The Resurrection of the Wet Look Ghia

[Luftkraft]

Dudes and Dudettes

Some of you may still remember this story. It all started in 2000 when I bought my '67 type 34 Ghia. The following years I enjoyed this car much on many trips all around Europe, to the Bug Show, to Menton, and so on. Until 2005 when it sat in an underground parking during the heaviest rainstorms Switzerland had seen in the last 100 years or so. That unholy parking was at my working place and I when I returned to work the early monday morning, there was a big, bad surprise. The whole underground part of the building was flooded:


Three days later, we could access to the cars down there:


Ok, let's save her, I decided:


Hey, dirty


Mud day


With the help of my friends Marcel and Paolo we gave her a good shower and started to strip her off almost completely

[Luftkraft]

Two years later, in February 2007, we started the rebuild at Marcel Hofstetter's new garage. One of the first operations was to rebuild the chassis, we started with the front end.

before


after


All of the chassis components needed to be replaced, the complete brake system, all of the bearings, the suspension and so on. Fortunately, the car was still very solid and we discovered almost no rust! The whole chassis and wheels housings were covered with a thin protective undercoating.

While Marcel was working on the chassis, I started restoring the instruments from a donor car. The dashboard was covered with fake wood, aka plastic foil from a DYI store.


Every seal and wheaterstrip was replaced


The complete wiring harness needed replacement, this was my turn to start with redoing the interior


Concerning the new headliner, I was happy to rely on the know-how of Christoph Mertz who installed this one together with Marcel


Some new insulation


And then there was light!

[ESH]

Is it out this weekend? 

[Luftkraft]

and there was more light!


now there was some time pressure, as I had fixed a visit at the MFK (swiss tüv or mot). A sunny day was perfect for the Dinitrol under-sealing treatment


the interior is starting to look like a car interior again


Marcel installed the 1835 cc I had bought from my buddy Chrigel who recently upgraded his oval to a 2276 cc.


One day ahead of the MFK date, we knew there was still something missing


The doors


Ready for the MFK. She made it at the second attempt (first time with Webers, second time with the stock Solex carbs). Some more pics to come as she's lacking some style, stance and wheels... Stay tuned! 

[Luftkraft]

I hope so! 

Is it out this weekend? 

[ESH]

I hope so!

Cool, good luck with it! 

[71CALRIPPER]

pukka work , good to see you took the time to do it propper aswell

[Jon]

You have been hard at work here, glad to see it in good shape again! Must have been a truly sickening moment to see it in all that water!!

[Olaf A./DFL]

Congrats Marc -Really impressive work!

[Luftkraft]

Thank you guys!  There's some minor work to be done and then she'll be ready for a good waxing.

Ready to rumble:


I'm more than happy with the result and I'd never thought, two years ago, that this would be possible. Anyway, everything turned out good. And this wouldn't have been possible without the help of many good friends.

Thanks to:

Marcel, he's the man, thank you for the AWESOME work, from back in 2005 til now, too much to list, just thank you! 
Paolo, thank you for the great and instant help in summer 2005 and for the motivation and encouragements
Christoph, thank you for the flawless headliner installation. and thank you for selling me those sexy wheels
Dani, thank you for helping out with the donor car, and for a lot of helpful advice
Chrigel, thank you for sellling me your 1835 cc engine and for many good laughs during those evenings at the garage
Urs, thank you for providing me with the wiring harnesses and electric stuff
all my friends at the monthly "Höck" in Rothrist/Herzogenbuchsee for motivation, good ideas and beers!
the great guys at Cagero, thank you for the availability of parts and helpful advice
Rüdiger Huber, thank you for many hard to find parts
Sewfine, for a nice job with my door panels
everybody else who contributed in any way to bring my car back on the road!

I really appreciate what you did to accomplish this project. See you at EBI!!! (sorry Paolo, but I'll take some pics )

[ESH]

Have a great cruise to Chimay. It was crap news to come back to from DAS Drag Day III but the car couldn't have been back up an running at a better time. Really cool to see it's come off for you and those involved with it. Roll on Bug-In and see you there.
 

[jose del orto]

Wow, the first sight with fuchs on it, after having seen them in a corner in Marcel's garage for many months! It's amazing, and you should address the main thanks to yourself, as keeping the motivation was the most difficult job of that all! And obviously, this wouldn't have been possible without Marcel's work, which assembled this car as if it'd been his own baby!
Have good dry ride, and don't park it near a river anywhere and anymore!

[bathing ape]

pleased to see it back,fuchs look great

[Luftkraft]

see you at EBI 

[Georg/DFL]

Marc, looking forward seeing you and the razor! Looks sooooo sweet!

Edge to edge,

Georg

[Luftkraft]

thanks dude, cya there!

[TiDi]

Now I can associate the car with the face   

Really impressive car, looking so cool..

See you soon...

[yvre]

One of the best looking car of the whole event!

[Luftkraft]

thank you guys glad you like it as much as I do

here's a pic from Andi/DFL, true photographic art