69 road race Ghia rebuild

[curtw_944]

Ian they are a 52mm offset.
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So Many Hobbies,
So little time!!

[Ian Godfrey]

Curt, I just saw your phone dials are late offset so I think it will be pretty easy to get 7's under there with a bit of panel work, and yes I think you would need short axles.
I don't have any more photos I'm sorry.
The process was he cut a fair bit off the inner guard out so there was space to get a hammer and dolly in, then the metal was slowly stretched to cover the wheels. When he had done one side, the shapes were transferred to some wooden boards so he could use these to get the other side to look the same. then the edge of the opening was wired for stiffness and the new inner guard was formed to help hold the shape. The new inner guard was glued in with urethane and a few pop rivets to hold it in place while it dried. The urethane bond is very strong.
lastly you will need to reshape the corner sections of the rear bumper as the attachment point behind the rear wheel is now further from the centre line of the car. I've bought a fiberglass bumper from 'Glass Action' as I figure these will be easier to reshape, but I haven't done this yet
I suggest you set up your toe in at ride height as that really effects the placement of the wheel in the arch. I also took the rear torsions out so the panel beater could easily move the wheels through its full travel to make sure it wasn't going to rub.
Also remember no Ghias (I have seen) are exactly the same on both sides, so do all your suspension measurements from the centre line of the pan and just work the guards to look the same. You are likely to end up with the metal on one side or the other being a bit closer to the wheel and tyre.
good luck and i'm happy to answer any other questions.
And phone dials on a Ghia would look really kool

[curtw_944]

[halbug]

Hi Ian, thanks allot! I was hoping that it requires less cutting anyway. I am very curious how mine will fit...
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0

[Ian Godfrey]

Lars, here's some photos, they're not particularly clear but should give the idea.
I went straight up at the bulkhead and across the top. at the front I followed the line of the existing opening. I kept as much of the double wall intact as i could.
I think on your car with the lowered rack you might only have to cut a tiny bit or maybe not at all.

[Ian Godfrey]

Lars, I'll take a photo in a few days under the guard so you can see what I did, but I broadly followed Kevins instructions.

[halbug]

[Ian Godfrey]

Loaded up on the back of my T3 transporter and ready to go to it's new home.
I hired a tilt trailer for 'really low' cars

[Ian Godfrey]

Lars, I looked at your method of hoisting (similar to the factory) but my guard edges are more flimsy than yours, so I looked for other ways. to get the clearance was not a huge amount of work, 25mm stretch towards the back of the rear guards and the removal of most of the inner guard was what was needed to get 8" wheels and 225 tyres on the rear. There is about 1cm clearance
the photos of the panel work are on Page 2 of this thread.

[halbug]

Hi Ian,

Congratulations on new home and garage. Glad to see you are back on it . Interesting way to lift the body.

How much did you have to clearance the body to make it fit?
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0

[Ian Godfrey]

Well we've moved house, I've got most of my vw stuff in the new garage so it was time to move the KG as well. So first I had to put it together...
there is no finger room between the back tyres and the fender and strong young people are in short supply so I rigged up some block and tackle to make the job easy.
if you look under the front fender you can see the big panel beaten lump for the accelerator pedal so my feet can go straight in front of me rather than the usual KG driving position. I also have the steering wheel straight ahead too.

in this shot you can see the front of the engine lid on spacers for additional air for cooling and the carbies. Without it it ran hot and leaned out at high revs.

And together again. Alway an exciting moment. the front is too low but I'll fix that. The back is about right.

now to put it on a trailer and take it to its new home

[Ian Godfrey]

I'm still in the throws of moving house so it will be a few months before I can work on the car again
Still I've collected a few parts, Calico coated rod bearings, a few different set of main bearings, my crank is back from the polisher and the barrels are honed, and new rings from JE.
I'm waiting on a new cam from JMP, and some other parts are on back order.
For now all I can do is read about everyone else's cars

[halbug]

Hi Ian, I am missing the inspiration from your build

Agree with you, this forum here is great, lots of support and encouragement.

I have bought a late lid to get more air into the engine comparrment. Lifting the front is no option for my build, so I may have to route air from under the car into the engine compartment. Done this before on a bug with good results.
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0

[Ian Godfrey]

94 bore and 86 stroke. One big advantage you have with the 4" bore is being able to have a better chamber design with the inlet valve more unshrouded.

I'm using all stock cooling, all tin, venturi etc. On the last engine (which had a terrible fin design) the temps were good once I got enough air into the engine compartment. I ended up lifting the front of the engine lid with spacers. Head temps dropped 30 deg and carbies stopped leaning out.

Interesting what you mentioned in your thread about negative comments in other forums, I know this is not a 'high performance' forum but everybody here is polite and you get good constructive thoughts and questions. There are folk into lowlights, cabs, restoration, photography, car shows, accessories and everything else, I read it all. This is a great place to be

[halbug]

Congratulations on those very sexy heads!

I think they are the best flowing heads out of the box... I had mine matched to those flow numbers, but it took quite a bit of work and top end is still not as good.

Will you upgrade the cooling to a 911 style for those hot summer racing days?

I do not recall, what bore will you be using?

Great to see you making progress!
Cheers
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0

[Ian Godfrey]

The last bit of progress for this year.....
my old engine made 160hp (at the flywheel) and the 44mm inlet valves flowed 171CFM at 25" in ported CB Street Eliminators. Possibly could have made 10 or 20 hp more with more cam.
I've now got some JPM 230 heads and a matching JPM cam.
these heads have 48mm inlets and a cosworth/superflow style inlet manifold.
I match ported some NOS bugpac manifolds to the IDA's and the heads and my head porter flowed them at 25" and added a back cut on the inlet valve.

his final flow was 224.25CFM which he thinks should make 243.8hp, my guess is 220 - 230. He also cut the chambers for 11:1 compression.

the BugPac manifolds don't have a machined face for the nuts so I spot faced them with an Ebay spotfacer/counterbore

the finished setup:

the 'wheel' on the carb is part of a Sync Link cable throttle

[halbug]

Cheers Ian, more room is always great... until it fills up again

Congratulation to your new home. My hobby came to a grinding stop when I went through the same phase. So even more impressed you are still finding time to overhaul the engine...

BTW, I love Nickies!
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0

[Ian Godfrey]

My cylinders are from LN engineering and are aluminium rather than iron, so nice and light. the was some light scoring from steel in the oil from a pitted cam so I got them honed. The hard finish needs to be diamond honed. We have a motor cycle shop that does this and they came up well, 1/2 a thou off at the top and a thou down lower.

[Ian Godfrey]

Lars (and the rest of the KG folk), I'm sorry about the lack of updates but work has been getting in the way of my hobbies. But in good news I'm moving to a new house with a big double garage and a 5m x 4m works shop and separate storage room though I will loose time with the move. Anyway.... this is what I've been up to.
I've been working on my motor upgrades a bit more. I'm raising the compression to 11:1 so I had to remeasure and shim the cylinders.
I torque down the cylinder and use a dial gauge to set top dead centre, and a depth micrometer to read off the deck. I've set it at 42 thou (1.07mm)

I bought a bunch on new shims. The EMPI ones on the left were very well made, and quite wide, the CB on the right have burrs that need filing off.

[halbug]

Hi Ian, how is your build coming along? I am missing the inspiration for my own project... LOL!

I got a hold of Tim and he confirmed that their early Porsche starter will fit. They are out of stock and will be making a new batch soon. The starter number is 7635091AXGAC now

Cheers
_________________
Stealth Ghia Transformation: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7226044&highlight=#7226044
My Berg5: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730276&start=0