1966 Ghia Coupe Full Restore

[KarmannGreg]

After nearly 8 years of being a lurker and watching and learning from this group I am finally ready to start my own thread of my restore project.

A 1966 coupe we named GiGi. I asked a German friend how you say "money pit" in German, and i quickly realized I do not have the accent and no way I could pronounce it correctly, but the two words started with a 'G', so GiGi was born. She quickly lived up to the name.

I purchased the car via an online auction from my state revenue department, presumably a repo. They had very little information about the car, and I only had a brief time to physically view the car before the auction started. I knew it was in rough shape, but -- no surprise -- the car was in much worse shape than appeared on the surface. (duh!)

The auction was on Valentines Day 2017. I had fun telling my wife what I bought "her" Actually, I had a max bid amount in mind and I got outbid. When I told my wife we didn't get it, she said "go bid more", so eventually we ended up winning as time expired.

To get started with this build, here is the day she was delivered to my home from the tow truck.

I could tell the nose had been replaced by a donor car, but I had no idea about the Frankenstitch and how poorly it had been done until I got into it.

She had a dent on the rear fender, but nothing that couldn't be pounded out. There was surface rust in the usual places, and a previous owner had started on a restore (or put it off) by coating the car with primer. I was hoping they had fixed rust as they went, but I quickly discovered that was not the case.

I believe I have all of the chrome pieces, including the dash trim. The bumpers are in rough shape, but I have been able to source better pieces and I have found a local chrome shop when I am ready for that stage.

I immediately decided a body-off restore was going to be required, so I immediately started taking her apart for closer inspection. More pictures in my next post.

[KarmannGreg]

Since the car was in non-running condition, we had a tow truck deliver it around March 1, 2017 and roll it into the garage.

The odometer showed 99K miles. Had the engine been rebuilt (hopefully) somewhere along the way, was it babied well enough to go 99K miles? I called my uncle who has rebuilt many of these engines over the years for tips on how to tell. He had me check end-play and it was really bad. I knew I was in for a rebuild, but I was hoping I could put it off for a few years and drive it for a while.

I was going to start it and drive it, but I decided to take the side panel off of the transmission cover and discovered no liquids, and there was between 1" and 2" of sludge in the transmission. No way I could have cleaned it out, so add an immediate transmission rebuilt to the to-do list. GiGi the money pit is living up to her name.

So a body-off resto was in order. I built a dolly similar to one I saw posted on here, then stocked up on Adult Beverages and called a few friends for separation.

One guy on each fender and a few tugs and the body was free.

After a few adult beverages, my friends were having more fun "driving" the car than I was taking it apart.

[sputnick60]

For obvious reasons I particularly like the '66 model.

Your's looks like it has quite a number of original features. The 10 slots wheel trims are not very common. I think those lasted to '67. '66 was also the first year for the flat hubcaps which also were revised in '67 when the wide five wheels changed to the four bolts.
There are bits missing like the side trims and the trims on the front and rear glass. If it was built before end of December '67 it should have the stainless 'C' trim. If later then it's the aluminium "T" trim. That's not particularly important until you choose the rubber seal which has to match the glass and trim.

Anyhow, Looking forward to seeing your progress falling into the money pit.

Nicholas
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'66 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet...
'65 Porsche 356C Coupe...
2005 Mecedes Benz C180 Kompressor Estate
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[DaveB9]

Good to see another resto thread!

It certainly doesn't look too bad, but hard to know what is under that red oxide primer. It looks pretty complete at least and not too messed with - things like the wiring looks original. Not sure how far in you already are, but don't throw anything away until the car is finished: some parts can be surprisingly hard to find and/or expensive and a lot of repro stuff is hopeless, sadly.

Looks like it has gained an earlier nose badge - they are quite rare and valuable and that one looks very nice.

Keep the pictures coming and good luck!

[Bobs67vwagen]

I agree that does not look too bad rust wise although it is hard to tell from the angle of the pictures. If the heater channels and rockers are solid, you are actually in good shape. Good luck with it.

