Grelland's Ghia

[Grelland]

Not too bad, maybe, but take a look at the bolts and the un-painted brake pump...

Then a close-up of one of the worst areas:

[Grelland]

The rust is mostly on/in the paint, but I will most likely grind the paint off again, and apply new layers of primer and paint. I dont want to end up welding rust after some 5 years again...

The underside looks perfect, though...

[Grelland]

and finally a shot of the entire chassis in my garage after the cleaning was done. Some of the silver chassis details were paintred using 1K spray can, so I guess I will grind this back also and apply real 2K paint to these parts as well.

[Grelland]

So once I get a few spare moments, I will completely strip the pan for all loose parts, and start grinding and painting again...

Oh well, the body will soon be off for paint, so I guess I will have a few weeks for finishing this up..

Stay tuned for mure fun discoveries...

[louisb]

Two steps forward and one step back huh, lol. At least you are making progress.

--louis

[Grelland]

as long as the sum is larger than 0, I am happy 

[Willi]

Top work there dude and a credit to yourself to take the body so far back to do the repairs right 
That should give me a bit of inspiration to drive on and get mine finished, hopefully before EBI2   

[Grelland]

Thanks,

I have started dismanteling the pan again, to prepare for stripping an new paint, but I ave also prepared a set of narrowed IRS arms, and mounted the Spyder Mags :-)

[Grelland]

I was quite nervous whether there would be any rubbing, but this seems good:

[Grelland]

I am now VERY excited to check whether the body actually fits over the rear wheels... I hope I am able to check that within the next few days

[Tony M]

Some of the most impressive work i have seen - esp. at home - Great job - will be a real looked 

[Grelland]

Thanks, RACE HEAD.

Time for an update, I guess.

After my friends at the panel beater's had worked on the car for a while, we decided that the body itself is too soft to really fine-adjust the door gaps etc without the pan, so we had a slight change of plans, and I had to load the pan on the trailer, and take the pan over to the panel beater.

[Grelland]

This mean that I have to rush the finishing of the underside of the body, and also make sure the pan is ground down and new paint applied before I join the pan and body for the FINAL time :-)

The downside to this is that I have to mask off the pan and chassis details as the car is painted, but that is manageable.

I guess I have my Easter vacation plans worked out...


Here's another shot of the engine mounted on the pan

[Grelland]

so after some more work, the pan now looks like this:

[Grelland]

and the underside has been treated to some 2-k epoxy primer, body sealer and finally a layer of "body5000" which is a rubber-like semi-hard stuff that is over-paintable:

[Grelland]

next on the list now is to apply a layer of L87 Pearl White paint on these areas, before the body and pan can be permanently joined :-)

[Grelland]

and this is how it looks with paint:

[Grelland]

Finally there is some progress to report.

I have mounted the body to the pan for the last time, and finally it starts looking like a car again:

[Grelland]

Then I had a closer look at how the wheels fit in the openings.

The rear seems fine, but there actually seems to be enough space for using the standard IRS arms. The ones on there now are 1" narrowed
On the front I think the wheels are too far tucked in. The beam is 3" narrowed using CB spindles

[Grelland]

Over to the engine, it seems that there is not enough room for the plenum :-( I will have to either make a new plenum, or make a dent in te firewall.

Other than that, the engine layout combined with the Ghia engine compartment ensures lots of space for working on the engine

[Grelland]

And finally a shot from the rear. I like the look of this exhaust :-)

[Grelland]

So things are definately moving in the right direction. The panel beater need another day or two, then I will take the car back to my own garage for some final touches before it is off to the painter.

[speedwell]

roy ,  your car looks like frankenstein monster   ................................  
no seriously ,you had made a great job on this car , Some would have given up(lowered the arms) (as I by ex   ) you ?you believed in this car and here is again soon on the road  
NICE JOB
fabs

[Zach Gomulka]

Rear disc brakes will add to the track width (about 3/8" on each side is my guess), and so will drop spindles if you dont already have them. I agree, the front looks too narrow

It's getting close Grelland!!

[Grelland]

Yes, I have also thought about the rear discs. The front already has CB dropped spindles, yes

[louisb]

looking good. Cant wait to see it all in one color. If it were me I think I would just dimple the firewall a small mount.

--louis

[Grelland]

Thats, what I was thinking too.... I don't like the idea of cutting up OE steel...

[Rennsurfer]

NICE exhaust system! Those are expensive in the U.S. Wish that they weren't so much money... I'd like to try one of those on my car.

[Grelland]

Finally the car is back from the panel beater, and I had to take a few shots of course....

Here's a couple of the entire car:

[Grelland]

All the little dots are from the crimping process.

Then a couple of pics of the door gap and door-to-fender alignment