Had some time for my '58 low light today

[Porschedave]

Hi

Christopher, yes it came out of the interior. According to the factory birth certificate it was originally sold in BC, possibly Vancouver but I'm not sure. But it spent lots of its life in a field or two somewhere around Winfield.

Hey djway3474, did you cut out the old tube and make a new one? Was that difficult?

And here are some pictures of the interior
The seats need a little work

As it came without a radio and a bug wheel - the original is long gone

And after I put in the 6V radio from my notch

I did not have a key but I took out the door handle and a local locksmith made me a set of new ones and they fit and of course fit the ignition so I was able to start the car.

I'lll need an original steering wheel at some point. I have a rear view mirror and visors but these are not the waffle type. But before I look for that stuff I need to do some body work.

Thanks.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[calexican]

Looks great! Still have a lot of your bulk head mat, door panels look good. Great find.

[djway3474]

[Porschedave]

Hi
Thanks for sharing the experience. Are you able to purchase a new choke cable? And, were you able to save the flexible tube part that goes from the dash into the tunnel? I'll follow your lead on this.
Thanks - you've saved me some time.
Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[djway3474]

[Porschedave]

Good morning
I worked over the weekend stripping paint and crap off the rear deck lid and found lots of bumps and dents (amazing what bondo can hide). Many of them are behind the internal frame and are thus hard to get at. Also, part of the lid is rusted through and I'll need to replace that section. After looking over the hood carefully, I think that my plan will be to separate the internal frame and the external skin. Once separated I can repair the dents as well as make some new sections. It looks like the frame and skin are simply pressed together. Has anyone else taken this on? I'd be curious how the level of difficult and any surprises that I might have.
Thanks.
Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[djway3474]

[Porschedave]

Hi djway3474

When you say you sprayed acid, what acid did you use? I assume that had then to be cleaned out before your could spray in the Eastwood product. Thanks for the advice - I looked into the Eastwood stuff and I'll follow your lead on that. I recall fixing the trunk lid for my son's notch and after a year there was bubbling along the bottom edge of the truck lid so perhaps I should have sprayed stuff there as well before I painted it. Oh well, live and learn.
Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[djway3474]

acids are used to strip the electrons from ironoxide and leave just iron most of your etches and preps are made to leave an acidic surface for paint. paints like acids and not bases to stick to. that's it, that is all I know LOL. You can hit it with a fast etch acid for heavy rust rinse and hit it with a pre paint acid. usually called metal prep. the eastwood stuff is some sort of resin or epoxy and has a zinc component as do may of the acid preps. zinc will grab the electron before the iron will. many of your bridges up your way have big chunks of zinc bolted to them and when they rot they bolt on another. that slows the bridge rust a lot. does not stop it but slows it way down. keeping it away from wet salts helps too

[Porschedave]

Hi djway

Here is a picture of my rear deck lid.

I looked over your pictures and saw how you handled the repair. I think that I can rent a stud puller so maybe I'll try that. Were you able to get rid of the paint behind the grill and if so how? It looks like you've removed paint only where you needed to. Do you plan on sand blasting the whole thing before painting?

And I liked the way you repaired the ridge on the nose. Most of mine is not bad but it is not great along one section. Did you make yours with a bead roller?

Your garage looks similar to mine - packed with just enough room to move around the car.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[Loren]

I would suggest removing as much paint as you can with paint stripper, then have the hard to reach areas blasted with walnut shells, plastic, etc. You can also remove any bondo with the paint stripper or a propane torch. I wish I had removed the paint on my 58 Ghia before I had it media blasted. It would have saved me money and I wouldn't have had so much media build up in the hard to reach areas. Seems like every time I work on the car it pukes a little plastic snow, like the kind you find in snow globes. The best part about removing the paint yourself is the zen-ness of it. Nothing like spacing out, watching the paint crinkle and getting high on paint fumes, hours of fun.

