December 58 Ghia cabriolet lifetime restoration project

[djway3474]

Haaaaa, Yep Loren they are available
http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/wolfsburg_new/door_components/bug_to_1964/bug_door_to_1964.cfm?type=1
#18

[Loren]

Damn! I looked at the WW web site last night and didn't see them. I have the hardest time navigating their web site and can never find what I need. At least I had a good time making 250 of these plugs. I will just tell myself that the rubber I used is better quality than the WW ones

[sputnick60]

Hi John,
I might be one of those 10 you wrote about.

I used refill eraser tips from Pentel.

sure, wrong colour, but I can keep a secret if you can.


Nicholas
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'66 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet...
'65 Porsche 356C Coupe...
2005 Mecedes Benz C180 Kompressor Estate
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[danny gabbard]

O-ring material from Mc mastercarr company
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Shipping is NOT included in any of my products or parts. Just want to say thanks from GAB-FAB for any purchase!!

[Loren]

Now you guys are making it look like I over thought this project

[Loren]

Recently I noticed that WW started reproducing the brass bushings needed to rebuild pedal assemblies, so I ordered a set for my Ghia. Restoring the pedal assembly is fairly straight forward, but I thought I would take some pictures along the way in case they help some one else.

Thed pedal assemblies on Ghias are the same as the ones used on beetles. 56-57 Ghias had a different version than 58-59 Ghias. The most obvious difference is the part that goes in the tunnel. It is longer on the 56-57 pedal assembly than the one for the 58-59 assembly.

The 56-57 assembly is on top with the 58-59 assembly on bottom.

Here is a close up of the different ends (the 56-57 is on the left).

Here is the pedal assembly for my 58 Ghia.

This zerks fitting was eliminated by VW in the early 60's, apparently it didn't help much with getting grease to the bearings.

The first order of business was to take the clutch pedal off. There is a small pin in the end of the shaft that has to be removed to get the pedal off.

Next the shaft has to be pushed out.

Now the clutch hook shaft can be removed.

Next up is removing the brake pedal. There is a cir-clip holding the pedal on. It's often covered in grease and dirt and hard to see.

A little cleaning and there it is.

Now you can remove the brake pedal and spring.

Time to push out the pin holding the accelerator bracket.

Now remove the zerks fitting.

Here are the new bushings from WW.

Here is the old bushing in the brake pedal.

Removing the old bearings.

After I cleaned the old pedal it was time to install the new bearings. I used two block of maple and a bench vice to install them.

Next up was removing the busings from the pedal base.

Again I used the bench vice and two blocks of maple to install the bushings.

Here is the pedal assembly all cleaned up with new bushings.

Here is the pedal assembly after a coat of paint and assembly.

I decided to try the aftermarked clutch shaft with the modified hook end. This will make installing the clutch cable much easier and should provide smoother pedal action. I still need to get the zerk fitting plated and installed.

[djway3474]

Sweet. I wish those had been available when I rebuilt mine.

[Loren]

I haven't done much to the Ghia in the past year, but hopefully that will change in 2018. I was able to find a NOS 6P dated Bosch coil for the engine build. It needs a new coat of paint and a sticker, but the bakelite portion is perfect.

This weekend I went to the body shop and did a little cleaning in the engine bay. I cleaned the rear wheel tubs in preparation for some repairs where I got too aggressive in removing the battery trays.

I also checked out Danny's repair work on the original brake reservoir shelf. The hole for the reservoir was beat up and cracked and the top ridge was a little bent from a previous front end accident. Here are the before and after images:

Before:

After:

[djway3474]

[c21darrel]

Nice.
With such a nice pedal rebuild tutorial you may put scott, the pedal guy out of business.
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GhiaBuild
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1967 DC build
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[Loren]

Not a lot of major progress to report, but Danny has been doing a lot of preliminary work so he can reconstruct the front and rear of the Ghia.

The first order of the day was to get the rear apron sorted out. Going back in time, here is what the rear apron looked like when I brought the Ghia to Danny:

The previous body guy I hired brazed the apron in and he did a terrible job. Almost as bad as my work removing it!

Danny made some new ends for the apron and has started smoothing it out and getting it ready to put back on. I know it doesn't look like much, but there is a lot of time involved just to get it this far.

Since the battery trays and rear apron have been removed, Danny needed to build a jig to align all the new metal. Luckily he has a 58 Ghia coupe in the shop with a straight engine bay. Here is the jig he made sitting in the engine bay of the coupe. It should do the job nicely!

In order to mount the engine bay jig into my Ghia Danny needs to straighten the rear end. Unfortunately, my Ghia was rear ended at some point and the back is slightly tented. The first thing Danny needed to do was repair the captive nuts on the bumper mounts so he could install a cross bar to start pulling the back out.