[KarmannGreg]

[Era Vulgaris]

Nice to see another '66 coupe! I also went the full disassembly resto route, and money pit doesn't even begin to describe it

Mine also had a bunged up nose when I got it. I got lucky and found a disassembled '64 shell with a pristine nose here in the classifieds that was about an hour away from me. If you can find clean donor metal for the nose I'd recommend it, because the aftermarket panel that's available at every VW parts site has a lopsided center bead. I know because I had bought one and then ended up selling it after finding the donor car.
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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

[KarmannGreg]

Now that I have the car apart, I can more closely inspect everything. After picking at a few spots through the primer, such as around the headlights, the Frankenstitch nose, battery tray, door skins, and the heater channels I can tell the entire bottom 6-10" of the car needs to be replaced. It is a good thing I have zero welding experience , but I like to acquire new skills, and welding was one of those skills I wanted to build.

I decided to set the body aside and focus on the chassis and other mechanicals to ensure I had a good car to put a body on. I knew the floor pans were shot, but what 50 year old cars aren't?

I decided to start with the floor pans. After careful measurements, marking up templates, I decided to remove the pans.

The new floorpans arrived! Not well packaged, and beat up and twisted from traveling around the world, but nothing i couldn't straighten.

I borrowed a MIG welder from a friend at his insistence before I bought one. After practicing on a bunch of scrap metal, I thought I was ready for prime-time. I am quickly humbled. Welding thin floorpan metal onto a thicker gauge A-pillar proved very challenging for me. But, I am becoming a good grinder I punched new holes as recommended, added welding primer, scratched my head, drank a few beers, scratched my head again, practiced on some more metal scraps, then eventually plowed my way through.

I am going to need a lot more practice before I ever think about welding on the body.

I am 6'4", so I moved the seat brackets back several inches. I hope that turns out to be a good decision. My wife is 5' even, so therein lies the challenge for any car that we both drive.

Now on to de-gunking the rest of the frame.

[Bobs67vwagen]

Hi I do not believe that ghias ever came with the slotted are painted white during that era. The beetles of that era had the slotted area black and the outer area usually an off white. The trim rings (the ones over the slots) were aluminum during that time and offered as an option on bugs and I believe on ghias also. I do not recall any ghias coming with the outer chrome trim rings but if anyone knows different please correct me.

[Bobs67vwagen]

Nice work so far. Those welds don't look too bad especially the 1st set. If you find yourself burning holes or burning through try turning the temperature down a little at at time and practice on some scrap until you get a better result.

[KarmannGreg]

De-gunking and grinding takes soooo much time, as you know.

After weeks of me spending every night and weekend hour in the garage (and coming in filthy), my wife surprises me with a set of coveralls. To my even bigger surprise was she bought a pair for herself! Team GiGi is now official.

She frequently joined me in the cleanup process, which made it go a lot faster, but is still quite a task.

I will spare you the countless other boring photos of disassembly, bag-and-tag, grind, degrease, scrape, etc.

[KarmannGreg]

With everything stripped from the chassis, it is time to clean it up and get some paint on it. The floor pans came coated with some kind of black primer. I did not trust that it was actually good primer, so I wanted to remove it so I could put on proper rust protection. Whatever that coating is, it did not want to come off without a fight. It laughed at my wire wheel and scrapers. I tried a few chemical removers to no avail.

In the end I ended up soda blasting it. That worked surprisingly well. It is a slow process doing an entire chassis, but this was the fastest thing I found based on the equipment I had. I built a rotisserie so I could gain access to all sides, and to work at a more comfortable height. I put wheels on it so I could roll it outside to do blasting.

Using soda I was able to shop-vac it up and use it several times. It is a good thing, because you really go through material in a hurry. I just stuck the suction pickup hose into the shop vac, and that worked pretty well except for an occasional clog.

With everything soda blasted, it was time for final cleanup and welding on the replacement seat brackets, new accelerator pedal bracket, seat belt supports and the like.

Once all of the welding was done, I coated the entire chassis with POR-15. I'd used the product before on restoring an old golf cart and it held up very well, goes on with a chip brush so lends itself well to doing things in stages, and is forgiving with a little leftover rust, provided you did all the prep correctly. It stinks like crazy, but it is good stuff.

