Grelland's Ghia

[Grelland]

Ok, so I have been encouraged to share my loooong lasting project with you guys here at the cal-look lounge, although the car will not be conforming to all the "cal-look rules" out there....

Some key facts:
1962 VW Karmann Ghia coupe

Front end:
Standard VW disk brakes
adjustable gas Shocks

Rear end
IRS
standard VW drum brakes
adjustable gas shocks

Engine
1835cc T1
37x42 mm heads
porsche style cooling
Megasquirt II Fuel Injection

Wheels:
Detailed 6x15 Porsche Fuchs

Here is a picture of the car after I stripped of the paint after I bougt it some 9 years ago:

[Grelland]

It looked absolutely terrible underneath the paint, and I ended up storing it for a few years, while collecting parts (and I was also growing a family in the meantime...)

I also came across a parts car, which was in even worse condition, this is (was) a '59 coupe.

[Grelland]

After a few years of collecting parts (basically I needed the complete lower 6 inches around the entire car) I at least managed to finalise the rolling chassis: This picture is taken in the summer of '05.

I have sandblasted all parts and replaced all rubber etc. I also added a "berg style" intermediate gear box mount and a "beetle cup" torsion bar at the rear end, should the desire for running down the strip arise.

[Grelland]

Then the work on the body started, and I went to my friends at Unneberg Bil for help on replacing the heater channels on both sides, as they have the knowledge and skills to get this important part right.

Here is a few pictures partly through the process, where the amount of work involved can clearly be seen...

As can be seen, I managed to source a pair of correct doors that were in quite good condition, and are time-correct

The first picture show how much I had to extend the heater channels in order to make the doors fit....

[Grelland]

More pics from this painful operation:

[Grelland]

So after a few weeks in the knowlegdable hands of the guys at Unneberg Bil, the car was back in my garage, so that I could start my part of the metal work.

It must be noted that I have no clue about metal working, besides a restoration of a bug I did some 15 years ago, so I would have to learn as I went...

I started out with the rear wheel opening, where both the inner fender and the outer was completely gone. But first of all I started with the lower rear corner, and swapping the rear part of the fender to accomondate the new rear lights. I sourced the complete rear lights with the necessary metal from Germany:

 

[Grelland]

So after a lot of head-scratching, trial mounting and welding, the rear quarter panel now look like this:

[Grelland]

This might look simple, but this actually took the best part of last winter...

Then I turned my attention to the front of the car, and started by cutting off the fenders and removing the entire nose section.

[Grelland]

This might not look too bad in the pictures, but the dirt and rust treatment covered a lot of rot....

I also made myself a frame to stiffen the front so that the front hood might fit when all is done:

[Grelland]

So I pulled out the large angle grinder, and started cutting the rot out, replacing the parts with fresh metal as I went along:

[Grelland]

As you can see, the nose section was in TERRIBLE condition, but a new one one would cost me the equivalent of USD 1000, so I went for the option of trying to fix the one I had:

[Grelland]

Some repairs were already done on the nose, covered by som quarter of an inch of bondo, so I needed to replace large parts of the nose with fresh metal, again I had to fabricate the parts myself.

I went on with welding on the front parts of the inner wings, after a lot of trial mounting, assuring that everything would fit upon reassembly.

[Grelland]

My garage had turned into a total mess the last few months so I spent a night cleaning up, much nicer to work under such conditions.

I also trial mounted the front hood for the ompfth time, again assuring that all goes back together

[Grelland]

This is what the nose section looks like after all the patching:

It has been at the panel-beater's shop for som hammering, but I also need to shrink some areas, so there is a little more work remaining before the soldering can begin. I need to finish all the "hot" work on the nose before I mount it, as I will need to paint the back side of it before mounting; it is a total pain to access that area later. Besides the idea of working with the soldering on my work-bench sound a bit more appealing that crawling around on the floor...

[Grelland]

I've also cleaned up the fresh air vents, and found more rot... Again I had to make some patch panels to correct this.

Also the lower part of the inner wheel well needed work

[Grelland]

After replacing the upper part of the inner fender, and some cleaning up of all the welds, this is pretty much how the car sits today:

You can also see that I trial fitted the nostril trim, and I do have som challenges in this area; again some PO have made repairs in the area, and I have to fix this also before the nose can be deemed "useable"...

