Ben's '63 Ghia project (with lots of pics!)

dv8 · Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:04 am Post subject:

Congrats on a great finish!

You did a great job saving this old girl......ready to take on that 100-4 so you don't get bored? Lol.
_________________
desired speed > disposable income

kdcaul · Samba Member Joined: August 14, 2007 Posts: 60

Hi Ben,

Great work on your car,very impressive for your first Ghia restoration!

I followed your advise on the quarter trim installation and am happy to
say it is much easier than the original install method.

Thanks,
Kevin

Evilgtiguy · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:18 pm Post subject:

What a great story from start to finish. Gives me hope for my first air-cooled that I'm picking up in a few weeks 1966 fastback. Fantastic job!

CiderGuy · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:58 pm Post subject:

What a remarkable build! I just read this thread from start to finish. Had a charley horse and couldn't sleep. Thanks Ben, fantastic documentation.

scottkrough · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 8:17 am Post subject:

Great job Ben.
The car looks amazing you have really done a fantastic job.. Thanks for the documentation it has certainly helped us through our restoration..
_________________
Scott

Check out our 63' Ghia Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=519643

ernstben · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 8:29 am Post subject:

Thanks for the kind words everyone and I'm glad to hear that this thread has helped out others.

Just as soon as this winter decides to give up, I'll be out in the garage taking care of some of the last little tweaks. Really excited to put some serious mileage on her this summer!
_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

ernstben · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:16 pm Post subject:

A little bit of an update:

As pre-63 Ghia owners might already know, the little fibrous mounting board for the contacts in the front turn signals doesn't age well. In my case, one had succumbed to its age early on in the restoration and was replaced with the then-available replacements from KGPR. The other one was in ok shape and I thought it might last. It didn't. And just my luck; KGPR has ceased producing them. Time to make a new one then!

I had asked my engineer father and brother if they could come up with a replacement piece of plastic or something from their respective high-tech workplaces, but neither were able to come up with something (mostly because they'd get wrapped up in calculating tolerances or some other nerdy thing at work and forget). After snooping around the farm and my apartment for something that would work, I found a perfect candidate: a cheesy plastic ruler.

So, here's the new with part of the old:

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

And in situ:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

kingkarmann · Samba Member Joined: November 05, 2003 Posts: 4111

Necessity is the mother of invention Cool

_________________
"Depression is a malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.”

Mike Gerson

What is your "Bespoke Reality"?

ernstben · Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 10:48 am Post subject:

I've driven the Ghia already a bit this summer. Took it for a quick bath a month or so ago:

Replaced a really, really worn out wiper shaft:

Ever since I got the thing going, I've just not been able to get it to run correctly. I set the timing, ran through the carb synch steps numerous times, and tweaked just about everything possible.

Still, the thing hated to start cold, ran rough until it warmed up, had a noticeable stumble during acceleration, and I could never really get the idle speed pinned down. I'd set it at 900 rpms and take it for a spin. Pull into the garage, and it's 1200... or 600. Aggravating.

I called up Jeff at the Kaddy Shack, and he suggested that I might have a bad distributor. Couldn't be the case, could it? It's brand new! I bought an old beat-up SVDA from a local guy and popped it in to check, and lo and behold, I think it might have solved the problem. Hurray for fixing it, but -1000 points to me for feeding the spm (shitty parts monster). Embarassed

Distributor in question:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

kingkarmann · Samba Member Joined: November 05, 2003 Posts: 4111

You did have the vacuum hooked to the canister?
_________________
"Depression is a malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.”

Mike Gerson

What is your "Bespoke Reality"?

ernstben · Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 1:59 pm Post subject:

ernstben · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:52 am Post subject:

I drove the Ghia to work recently and everything was fairly uneventful until I went to start it up to drive home. While a few coworkers watched (because people always seem to be around in hordes when the car breaks down... Very Happy

), I turned the key to the "start" position and within seconds was surrounded by a thick cloud of acrid smoke which was pouring out of the ignition switch hole around the key.

I bailed out of the car and let it air out before hotwiring the thing to get it home. Which it turns out, is a somewhat alarmingly easy task. Here's the aftermath:

I bought and gutted a similar vintage Beetle ignition and we're back in business. I've never had that happen before and it was kind of fun to see how simple the whole system is.

I've got the thing running TONS better than before. The new distributor and a fuel pressure regulator seem to have done the trick. Various summer driving pictures:

_________________
Ben

'63 Ghia Coupe Project
'59 Panel Project
'56 Ragtop Project

Basketcase · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:36 am Post subject:

yeah it's wamzing how many people "just happen" to be standing around when something embarresing happens. One shing star though, you were able to drive away under your opwn power, and not on the back of a roll back. I've seen that several times at shows.
beautiful car.
_________________
'72 Karmann Ghia Coupe (the Boss's)

djway3474 · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:04 pm Post subject:

What joy and AirCooled can bring Cool

mountainkowboy · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:20 pm Post subject:

kdcaul · Samba Member Joined: August 14, 2007 Posts: 60

Hi Ben,

Glad to hear no damage to your car.Could you please post some pics/information as to how you changed your iginition switch with the beetle switch?

Thanks,
Kevin

pabloghia · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:13 pm Post subject:

Ben, What an accomplishment! I find it hard to believe that this is your
first restoration project. Beautiful work!
I learned very quickly how difficult it is to achieve results similar to yours.
Enjoy the ride!
_________________
67 Ghia Cabriolet

ernstben · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:23 am Post subject:

scottkrough · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:55 pm Post subject:

Ben te car looks great as always...
I know what you mean about it only happens when people are staring at te car.. had a wire come off the starter and athough it took less than 2 mins to fix it sure was embarrassing.. Embarassed

_________________
Scott

Check out our 63' Ghia Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=519643


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Ben's '63 Ghia project (with lots of pics!)
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