New ghia guy

[mouse action]

Hi all, new to vw not to cars,been a hot rodder forever,now trying to slow down.
Got a deposit on a 71 convertible,

any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[Glenn]

Is that a rendering or the actual car?

Where in New York are you... it's a big state.
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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Starbucket]

Check it for rust with a refrigerator magnet all around the bottom areas and look at the pans for rust or replacement. A freshly painted car can hide thousands of dollars in rust repair.

[RUNKLE]

First impression was a rendering as well, but no, It’s real. Good photography and some digital manipulation and voila.

https://www.motorcarclassics.com/1971-volkswagen-karmann-ghia-c-815.htm
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Type 1
1950 Standard - 1959 Ragtop - 1961 Ragtop two fold - 1964 Sunroof

Type 3
1968 Squareback

[Marcdeb]

Welcome to TheSamba,
Nice looking car that looks mostly stock on the exterior other than the color, and mostly stock in the engine bay.

Karmann Ghias are great little cars. Being all hand assembled with welded together bodies, they can present special considerations when trying to evaluate condition. For starters, there should be 2 rocker seams present just below each end of the doors. These are missing on the car you are looking at it. It certainly points to some major rocker panel work. That can be good or bad depending on if it's been done properly. There's more to the rocker panels since the heater channels run the length of the chassis behind the rocker panels. Then in the case of the convertibles, there is a body stiffener that runs the length of the chassis as well. Usually if the rockers are rusted, you can bet for sure there will be some serious rust in the heater channels and the stiffeners. So it's important to know what sort of work was done to those rockers. On the passenger lower front fender there is supposed to be a recessed area for the "Karmann Ghia" emblem. That is missing on your as well. I would be suspicious of a lot of rust or damage repair in that area. Floor pans in these cars are almost identical to the VW Beetle and are very prone to major rust so they should be checked out. The back outer corners of the engine deck also show obvious signs of damage. Can't tell if it's bad rust repair or if it's been crunched in those 2 areas? Hopefully you or someone you trust will be able to really carefully inspect this car before buying. By the way, it's missing the sun visors??
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Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[crocteau]

[mouse action]

Thanks all, I went over the car and it’s very clean ,minimal bondo work,everything seems to be operating properly,drives nice.a few little fixes to be had.

[Marcdeb]

You will get a lot of attention for sure. Look forward to hearing more about it.
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Marc
68 Karmann Ghia Cabrio Autostick
71 Karmann Ghia Cabrio

Previously Owned:
2011 VW EOS Hard Top Conv
2008 Saab 9-3 2.0T Conv
2003 Saab 9-3 SE Conv
2001 Saab 9-3 Conv
1998 BMW 3 Series Conv
1997 Saab 900 Conv
1997 Mazda Miata

68 Ghia Vert Survivor with 22,350 miles: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=768107&highlight=
71 Ghia Vert Restoration: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=726710&postorder=asc

[kingkarmann]

[Glenn]

[Era Vulgaris]

There's bondo in the rockers. There should be a pair of seams in the rockers under each door. There also appears to be accident damage, or some kind of damage, in the sheet metal in the engine bay.
The color change doesn't seem to be complete, as the front trunk looks to have been painted black (should be body color), and some small amount of the original green is visible next to the VIN plate.
Washer bottle is missing. Front trunk hood stops are missing. The clutch pedal should be in roughly the same position as the brake pedal. As it is, the clutch cable might be too tight, too short, or the wrong bowden tube in place.

It's a nice looking car, but for the asking price it shouldn't have any of those issues...especially the sheet metal issues in the rockers and engine bay.
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Currently own:
66 Karmann Ghia, L390 Gulf Blue, under construction, here: www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=760505&highlight=
99 Mazda MX-5 10AE, Sapphire Blue Mica, 6 speed, LSD

Previously owned:
98 Porsche Boxster, silver, 2.5L -- 67 Karmann Ghia, Black, 1500sp -- 98 BMW Z3, Atlanta Blue Metallic, 2.8L I6 -- 75 Porsche 914, Laguna Blue, 2270cc -- 72 Porsche 914, Signal Orange, 1.7 FI -- 74 Karmann Ghia, Black, 1600dp -- 74 Triumph TR6 with O.D., sapphire blue

[mouse action]

All great words of wisdom .thank you

[Glenn]

[kingkarmann]

[Braukuche]

Looks like it was done by a shop that doesn’t know Ghias and that’s as bad as buying an expensive restored Porsche from a shop that doesn’t know Porsches.
The Ghia body is expensive to repair correctly, it requires a lot of time and these guys took major shortcuts, for example who bondos over the Karmann lower fender indent other than a hack shop.
Not a single guy on here is going to recommend you to go through with that purchase at that price. And believe me, no one knows these cars better.
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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

[kingkarmann]

[mouse action]

Appreciate all the words,Im hoping not to pay the asking price.

[Rome]

Did that convertible top boot stay on the car during your test drive? Looks like it's just placed loosely on the body for the photos, and therefore would've blown off at very low speeds already. It's supposed to have about 10-12 snaps total to hold it to the body.

I agree that this '71 is cosmetically very appealing, also the top color; but the body-painted wheels are irritating. Factory color would've been a satin silver which was used on all factory body colors. Here's a press photo of a '70 Coupe which would have most details of this '71 you've inspected. Unfortunately the photo is a black & white so that you can't see the wheel color, but it's clearly a light color compared to the body color paint of this '71. Easy to correct with 1-2 cans of spray paint.

You can also clearly see the two seams in the rocker below the doors; the seams run vertically and are the intended separation between the rocker panel metal to the front fender and the rear quarter panel. Common "mistake" for a general body shop to fill in those seams with filler.

The vacuum hose routing to the distributor and carburetor does not look correct/incomplete... could cause the distributor to not advance as intended as engine rpms increase, so that the engine would feel sluggish.

[mouse action]

Did that convertible top boot stay on the car during your test drive? Looks like it's just placed loosely on the body for the photos, and therefore would've blown off at very low speeds already. It's supposed to have about 10-12 snaps total to hold it to the body.

Funny you noticed that,it’s was taking off like a kite.
I do realize that it’s not perfect,but it must have a value?

[Era Vulgaris]