[djway3474]

You can work on that section with the stud puller where you cant get to the backside, hammer/dolly where you can and a shrink disc to knock down the stretched stuff. Pick up a 2 foot steel ruler at HF to help you see the highs n lows.
I have not decided what to do to get the remaining paint off. On the outside the car only has some primer. The dash has two coats of paint and the underside is just buildup over the original paint. I use various forms of sodium hydroxide to strip paint off of scale models. You can find it in strong oven cleaners which will stick to larger surfaces. I may try that on the outside and inside. A cheap harbor freight blaster may do the underside if I cant work a pro blaster into the budget. Hiring someone is WAY easier for blasting and much faster and very fatiguing with a cheapy blaster.
Each time I remove paint somewhere I hit it with a prep acid. If the car is out of the weather and in a dry garage like here in SoCal it can stay bare a LONG time before you will see any surface yellowing.
I am nervous but I may try the butane torch to clean the crusty dried undercoat inside the roof. Still nervous there. It is crunchy so I am exploring other options.
Health has kept me away from the project for way too long but as soon as I can I will be back out there. I miss the ZEN thing working with my hands. It frees the mind

[Porschedave]

Hi Loren and djway

Thanks for the comments and advice. I have used paint stripper for the paint on the rear lid and it worked well - not sure about the ZEN-ness of it all but it is nice to see bare metal even when its not smooth. To remove the undercoat, I've used a heat gun. It's messy but safer than a torch, not that I've tried a torch. Getting the paint from the tray will be more difficult and when I think of djway's comments about the material that is boxed in, it still makes sense to separate the lid from the supporting frame if only to clean that area and get some protection sprayed in there. I'll try it this weekend and let you know.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139

[djway3474]

Without some sort of press I doubt you could get the inner and outer structures to be tight again. These rear decks are flimsy at best. If you had all sorts of shrinkers and other big tools I would say go for it but I think you are opening up a big can of sorry. I doubt you can separate the two without causing a ton more damage. Blasting under the grills is about the only bet unless you live somewhere that you can still get parts dipped.
I have some heat guns, I think I will try that first. Plus the main spot I need to do is under the roof and I don't think I can do that area alone and I have no help.
As for Zen, I can work on the car and time can pass without thinking about the worries of life. That's worth it to me

[c21darrel]

I blasted (with cheap Harbor Freight 40lb blaster) my rear decklid thru the vents. Do it off the car and all the leftover sand wont be an issue. Double sided so I had no warping or other issues.

[motorhead364]

You are a bigger man than I. I don't have near that rust repair on my 63 and I feel like its a ton. Good on you for saving that beautiful lowlight.
_________________
63 ghia coupe

[Northof49]

Is there a wire that hooks up to the end of the fuse looking thing sticking out of the steering column tube under the dash? Does it run up behind the dash through a rubber grommet on the under side of the dash? I'm trying to figure out how to route the horn wire.
_________________
1958 Karmann Ghia owner

[djway3474]

[Northof49]

Mine is MIA. I found a photo of a 57 that showed a spade tip going to the end of the brush holder on the column, and the wire going up through the same hole as the turn signals. Mine has a small holed grommet that looks like it would have been the original route, but I would like to know for sure, for whatever its worth. I thought it was a fuse holder, but it sounds like it holds a brush.
_________________
1958 Karmann Ghia owner

[Porschedave]

Hi Folks

Well, after giving this some careful thought I decided to go ahead and separate the outer and inner skins of my rear deck lid. Here are a couple of photos:

Inside frame

outside skin

It was not terribly difficult to separate the two except where the rust had bonded them together and along the lower lip where someone had repaired some damage by brazing the pieces together.

As you can see, there is no paint on the inner surfaces where the two skins overlap other than through the grill and holes for the hinge mounts. No wonder these things rust. And it sure is easy to work on those dents - I have already knocked out most of them and this weekend I will make a new piece to repair the bottom edge.

Dave
_________________
1977 911S
1958 Karmann Ghia build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571683
1965 Sunroof Notch build thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5600139&highlight=#5600139