Current Pics of Marc Buehler's Split Window

[marc1951]

Hi Ed,

Don't worry, I have seen some Ghis's with split windows and it is just wrong. You have to remember about Marc's filled quarter windows and that lovely engine cover on his corvaired bug. THE RED ONE IS LOOKING GREAT?

Rev. Bob

OK, so I wasn't always so cool.....

The red one?  it's getting there! Thanks to the Reverend (and his lovely wife), I will have a headliner this week and hope to stick the motor in this weekend.

Marc

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[edcraig]

It's Ok Marc.  Those were pre legendary DRA days.  Back when I was still driving "white lighting".  ;-)

[rick m]

Mark,

The split is looking great! Nice to see an old car being brought back to life!

Rick M

[Jason Foster]

  OK  Marc....  how you been doing sir Happy Holidays and all.




  SO  how's the split coming along??

[marc1951]

  OK  Marc....  how you been doing sir Happy Holidays and all.




  SO  how's the split coming along??

And Happy Holidays to you, Jason.

the split? .....well, I guess I need to tell the sad story.

You can see that my last progress post was October 6th and it was soon after that I was contacted by a prominent technical editor of a well known VW magazine. He tells me that I need to have the car done in a month. I told him that I couldn't, he says it's important.  I say I can try, but the car won't be drivable, he says it needs to be drivable and just do it.

So for the next month, I leave work early, take days off, cutting corners, throwing it together. Reverend Bob and his wife make and install the headliner and door panels. Bob and I both became sick but we continued to work on it every day. On November 7th, I actually drove the car for the first time in 30 years. It was only around the block and it was obvious the motor, shifter, and brakes needed some adjustments but good enough for some photos.

November 12th was the big day and the plan is to fly up in the morning and use the 3 or 4 hours of sun left before a storm arrives. But Alaska Airlines delayed the flight and we ran out of sun, the storm came and the deadline could not be met.
I was so bummed that I didn't even want to look at the car and covered it up. There are so many things that I did in that last month that I'm not happy with and now I will have to redo them (where possible).

Maybe someday I will be able to take interest in the car again but for now, I've started a new project.
My new passion is the '71 Ghia shown in the following pictures.

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Isn't she beautiful?

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I know it will take some work but I hope to make it look just like Ed Craig's

[marc1951]

Naw, just kidding!

Thanksgiving, someone wanted to see the car and I pulled the cover off the split and I fell in love with the car again.
My to-do/re-do list fills 2 pages and I've already taken care of the first page.

Here is what I've done since October…………

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Bob and his wife,Linda,came over while I was at work and installed the headliner they made.

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I didn't have time to have a custom carpet made so bought a pre-made one for a later year and modified it. I'll be replacing this as I am unhappy with it.

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Here Bob and I try to figure out how to modify the carpet to fit. If you're curious about the difference between a 51 and 55 carpet......it's about 4 inches!

[edcraig]

No way Marc....I want to make my Ghia like your's.  It's super cool!

[marc1951]

The frenzy continues……………


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I don't know how, but one of the rear windows was cracked so we had to find someone quick to make new ones. The new glass is thicker which caused us grief trying to install them.

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Side glass installed. Note the original DRA decal.

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Putting in the seats. The Reverend Bob made the door panels for me.

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Here Bob and I take a break.

[marc1951]

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It's the middle of the night and putting the motor in.....or trying to anyway.

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Now that the body has been fixed, the cast valve covers hit where I've marked with tape. I had to find some stock covers and they barely fit.

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 The "Weber windows" really help. I have a fused wrist and without these, I could not bolt down the manifolds.

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Here is the "window" with the cover on.

[Rick Meredith]

Forget the split... whats up with the Ghia??? 

[deano]

Marc, yes, things did not go as planned last month. For everyone else, Marc's car was supposed to be in our February 2011 issue, the annual California Look editon, but Alaska Air decided to screw things up royal. I probably flew 50,000 miles this past year, and the one time I didn't, or couldn't build in some padding time-wise, was this photo session to the great Northwest. Marc tells me that the day turned out beautiful, and it all could have worked out fine, but NO! The following day, and just about every day since, it has rained or snowed up there. So, I still have my ticket to Seattle sitting here waiting to get reused. So, this spring, we'll be back up there and try it again... Dean

Now back to our movie, still in progress.....

[marc1951]

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I love looking at the motor............

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pure sex!

