Grelland's Ghia

[Grelland]

And finally for this time, I have removed the dash from my donor car, and started preparing it for going into its new home. There are still a few holes to weld up from the PO's butchering...

[Grelland]

A couple of more nights in my garage, and the dash now looks like this:

I hope I only filled in the holes that were not supposed to be there...

[Grelland]

mine is a '62. Any pics?

heres mine at Bug in 13

great pics, would you have any better resolution ones?

[Grelland]

More updates:

In order to make sure I filled in the right holes, I borrowed a radio in order to verify that the remaining holes are the right ones:

[Grelland]

Then I turned my focus to the front fender, and started by making a patch that fixed the upper portion of the wheel housing

[Grelland]

Then I put the fender back on the car, to ensure that the alignment is good before I make further cuts.

I then cut the fender just where my OEM front section ends, BUT it turned out that the rust had eaten further back that what the repair panel covers :-(

So I made small "flaps" and welded the whole thing together with a gap between the two parts, then I started the tedious job of filling in the gap with fresh metal.

In some places, I needed to cut the fender back another 7-8 cm.

I simply love it when everything I do turn out to be more work than planned....

I also could not resist to place one of the EMPI 8spoke wheels in the housing :-)

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Looking Good Roy I love 8 Spokes on Ghias  Did you Get the Info I sent you On The Wheels? you should be able to get it there if not Let me Know I Can Get it for you...Talk to you Soon Gary

[Grelland]

Thanks, Gary, yes I got the info. I will get back to you after I have looked for local suppliers.

[bathing ape]

nice to see that empi spyder,keep it up

[Grelland]

Thanks, guys.

After a non-VW related trip to UK with my wife, I finally managed to spend some time in the garage again tonight.

I was really curious as to how much elbow-grease is needed for bringing the wheels bact to its former glory, so I spent an hour on the worst looking one of the set.

First I removed some wounds and black spots in the polished rim, then went over with a 180 grit paper, before I took it for a quick round in the polisher, using the coarsest compound. Then I media blasted the center and the back side.

As I said, I only spent about an hour on this one wheel, and I think the result show that I will not need THAT many hours to get these back to where they need to be :-)

[Diederick/DVK]

very nicely done!

i think they'll look awesome! what colour will the center be eventually?

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Thanks, guys.

After a non-VW related trip to UK with my wife, I finally managed to spend some time in the garage again tonight.

I was really curious as to how much elbow-grease is needed for bringing the wheels bact to its former glory, so I spent an hour on the worst looking one of the set.

First I removed some wounds and black spots in the polished rim, then went over with a 180 grit paper, before I took it for a quick round in the polisher, using the coarsest compound. Then I media blasted the center and the back side.

As I said, I only spent about an hour on this one wheel, and I think the result show that I will not need THAT many hours to get these back to where they need to be :-)

Looking Good Roy Lets See some Progress on the Body?? LOL  the Wheels Come Later LOL

[Grelland]

very nicely done!

i think they'll look awesome! what colour will the center be eventually?

I aim for a color not too far from the metal color in the pic; I dont want them too dark. I have a lead on some paint, but it seem not to be available here in Norway

Roy

[Grelland]

Good Roy Lets See some Progress on the Body?? LOL  the Wheels Come Later LOL

Thanks,

OK, I couldnt resist spending some tiime on the wheels, once I had them lying around... You know kids on Christmas Eve, and all that :-)

But tonight I will be working on the body again... Updates to follow

ROy

[Grelland]

OK, after these hints from shubee2, I just had to start working on the body again...

The last corner of the car is the rear right hand side, which was in need for some rust-removing work.

So I started off by cutting off all the rotten metal, and after about an hour with angle grinder, this corner now looks like this:

[Grelland]

This went much easier now that I have already done the same work on the other side, and fitting all the new parts is quite straight forward as long as I get started in the right way. The rear bumper mount goes in first, and I will build everything around that.

It can also be seen that the inner fendre was already repaired, but whoever did that skipped the rust treatment, so the metal is paper thin in places, so I will cut the lower 1-2" off, and replace it with fresh metal, before I mount the outer lip again.

I just wanted to see how it all fits, so I trial assembled some of the parts again, and it looks a lot  better already:

[Grelland]

Next step is to measure everything carefully then replace the rear light area, and start putting this thing back together again. It can also be seen that the lower rearmost part does not by far cover the part I needed to cut out from the fender, due to old "repairs", but I will simply have to make a new part that fits in the gap

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Looking good Roy Keep it up I for one would like to see it Done!!  LOL

[Grelland]

Thanks, me too 

[Grelland]

short update:

yesterday I managed to mount the bumper bracket mount, but first I had to fabricate a new part of the inner fender to have something to mount it to...

Then I started fitting the part below the rear ligth, and the next on the list is to cut out the old light section, and craft in the new one (actually the older of the two, but you get the idea...)

The black stuff you see in in the first pic is some welding primer I apply to the metal surface prior to welding. This to ensure that all areas are covered for the sake of rust prevention.

[Zach Gomulka]

Could you do me a favor and measure the backspace on your wheels? Id really appreciate it!

[Grelland]

I just did the other day, and I came to the conclusion that the OFFSET is 32 mm, and the total with is 136mm. Is this what you need, or are there other measurements you need?

Roy

[Grelland]

I guess it is time for a progress update too, but things are slow, as this is a very busy time of the year when it comes to summer parties at school, kindergarden, soccer etc, but I did manage to squeeze in a few nigths.

And I have continued the work on the rear corner, and cut away the rear light section, and grafted inn the correct tail-light:




and I spent some time making sure the ridge on the top of the fender is straight:


And the entire rear end looks like this:

[Grelland]

But just as I was going to go to bed that night, I made a couple of checks on the dimensions, and came to the conclusion that the lower part of the tail light was some 10-12mm closer to the engine compartment than the upper....

So after a sleepless night (yes, I know...) I had no other option than to cut up the weld, and add a wedge, in order to correct this:

[Grelland]

And after another night in the garage, the rear end now looks like this, much better :-)

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

lookin good Roy Keep Going It is getting Closer LOL

[Grelland]

Thanks, Gary, yes, getting closer but in quite small steps, indeed...

So last night, I finished up the welding and grinding of the rear end of this corner, and sealed everything with some 2k epoxy primer. I also made sure the inside is properly protected, as this area is hard to access once the outer panel is back on:

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Looks Great Roy Want to come over and do my 58 Ragtop?? its not near the work you have done to your car just a Quick Dechrome and Cal Look Treatment OLD SCHOOL OF CORSE

[Grelland]

No problem, going at my pace, that would taks just about 3-4 years then...

Better even, ship the car over here, so that I have something to do when this one is done; my wife is already expressing that she would like an aircooled VW next :-)

[Grelland]

I managed to lay down another couple of hours of work the other night, and I started by making the missing part of the inner fender.

I dont have an english wheel, so I "cheated" by cutting some wedges in it in order to get the necessary double curvature.