Now on to the front end and other parts.... this seemed like such a huge milestone, but looking back I was just getting started. So far it has been really fun, though, so I keep plowing through.

[KarmannGreg]

MORE PARTS ARRIVE!!!!! I swear it was like Christmas every time new stuff arrived. My FedEx driver was even starting to get interested in my project!

New shocks, brakes, brake lines, ball joints, seals -- everything that is a wear item that I could source new, which was just about everything.

Cleaned up the beam, coated with POR15. The springs inside cleaned up well, so I did not replace them. The steering box appeared to be in good shape. The dude inside of me really wanted to take it apart, but I decided to leave it alone and clean it up the best I could.

Cleaned up and painted the brake components. I had to wait until my wife was out of town to properly cure the high-temp paint, however. She will never know

Front is now complete, coated, and back on the frame!

Starting to look like a car again, well, sort of.

[kingkarmann]

Fantastic progress!

This build thread brings back some fond memories of my own 67 coupe.

It was purchased as a rough driver in 1997 and finally "finished" in 2006.
I put finished in quotes. You will find out as you and your wife continue this journey they are never truly finished.

If you find yourself suffering from burnout, (it happens) I remember the question, "How do you eat an elephant"

It was therapeutic for me to take a suspension part or some other assembly like a distributor or air cleaner housing and restore it to it's original glory.
Another bite taken, plus the satisfaction of making something old and dirty shiny and bright.

I commend you for tackling the welding. I tried and failed miserably.

It's great to have a spouse that supports the effort and is hands on.
Love the uniforms!

Looking forward to updates.
No pressure

[Era Vulgaris]

[KarmannGreg]

[KarmannGreg]

At this point it is Mid-July 2017 and I am about 5 months in. Progress is slow, despite hours and hours of work, tool upgrades, countless YouTube videos, etc. I decided to tackle the transmission, rear axle and engine to ensure I have a fully working car before putting the time and money into the body.

I decided to do the transmission before the rear axle since they are interrelated. This thing was in bad shape. The amount of sludge and lack of any viscous fluid had me nervous about what I would find.

After careful disassembly, cataloging, taking lots of pictures, everything was finally apart and ready for inspection and cleaning.

To my surprise, the gears and other components did not look worn. This transmission appears to be salvageable!

On to cleanup

Ready for paint and primer

and of course a good bake in the oven

I learned a very important lesson. When following a repair manual, READ ALL THE WAY TO THE END before you start anything. Had I done that, I would have realized something very important -- you can't reassemble the transmission gears into the case without the factory alignment tool. Gulp. Right there in black and white. Panic set in. GiGi is having the last laugh. On to the internet....to acquire said assembly tool, only to learn there are no longer any available.

Fortunately, I had joined my local VW group (MO/KAN) and posted my woes to the group in case they knew somewhere I could buy one. One very nice gentleman reached out to me and said he had one, but he would not sell it, and he would not let it out of his hands. He did offer to let me come to his house, use his vice and workbench and the assembly tool to reassemble it. (I love VW people!!!!) He even showed me how to put it back together and make adjustments. Crises averted.

After nearly 2 months working on this, the transmission is finally back on the car!

I cleaned up the remaining rear axle parts, new brakes, shocks, rubber seals and the like.

Next up, tear the engine down.
[/i]

[KarmannGreg]

Nest up: engine rebuild. It had 99,879 miles on the odometer. I previously mentioned, I saw no signs of a rebuild, or at least not in the last 20-30 thousand miles, so it was easier to do now that the engine is out.

I won't go long on pictures unless someone asks. There are many good engine threads on here that go into the detail. I followed the book How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, a Manual Step-by-Step For The Complete Idiot. The book was spot-on and very easy to follow.

