Shiftin' Ghia

[RUSS74GHIA]

OK, as I'm fairly new here not many of you know my car. I've owned her 4 1/2 years and hardly a week goes by without some tinkering, fettling or repair.

Four weeks ago she suffered some major vandalism AND a 360 flat spin on the motorway resulting in this;


and this,



What you can't see is the damage to the back. As I swung round the rear hit the barrier too. The long and short of it is that she's been written off. But... I bought her back off the insurance company and she will live again.

After some VZi searching I found a complete front end. What's more, it came complete with a pair of rear wings.













I went all the way to North Wales to collect them, and I've been given a tail light.

I need to source some Mini style kit-car lights, indicators and fuel filler as this will need to be relocated

She was collected today by Phil Woodward (HRC Body & Paint) For those of you who haven't heard of him, he's over near Paddock Wood and races a mental flip-fronted, Mopar V8 split screen camper. Look him up if you need anything from stone chips, restoration to custom work.

The plan is to fit the fibreglass flip-front end, and use the rear wings and decklid to cast a removable one piece rear end. While she's there Phil's going to construct and fit an MSA spec cage.
Another good bit is she'll also be treated to a well deserved paint job.

I've scratched my head a bit, and looked at loads of stock, custom & downright mad paintjobs and decided on a bone stock Pacific Blue base & clear, if you've got Summer 2003 Volksworld to hand (as you do) there's a feature car in the same colour.

Phil's gonna keep me updated with pics, so I'll add them to this thread

Meanwhile, I'm just waiting for the last engine parts to arrive so my friend Darren and I can get the 1914cc motor rebuilt. This let go earlier in the year due to a faulty distributor and some poorly chosen components (NEVER use ali valve spring retainers) The spec will be as before except for a 125 cam and twin 40's.

[RUSS74GHIA]

And we're off, first work-in-progress pics have arrived.

Here's the damaged rear - sporting  a replacemend decklid as the original was dented in the grille area by the yobs.



Here we see all the dead metal, which Phil assures me weighs a fair bit





And here she is in all her glory, still a fair amount of metal to get rid of, but I think you get the idea.



I'll add more as and when they get taken. I'll be over there for a few days next week, so expect a load more.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Well, Phil's been a busy bee

Here's the front end all cut away. Inner wings trimmed, edged and seam-welded over some 13mm tube.



Some horrors were uncovered and taken care of



Now here's the REALLY clever bit. Phil has fabricated a hinging AND cantilever closing system incorporating BMW bonnet anti-rise guides and Honda Civic gas struts



The wood is only in there for mock-up purposes, it'll be replaced with mild steel tube





You can see the anti-rise brackets just in front of the scuttle panel



And here she is in all her glory







To say I'm happy with the result is a massive understatement. Phil's skill and ingenuety knows no end.

I removed the support for the front seatbelt mounts, incorporating the rear seat support as this will foul where the cage needs to be.

I'm popping back over today. I'll be cutting the nose for the trademark Ghia nostrils to be refitted, same for the headlamps and indicators.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Righto, here's the photos from yesterday;

o/s inner wing stripped



Got some of the n/s too



Repairs to the n/s wing/sill




Today's instalment coming up

[RUSS74GHIA]

Phil had other customer's cars in today, so I was left to my own devices.

I was let loose with the air-saw, and set about fitting the lamps and grilles.

Nice and narrowed beam sir? You can see the bracing for the flip-front, and also the locating pin for the A-post



And she got her face back!











Phil used his magic Rivnut gun to make the captive nuts for the headlamp bowls. I want one:)

I also got rid of some more tar-board from the driver's floor, and removed the driver's seat as it'll soon be time to mock up the cage with the new seat in.

[benssp]

Looking good Russ, good to see you're looking at dropping some weight out of it

[alfie the monster]

There's a lot of weight in a late Ghia! Should see your time's tumble dude 

[danny gabbard]

VERY cleaver on you brackets and gas shock

[jamiep_jamiep]

Thats great work Russ....