Here is the cross bar installed and Danny is able to put tension on it and use it to pull the back out. Still a long way to go.

Danny is also working on the front of the Ghia. This will be the hardest part of the car to reconstruct because of the extensive damage to the driver side inner fender. So much metal needs to be removed that it will be difficult to locate all the replacement panels correctly. Not to fear though, Danny has a game plan and is currently working on a body aligning cart and several attachment jigs to line things up. More on this in the next few months.

Currently he is removing some bits of metal from the inner fender, treating the exposed areas with metal prep and pulling out as much damage as he can to see what needs to be replaced.

While Danny has been hard at work he gave me some homework. Remember this panel?

This is a 59 Ghia panel I got from a friend of mine and in order for Danny to access its usefulness I needed to remove the paint and scrub it with metal prep. It didn't turn out too bad, but it does have a few rust issues.

That's it for today. Look forward to more updates at the weather warms up and things start heating up on the restoration.

[djway3474]

AWESOME

[KGCoupe]

In your first post of this thread you mentioned that you were originally considering both a Porsche 356 Cabriolet or a Karmann Ghia Cabriolet, but fairly quickly abondoned the notion of buying a 356 Cabriolet due to their high prices.
If I've read that all correctly, that was some 28 years ago.

It's very inspirational to see you continue to plug away on that Ghia Cabriolet project SO many years after it was begun, still keeping your workmanship standards set to an extremely high level.
It's also wonderful that you've been able to document and share so many of those little details that are unique to the earlier model years.

The value of the lowlight Karmann Ghias has certainly risen a great deal over those past 28 years, particularly for the Cabriolet models.
That certainly helps "justify" your investment of both time and money in your project.
However just based on what I've read here, you strike me as one who needs no more justification than your obvious love for these cars.



... still, just imagine how much more that Porsche 356 Cabriolet is worth today than what you would have paid for one some 28 years ago.

At least you can sleep better knowing that you didn't actually once own a 1954 Porsche 356 Cabriolet BITD, only to later sell it for $975 so you trade 'up" to a Chevrolet Corvette.
Cough!iowegian

[Loren]

I wish I could have afforded a Porsche so many years ago, but I feel fortunate that I found my Ghia when I did and at a price I could afford. Though considering all the work it needed I would have been better off paying more for a better restoration candidate All in all I like the styling lines of the Ghia far better than the Porsche and I think the Ghia community is a lot more laid back than the Porsche community.

Danny has really upped the level of this restoration and I can't thank him enough for taking my Ghia on and pushing me to take it to the next level. It looks like all my years of dedication are finally starting to pay off. Little did I know how close to the truth the title of my post would be.

[Loren]

Small victory. I finally found the elusive Bill Stremmel license plate frame for my Ghia! Bill started the Reno VW dealership in 1957 and started selling Porsches in 1960, so this frame is likely from the mid to late 60's. It's a shame it has the Porsche logo on it, made it twice as expensive! I don't know if my car was sold through Stremmel VW (my Ghia came through San Francisco so it's possible) and even if it was it wouldn't have had this frame from new, but I still wanted one.

[c21darrel]

Congrats, I know how difficult in can be to find that type of accessory. Very Cool!
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GhiaBuild
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1967 DC build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=693583&highlight=67+dc
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[Loren]

I made a little progress on the Ghia project. This past winter I scoured the garage for all the loose hardware I could find and spent a few weeks cleaning and inspecting all the pieces. A few weeks ago I sent about 30 lbs. of hardware to get cad plated and it finally came back. It's amazing how cad plating makes the parts look like new!

It sure doesn't look like much in the picture, but there are a lot of hours there in sorting and cleaning them all for the plater.

I had a few bumperette brackets plated and they turned out great.


I also had the convertible top mechanism plated. I drilled out the rivets to remove the chrome hooks and had the hooks stripped so I could go over them before I get them plated again.

Here are the before images:

I safety wired the springs in place so they wouldn't get lost in the plating process and to extend them slightly so they would get plated in between all the wires.


Here are the after images:

I am still waiting to get replacement rivets from the machine shop so the hooks can go back on, though it will likely be a while before I get them chromed.

Here is the link to the post I started on restoring the top mechanism, in case you want to see how I removed the hooks:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668976

[Braukuche]

Looks super nice.
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Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[djway3474]

Very nice!

[udo dreisoerner]

fantastic Pictures. wow. very good work.....
LOWLIGHT FOR EVER
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Searching for a 1956 lowlight karmann ghia with a VIN number between1273054 and 1273440, and the matching engine with an Engine Number between
1525510 and 1525519 PLEASE OFFER ME ONLY THE CARS THAT I'M LOOKING FOR, THANKS!!