Next step now is to lift the body off the chassis again, so that I can get good acces to lower part of the car for stripping of old paint and sand blasting before I start the fun part of applying primer and also paint to the areas I can not reach after assembly.

The plan is th have the car on the road this coming summer, so I better hurry up...

I will keep you posted on the progress.

Roy

[Diederick/DVK]

wow, respeck!
top notch work on the body!

where do you get your inspiration from for the final result? any ideas what you want it to look like? 

[Lee.C]

Now that is what I call "BUILDING" a car - truely awsome work dude 

[Grelland]

thanks for the feedback, guys,

when it comes to the inspiration, I actually use the car as my therapy for getting through the daily routines; I have three little boys and a job where I travel a lot world-wide, so I find it very relaxing to dive into this car late at nights (usually when my wife and kids are already in bed).

I have also discovered that this car was a LOT worse than I anticipated when I started, so now I just have swore that this car WILL get back on the road, I have too much hours and money into it for giving up now...

On top of this, the Ghia is, in my mind, one of the greatest looking cars ever made, so the thought of cruising the streets in one keeps me going...

The style will be somewhat cal-look, with a clean original looking body, all chrome in place, and a somewhat lowered stance. As I mentionned, I will use Fuchs and a 1835cc engine, but I am already collecting parts for the next engine, but now the 1835 is ready, so I focus on getting the car on the road first. So far I will use the original interior, except for a pair of recaro seats from a golf I gti.

Roy

[lowfastbus]

Hi Grelland,

I'm doing the same soon to my Karmann, would you have any more pics or even measurements of how you did the swap?
Thanks in advance!!

Jelle

[Grelland]

Sure,

What I did was to place the new panel outside the old one (after I cut the rear-most part of the panel that was to be cut away),then I used a few self-tapping screws to hold everything in place, then I cut through both layers with a pneumatic saw, in order to make the new part fit.

Luckily the use part I had (red in the picture below) extended all the way to the opening of the rear deck lid, so I had the edge of that as a reference.

I have hudreds of pictures from all the work, so let me know if I can help you out with something else too.

[lowfastbus]

Thanks allready for the pic,
I unfortunatley don't have that big panels to play with....
Did you measure it on an other ghia?

Jelle

[Grelland]

I am afraid not, but I still have not done the other side, so let me know what measurements you are looking for, and I will measure there before and after I cut.

[Grelland]

Small update:

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours grinding welds... Not the most inspiring work in the world, but it needs to be done.

Then I applied a coat of etch primer, which will be followed by 2-k epoxy primer and paint. I only do the area behind the fresh air intakes at this point, as this will be in-accessible once I mount these channels.

I also ground down and cleaned up the area around the lower a-pillar, and started preparing for the final piece to be welded on there too.

I am thrilled to actually do some constructive work, for a change, not only cutting away rotted metal :-)

Next step is to lift the body off, so that I can access the lower parts of the car better.

[Grelland]

A few small steps more....

I have now mounted the fresh-air channel, and had the outside primed using etch-primer.

Makes me sleep well, knowing that the internals of this is now covered in shiny paint :-)

[Jon]

In this pace you are going to be ready to hit the streets this summer Grelland!!
Keep it up....  I picked up two NOS doors for my bug today... 

[Grelland]

More NOS doors? Are you converting to 4-door?

[Grelland]

Slow progress the last few days, but I had a few friends and neighbours coming over, so we lifted the body off again.

On the second picture, I am making sure the frame fits, while my brother-in-law is doing the hard work..

The last picture show the approximate ride-height when all is said and done... ;-) here it can also be seen that the left hand side inner fender is more or less done, while there is still some work remaining on the right-hand side.

Now the next on the list is more welding, grinding, welding, grinding, cutting, welding.....

[Grelland]

So another Sunday, and another late evening in the garage....

I spent most of yesterday cleaning up the workshop, since both the body and the chassis now are rolling, so the first picture show the result of this boring job; it is a lot nicer working under such conditions :-)

Then I cleaned up the last part of the inner fender, sand blasting the hard-to-reach places, and the second picture show how this part of the car now look: It is good to know that at least some parts of the car is taking shape.

As usual, sand-blasting and removing old underbody protection, reveals more rot; so also this time, and the last pic shows an area that need attention before I seal this entire secton off with primer and paint.

[Grelland]

a few more nights in the garage, and the car now looks like this:

Man, do I have some work ahead of me before I can cruise the streets of Norway...