[Neil Davies]

I can't see the pictures (school firewall blocks them!) but it sounds impressive! Just thinking though - a one piece rear end could be something of an arse to use! I'd certainly look into removeable rear wings, but I think I'd keep the decklid seperate! On my KG I cut out the rear valance and had it held in with Dzus fasteners, made it much easier to get the engine out!
Something I've just thought of for the front too - how about some inner wings in aluminium, it'll give you some semblance of weather protection for the under bonnet area. Something similar to the Lee Leighton oval. For the fuel filler problem, just run an early Beetle tank - Ghia and Bug are the same!

[JSL]

Awesome work so far!! Going to enjoy watching this develop 

J

[Jim Smith]

Good stuff Russ, keep the pics coming.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Thanks for the encouragement folks, I'll let Phil know.

A few pics from today.

Phil has replaced that piece of timber with some tube. This will all be bonded into place and reinforced with glassfibre matting, as will all of the fittings inside the front end - so no fixings will be visible from outside the car.









I picked up my new seats today. The old ones were 14Kg each, the new ones are just 6Kg each

I suppose I'll need to add a harness and a window net onto my Xmas list

[flatfire]

Its looking good Russ, you can't beat a mean looking ghia.

[kev d]

Very clever front end design

Is it going back onto the street or race only when done?
Cheers,
Kev

[WCB Hitler's Hot Rod]

 

[RUSS74GHIA]

Its looking good Russ, you can't beat a mean looking ghia.

Funny you should drop by. I was chatting to John the other day, the chap that now owns your old car - he's got my old rear seats in it now

[RUSS74GHIA]

Is it going back onto the street or race only when done?

Kev

She'll be Taxed & MOT'd. She'll blend in nicely with all the black Cayennes on he school run

[Black Sheep]

Thats a bloody clever canterlever set up 

[Diederick/DVK]

now that's proper quality work, I love that setup. too cool 

[RUSS74GHIA]

A quick update.

I popped over to Phil's 'shop today to deliver the new seat. We fitted this as we'll shortly be drawing up the cage. Was a fairly straightforward job, we used the existing side runners to fix to.







Phil's better half is a whizz with fibreglass and resin and bonded-in the front inside fittings.



And a sneeky peek at the new paint.  The inner wings have been shutzed and the whole under-bonnet area painted.

[vwcab]

Nice work overthere.And I love the fact,that you are re-using the nosegrills.(for me,it's a must have on a ghia)
 

[RUSS74GHIA]

Nice work overthere.And I love the fact,that you are re-using the nosegrills.(for me,it's a must have on a ghia)
 

Thanks. I know some fill them in, but I've never been a fan of that. To me they're one of the cues that makes a Ghia a Ghia

[alfie the monster]

Damn Phil works fast 

[jamiep_jamiep]

Loioking great there Russ....

[RUSS74GHIA]

I'm very lucky to be surrounded by some skilled friends.

My  mate Ade popped round tonight with something he'd knocked up in his spare time (as you do when you have a TIG welder knocking around).
Last season I was using a standard Bugpack type oil breather box, which had shown some signs of seepage, which is expected when you're pushing up to 6500rpm.
So there was only one thing for it, a 1ltr tank/can. This has 4x13mm unions on it; 2 for the rockers, 1 for the filler breather and 1 for the fuel-pump block-off, and also 2x18mm unions for the breather filters (which I picked up for a couple of quid from ebay). He's added a couple of brackets for fitting to the firewall begind the fan housing.

Something else to put a smile on my face



I also picked up a new steering box this weekend as the old one required constant adjustment, and the last parts for the engine rebuild - it's all coming together:)

[Nico86]

Good work !

[Martin Greaves]

Not Red then bother in law.

[RUSS74GHIA]

bother in law.

If that's not a typo, that's possibly the funniest thing I've seen you write.

[Martin Greaves]

No for the first time in my life i meant it like that.

I knew you would find it funny.