Sunday 10 December 2023

25. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Lights, Horn & Screen Washer

 


Well wiring the headlight's was straight forward. I managed to renovate the original rubber tubes from the headlight bowls to the body and thread through the new wiring loom. Wiring them back to the fuse box and the switch wasn't too difficult but the headlight relay would flash the lights but not dip them. So in the end I had to buy a new relay. 


Now I had decided not to mount the Battery in the engine compartment. Instead I wanted to fit it under the back seat (Like in a Beetle). However the space under the back seat of a Karmann Ghia is not as deep as a Beetle and so I had to search for a suitable battery to fit the available space. Eventually I found that the battery for a Mercedes SL fit the space perfectly and here it is mounted in place.






The next job was to fit fit the horns. Now the original horns were long gone and the one I removed, when stripping the car, was just a single cheap plastic horn. I wanted to fit some "air horns" but this posed another problem. Without the original horns and rubber boot, how was I going to stop water coming in through the hole in the wheel well. So I experimented with very fine stainless steel wire mesh and found that if the mesh was fine enough, then the water would run off it rather than pass through it and the sound could still pass through it easily. So that's what I fitted, held in place with black body sealant. New air horns were fitted along with the compressor and a relay and wired back to the steering column. Oh boy! they sound loud and great.


The next task is to convert the washers to electric operation. This involved removing the air switch from the back of the wiper switch and devising a mounting for a micro-switch to trigger the electric pump. I studied lots of different micro switches before settling on a "lever type" as this requires the least pressure to make it work and is activated easily by the slim plastic rod on the back of the washer button. So I made adjustable aluminium mounting brackets and mounted the switch and it works perfectly.






Now to mount the Light switch and wiper switch in the dashboard. I had to make a tool to tighten the switch bezels, as they only have two small chamfered slots in them. This I made with a small tube, filed to leave just two small protruding pegs on the end that fit the slots and a long machine screw through the other end of the tube to form a "T" handle. 






Now it's time to mount the washer bottle and true to form the old one leaked. So I had to buy a replacement and then drill it, through where the original pressure valve fitted, to allow the water pipe to enter it. It could then be piped to the pump and up to the new jet at the windscreen. Time for a test. I connected the battery and pushed the button. The pump whirled and water shot out of the jets, straight into my face, as I still haven't fitted the windscreen!!! 








The final test was to fit the spare wheel and check that both the horns and the washer bottle all clear the wheel and that there was still room for the jack. As you can see, everything fits great.










  
It was at this point that I was thinking about the original wiring and it occurred to me that the main positive cable, which is connected to the starter motor and travels the full length of the car to feed the fuse box, carries all the current for the car's electrics but is not fused in any way. If that wire should ever short to earth then the cable could catch fire. My original idea was to fit an in-line fuse but after investigating I came up with a much better solution. By wiring the cable back to the battery area, I could fit a 60A breaker that would protect the car and be easily reset once the fault was found. So here it is:-

I now decided that it was time to fit the rear window. Now this has been stored safely in the loft since the car was stripped. It was in really bad condition with 50 years of mould and dirt ingrained on the glass. I tried widow cleaning fluid and it didn't touch it. So I went for paint thinners and that didn't touch it either. So I finally used Nitromores paint stripper, which finally did the job. I felt that I was lucky as all of the dirt was on the outside of the glass so I did not have to damage the heated elements on the inside. The next job was to look at the mountings. 

The hinges were great and just needed cleaning and painting, but the mountings that bolt the hinges to the glass  were missing and had been replaced by rusty nuts and bolts. I decided to make new ones and set about the task on the lathe. So with two new aluminium mushrooms, new rubbers and stainless screws on the inside, the hinges could be mounted on the glass. 













The next task was to look at the catch for the rear window and it had a problem.. One of the pivoting legs was broken in half. Being cast, this could not be repaired and so it was either buy a new, very expensive, catch or try to fix it. 





I went for the second option and made a new pivot leg from thick aluminium and the drilled and tapped the body and used cap screws to fix it back together. 











Well, at last, the rear window could be fitted and wired and guess what? The heated screen didn't work. So I had to remove it again and investigate the element. It turned out to have 14 breaks in it.  I went on the internet and searched for a repair kit, which involves conductive paint. I bought 2 kits and set about the repair. Each break was located and painted and then left 24 hours to dry and then re-tested. I had to do this three times before finally having all elements working and being able to re-fit the window.


Well at this point I just wanted to add a bit of trim. Now I had the original Karmann Ghia badge, but it had a really deep groove scored into it in the black area. So I set about filling the groove with black gloss paint. Day after day I added more paint and left it to dry until it was finally filled. I then rubbed it down until smooth and then polished it. And here is the finished result.


On the next episode the hood frame is fitted and the dashboard assembled

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