same type as the factory installed in their SportsBug 1973 Super-Beetle-based special edition. I have such a wheel in my '77 Beetle, although the "VW" emblem on my wheel is not painted red.
Another "possibility" of the location of the retrofits for the Ghia package would've been the port of departure in Germany (Emden??) or the port of entry here in the USA. VW had numerous ports, such as Albany NY, Houston, Baltimore, Boston, Jacksonville, etc. Most cars were merely lifted off the ships (days before Ro-Ro ships = roll on, roll off = cars driven onto/off under their own power) and parked at the ports for customs inspection as well as inspect for shipping damage. VW might have had a small facility at a port to perform basic or simple repairs or retrofits (radio installation or maybe even domestically-sourced A/C system installations?). I knew VW's port manager for Baltimore but he passed away in the early '90's. I have one other longshot for clarification that I can pursue this week- the GM of a local VW dealer that was with VWs in that time and who likes Ghias...
Oh, EdW- I'm planning on driving out to the MVVC meet in my Ghia so let's make sure we bump into each other there! Your Ghia will be easy to spot. |
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EdW
Samba Member
Joined: January 13, 2005
Posts: 2385
Location: Unemployment Office
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| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:29 am Post subject: |
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That's what I'm planning on doing because 98% of the paint is in excellent condition. Plus, I don't know how you would ever replicate that trim package.
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20‰
| Quote: |
| I would call him a dick, but a dick has a head on it |
Last edited by bljones on Today 4:20am; edited 1 time in total |
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garyrowland
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2004
Posts: 539
Location: crown point, Ind.
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| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| 2 liter in the engine compartment! - thats a good one, retrowagen! Ed, its kinda of hard by looking at photos - but it looks like your car might be a good canidate to have a GOOD paint shop just "spot in" after the body work is finished - it would really keep the value up a lot more having mostly original paint. also I see on your profile your in fort wayne, are you a member of the old fort vw club? |
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retrowagen
Samba Member
Joined: October 11, 2004
Posts: 1857
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| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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[img]http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=106033[/img]
Right now, Ed can honestly boast, "I have a 2 Liter in the engine compartment!" 
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David Ruby
President, Karmann-Ghia World Club |
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PsiNyde
Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2005
Posts: 106
Location: Weatherford, TX
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| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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you know, whatever you paid for that was worth it. after looking at those gallery pics, i'm super jealous. that paint looks wicked and the body looks straight...which is more than i can say for mine when i bought her. that is truely a "rarest of the rare" and worth hanging on to. i'd love to see that thing completed. good luck!
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1972 KG Cabriolet |
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