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Dash wired and kind of works......at least the gauges and starter works

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the "Made in Germany" tag installed

[marc1951]

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had to modify the front carpet to fit also

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made a wiring cover using scrap carpet

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It's the night before the photo shoot

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and a little late night cleaning

[marc1951]

And the last 3 weeks where I’m now redoing/fixing/finishing things
I've fixed the front weatherstrip, aligned the doors and they actually close now. I swapped the door locks (I had the locking one on the wrong door), I've installed battery cut-off switch, managed to knock out the door hinge pin and installed the passenger side mirror, polished out scratch in gas tank, and a bunch of other stuff.

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I Mickey Moused the wiring for the photo shoot and now, I’ve pulled it out and started over

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and that included rebuilding the "black box" I built in the 70s.

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the hood was bowed up in the middle so I'm using weights to push it down.

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and last but not least, look at the badge that I found...........

[marc1951]

Marc, yes, things did not go as planned last month. For everyone else, Marc's car was supposed to be in our February 2011 issue, the annual California Look editon, but Alaska Air decided to screw things up royal. I probably flew 50,000 miles this past year, and the one time I didn't, or couldn't build in some padding time-wise, was this photo session to the great Northwest. Marc tells me that the day turned out beautiful, and it all could have worked out fine, but NO! The following day, and just about every day since, it has rained or snowed up there. So, I still have my ticket to Seattle sitting here waiting to get reused. So, this spring, we'll be back up there and try it again... Dean

Now back to our movie, still in progress.....

thanks, Dean...
You're right about the weather that followed...........there has been maybe 4 days that had 4 hours sun and 3 of them was with snow on the ground. Not a good time of year to be doing car stuff outside.

I'll try not to wreak the car before you get to it.........

[marc1951]

Forget the split... whats up with the Ghia??? 

I'm ready to do some roundy round racing but I'm too fat and old to get into it (the doors are welded shut)......sigh!

Did you check out the cool Cal-Look bumpers?  Ed Craig is hounding me to sell them to him for his Ghia.

Marc

[Rick Meredith]

Very Cool... Those bumpers are gonna replace t bars as the cool ones to have! 

[DKK Ted]

Marc, that car is looking nice, can't wait to see it in person.

Ted

[Lee.C]

I've been wondering how things are going - its looking AWESOME dude, that motor is a bit of a tight fit 

By the way what linkage is that your using

[vwcab]

Like said above,your split looks "AWESOME" Marc.Too bad it didn't work out with the photoshoot       ,but there will be a next time(I hope).
Have fun with it.
 

[Diederick/DVK]

looks like the linkage on the conda green split when it was still brown.
nicely fabricated, just wondering if bar can roll smoothly through the 3 clamps that bolt it to the shroud.

[Rennsurfer]

Forget the split... whats up with the Ghia??? 

Agreed. Cal Look is boring... more of the Ghia, please.

[Zach Gomulka]

Looks spectacular

I've seen that linkage somewhere before, can't remember who makes it. Very nice and clean.

[edcraig]

I'm all over those rare pre cal look ghia bumpers that Marc has!

[WCB Hitler's Hot Rod]

Isn't she beautiful?

Frenchy's ghia is found!!! Nice one! j/k Frenchy.

[marc1951]

Marc, that car is looking nice, can't wait to see it in person.

Ted

Thanks Ted

I hope to have the car down there in May for the Bug-In......look me up and I'll give you the grand tour.................or were you referring to the Ghia  <grin>


Marc

[marc1951]

I've been wondering how things are going - its looking AWESOME dude, that motor is a bit of a tight fit 

By the way what linkage is that your using

Hey Lee,

Did Russell ever send you those dash panels?

I made the linkage......it's a work in progress. I wanted it to be as simple as possible and I've accomplished that. It seems to work OK but I'm tired of fiddling with it so if it gives me any grief, I'll replace it. Originally I had Teflon coated bushings to support the cross bar but I forgot to allow for the thickness of the chrome plating so used my back up brackets that weren't opened up for the bushings.


Marc

[marc1951]

Like said above,your split looks "AWESOME" Marc.Too bad it didn't work out with the photoshoot       ,but there will be a next time(I hope).
Have fun with it.
 

Thank you.
I'm sure there will be a "next time" - see Dean's comment.


Marc

[DKK Ted]

Hey Mark, Looking forward to the grand tour......of the split. See ya then! 

Ted

[edcraig]

Looks great Marc.  Hope you can incorporate some of that Ghia style into the split window!  ;-)  You'll be very popular if you do!