How about the Early Ghia built in 55 for sale - pretty early

[John Moxon]

Russ and Ghia at the Stonor Park Show, Henley-on-Thames, UK.

_________________
John.
Judson Supercharger Information on The Samba
My 1958 Shorrock Supercharged Karmann Ghia
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[pbaptist]

Looking good Russ,


Selling parts? If haven't seen the steering wheels in the classifieds....

See you in Hessisch,
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

[RockStock]

_________________
-StockRocks-

[58lolight]

[Karmann Gheezer]

Hello Russ. Congratulations on your find. Your car looks absolutely fantastic. Interesting comments from earlier post questioning the cars value. Very fortunate for you to jump on it first.

I enjoyed watching Rockstock's video (with music added). Very nice.
_________________

[aerosilver]

Cheers guys
We had a good day out in the sunshine,nice to meet you finally John
Sold a few extra parts for some Hessich spending money,see you there Patrick,not long now
I will get some more video clips from the hessich trip
Regarding the 'value' discussion,i think it would have a been a deal even at the asking price

[aerosilver]

Seven years since the last update! I have been doing some work on her over the last few years which i should post up, more on that later…


Back to the beginning.. I didn't post up the story of her early life…

Elizabeth Vreszk of Crestline CA. placed an order with Competiton Motors,Hollywood for her Karmann Ghia in September 1955 (very early as they were only just available in Germany at the time). Due for delivery in January 1956, so must have been one one of the first Ghias in CA.

At some point in her ownership the Ghia got an external repaint in Gazelle beige for unknown reasons,perhaps she preferred the colour,i don't know..

Elizabeth sold the Ghia in 1978 to VW mechanic Bob Stewart of Redlands CA.
I have some old polaroids from when Bob bought it, showing the Gazelle beige paint..

Bob had many cars over the years but the Ghia remained his favourite. In his ownership it received its second external repaint,this time bright white.

Sadly Bob passed away in 2007 and his brother Charlie was tasked with sorting out the estate,which included selling Bobs cars.

That's where i came into the picture..

[aerosilver]

Charlie and i exchanged many emails and phone calls while i arranged a flight out to LA to seal the deal.

I was pretty happy to find a solid,pretty original Ghia, albeit with a few incorrect parts and the exterior repaints. The early interior had survived remarkably well in the CA. heat, so she must have been garaged all her life.

I took her out for a test drive around Redlands and nearly gave a Charlie a heart attack when i happily drove off on the wrong side of the road (well for CA. anyway! )

The following pictures are from that day, from first seeing her, to getting dropped off at the shippers..

[aerosilver]

[aerosilver]

[aerosilver]

Back in 2013 i started the job of trying to strip back the two external repaints to the original paint. You could see a few areas on the car where the Pelican red was showing through, it looked pretty good,if the rest of the car was as good i was onto a winner, if not i would get it repainted in the original colours i thought.

So after reading a few threads on paint stripping i gave it a go. I'm not gonna lie, many times i wished i'd never started it! Some paint came off really easily, a lot more was harder to get off. Razor blades, scrapers, paint stripper,wire wool,thinners,wet&dry paper were all used in the process.
I'd do a bit, be happy with the results, then do another bit and mark the original paint,get pissed off and leave it for a month!

The car remained half stripped for a couple of years, then earlier this year i renewed my enthusiasm for the job. I spent about 10 full days getting on with it and removed the rest of the repaints. About 85% of the car was original paint with a few small bare metal areas,probably done when the repaints were applied. The body is dent/rust free, all original metal.

The start in 2013..

Half done..

2016..

[aerosilver]

This picture shows the paint story, pelican red, then gazelle beige, finally white.

Luckily when the first repaint was applied the body was not sanded back so the original paint was mostly in very good condition,a few scratches here and there, a few places down to primer etc. I got a few aerosols filled with pelican red paint and blew in the bare metal areas, i'm not entirely happy with the blow ins so may get them redone, but overall i think it looks pretty good! I wet sanded the whole body then polished and waxed the whole lot. (some more pictures in the gallery)

Now it's done i'm glad i did it, but during the process it was a different matter

This thread gave me inspiration to get my car done, thanks moogie32
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620167&highlight=moogie

[aerosilver]

While the windows were out i took the opportunity to fit a correct headliner. The original wool headliner had been replaced with a perforated vinyl type at some stage,probably when one of the repaints was being carried out.

Using the old one as a template i had a new wool headliner sewn up by a friend. Having read a few threads on installing headliners i thought i'd give it a go, it seemed to be pretty simple. So over three evenings i installed the headliner, it went pretty well i thought for a first attempt,not perfect,but i'm happy with it. Using plenty of clips glued the front and rear in place,next evening the sides,then finally the pillars.

Once the headliner was in i refitted the screens with new blocked rubber.

[aerosilver]

With the windows in things were about done,which was good as i had booked her in at the Lavenham vintage VW meeting the following weekend. A general clean and polish,refit the one piece bumpers,oil change,valves etc, test drive and away we went.

Lavenham is a great place,even better when it's full of vintage motors

[Driveway Jewelry]

OMG, that is all the original paint under there?! That is amazing!
_________________
Formally known as ghiadesigns

[oldbusboy]

The original paint looks really good. Great job sticking it out.. so much nicer!

Trevor
_________________
1968 porsche

[bhartwell59]

Sweeeet... great job!
_________________
'74 Zambezi green Ghia vert, autostick, 101k
'87 Jeep Wrangler, 4.2, 330k

[PeteSC]

Beautiful car, great job on the paint removal too!

[retrowagen]

Thanks for sharing the story, Russ -- she's beautiful; definitely found the best home under your thoughtful stewardship!
_________________
David Ruby
President, Karmann-Ghia World Club

[aerosilver]

Thanks everyone, appreciate the comments.