The 1966 model year came with a 1300cc engine. I could not source 1300 pistons, rings and cans, so I ended up going with a 1600cc rebuild kit. I had to have the heads reground to fit, as well as some machining on the case. I was fortunate that I found a local (to me) VW machine shop in Kansas City and they were able to do it for a reasonable price and in the timeline I wanted. They even pointed out other things I should do, such as CaseSerts (or TimeSerts I forget). The inspected my crankshaft and other parts, and offered lots of advice. I was saddened to learn they closed down a few years ago because they did great work and they were such nice people.

I was nervous about my PICT-1 fuel system and whether it would provide the correct fuel. I have not been able to drive it, but I was able to start it and run it at a fast idle and everything seemed fine so far.

The only near miss I had with the engine rebuilt was it almost cost me a new dishwasher. I had such a hard time getting parts clean enough to reassemble or paint, especially the pistons, heads and cans, but a dishwasher with high phosphate detergent on high heat does wonders! The problem is, my wife unknowingly went to use the dishwasher later that week, only to discover it would not turn on. This was Thanksgiving day. I am soooo in trouble. I immediately said I will buy her a new one on Black Friday (tomorrow) and go pick it up and install it that day. Then she started shopping for dishwashers, but she wanted all the appliances to match, which mean a new double-stove, built-in oven, refrigerator, built-in microwave all had to be replaced. Yikes. I went to an appliance repair website, found the $7 part that was bad, had it overnighted and repaired on Saturday and (I thought) all was good. More time to wrench on the Ghia. Apparently what happened is the high heat water setting burned out. Turning off high heat (which we rarely use) allowed the dishwasher to run.

I found a number of missing bolts (e.g.,. header attachment), missing engine tin, but I was able to source the missing parts.

Engine back on, fired up the first time. Happy. Happy. Happy.

I don't know why I was looking unhappy on this photo. Maybe because it was New Years Eve and I was doing this instead of at a party.

[KarmannGreg]

Now that I know I have a solid, drivable chassis, engine and transmission, time to focus on the body. After some probing in some problem areas, such as the headlight, front nose, heater channels and the Frankenstitch I discover this thing is a Hot Mess. It is full of body filler, like a 1/2" in some spots, which starts to explain the primer. Both heater channels are shot, the door skins are rusted through in multiple areas, the engine bay is all rusted from the battery, front end has major rust near the turn signals, etc. This was going to be a huge job. Pretty much every lower panel on the car needed to be repaired or replaced, along with heater channels.

My wife suggested I hire out the body work. She had no idea of the cost we were looking at, nor did I, but I knew this was going to be expensive. After a search, I found a guy who could take on the job on the side. He used to own his own body shop, and he was a VW guy. Off to his shop to begin the process:

After 4 years, the body work is finally completed. The body guy did an outstanding job of replacing and fixing all of the rust, and priming it ready to move to my paint guy:

After nearly 2 years at the paint shop (mostly my delay), GiGi finally has new clothes! I chose to go with Trout Blue. I know it is not period correct for my year of Ghia, but I wasn't crazy about the original color and I fell in love with the Trout Blue (L330) and I am a trout fisherman, so it was meant to be.

And after 6 months from picking it up from the paint shop and putting her in storage, GiGi is finally to her new home (I had to build a garage) ready to start the reassembly. This is as of 11/28/2025:

It has been soooooo long since I took this car apart, I do not remember the process, but will try to go by photographs of the order I took her apart.

I plan to do the headliner, at a minimum, while I have it on a dolly where it is easier to work than having to climb over a console.

What else should I do before I mate the body back to the pan? Anything else that is a real bear to complete with the body on the frame?

[DaveB9]

Whoa, that's a lot of progress! It looks great and Trout Blue is indeed a lovely colour, it just seems to highlight the Ghia's lines.

One task I might have done before the body went back on if I was doing another Ghia is the wiring loom, fresh air controls and all the dash parts. It is hard to get into the corners behind the dash and involves a lot of leaning over your fresh paint. With the body off, you could stand where the fuel tank should be, particularly if you take the hood/bonnet off again. It depends where the wiring loom should run to the back on a 66. On my car it went through a tube on the body, so there was no need for the pan to be there.

Others may point out why this idea is a non-runner, but it is just a thought.