29. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Big Trouble

 

Well sorting out the minor faults after the car's short run didn't take much doing. The problem with the gear change turned out to be that I had fitted the striker plate back to front and upside down. Once turned over and reoriented the gear change worked perfectly. I also took the opportunity to fit a "Quick Shift" under the gear lever which shortens the lever travel and makes it more positive. The Headlights too were an easy fix. The reason that they were on all the time was because a small 6mm nut had fallen across the back of the fuse box giving the headlights a permanent feed. The spacing on the steering wheel required the making of an aluminium spacer, bringing the steering wheel 20mm further forward and that sorted out all of the test drive problems.

I then thought that I would try the carpet set, that I had bought second hand, in the car and the result was very disappointing. As you can see from the photo, they didn't fit very well and left a gap between the end of the carpet and the rear seat support. The other pieces I tried weren't much better and I made the decision to sell them on Ebay and have some carpets made.

Now I had never been very happy with the condition of the original aluminium sill protectors and so decided to have some stainless steel ones made with the Karmann Ghia logo laser engraved into them. So I had the blank metal plates made and polished them to mirror finish in my workshop. I then  drew the artwork on computer and and took the plates to a laser engraver in Leicester. Two weeks later I had these beautiful sill protectors fitted on the car.

You know what it's like, just when you think things are going well, something always goes wrong. I was running the engine and tuning the carburettors when I looked under the car and there was a huge pool of oil on the floor. "BIG TROUBLE". It meant removing the engine again and investigating.

After stripping off all the tin-ware I found that the area around the oil cooler was where the problem was and after removing the oil cooler, I found a seal with a damaged edge. So I fitted new seals and rebuilt the engine and put the engine back in again. I ran the engine and it still leaked !! (Oh Bother ***!!!****, I said). So the engine had to come out again. 

This time, I read that some of the oil cooler seals were softer than others and so when through my collection of seals and found the recommended harder seals and fitted them. I rebuilt the engine again and fitted it back in the car. Guess what? It still leaked. 

Engine out for the third time, this time damaging the new seal around the rear valance (I had to buy another new one, and stripped the engine for the third time. This time I checked the oil cooler itself, which was brand new. I pressurised it and it showed no sign of leaking. So I rebuilt the engine again, this time using a different sealant (Silicon) and refitted it back in the car yet again.

No luck. It still leaked!!!

So I decided to do the unthinkable. I took the engine out for the fourth time and stripped off the tin-ware and then re-fitted the engine back into the car with no cooling and ran the engine.

It leaked, but now I could see where the oil was coming from and it was the new oil cooler. Whilst it had stood up to the pressure test OK, once it had hot oil running through it under pressure it leaked from the core. I later discovered that this is a common fault with these replacement oil coolers. Fortunately I had not thrown away the original, 53year old, oil cooler. So I cleaned it and flushed it out and fitted it back on the engine. I then re-fitted the engine back into the car, still with no cooling, and ran the engine, to check for leaks.  It didn't leak. Hooray!!

Now the engine had to come out for the fifth time so that I could re-fit all of the tin-ware and
finally it could be fitted back into the car and tested. 

At last it did not leak.

I had had to postpone the car's trip to the trimmers due to the oil leak. So now I had a date and had to get it ready. The new hood had arrived from Holland, which I laid over the frame, to make sure it fitted, and it did and looks good.

So Now I needed to look at the back seat. When I bought the car, it had no back seat, with just a board covering the hole. I had bought a second had back seat on the internet but found that, when I tried it in the car, it was too big. I was for a saloon not a convertible. So I had to strip off the outer skins and shorten the length of both the squab and backrest  including the foam. I could then fit the hinges and make sure it folded correctly

On Friday 18th October 2024 I gave the car it's maiden voyage on it's 9 mile trip to the car trimmer. It behaved beautifully. Now it's Ian Cherry's job to fit new carpets, retrim the seats and door cards and fit the new hood.

I shall be popping down every week to see how it is progressing.

Copyright 22.10.24 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

28. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Fuel Tank & Door Seals

 

The car is progressing steadily and it's now time to look at fitting the fuel tank. When I bought the car there was a strong smell of petrol and, after inspection, it was found that the fuel tank was perforated on the underside. I took the tank to a local firm for it to be repaired and since then it has sat in the workshop loft. So now it was time to fit it and the first job is to look at the filler neck. 

Well it needed a good clean and repainting and the body seal needed thoroughly cleaning but both were serviceable and fitting it was not too difficult 

However this then presented new problems. The original VW fuel system had a recirculating system with unused fuel from the carburettor returning down a pipe back to an expansion tank in the boot and then back into the fuel tank. As the car now has twin carburettors with no return fuel facility, the pipe from front to rear had to be removed and a new breather system devised. This was done by connecting the two breather pipes up to the existing metal tubes, in the filler neck. A third, small drain tube, then needed to be connected to the drip tray in the fuel filler compartment.

Finally the refurbished fuel tank could be fitted and the fuel gauge connected. I fitted new sealing strip around the underside of the tank edge before clamping it into place. 

With the tank empty, it was not possible to check whether the gauge and sender were working correctly. However by shorting the wire from the sender to earth, it did send the gauge full scale. so the gauge works, I'll have to wait and see if the sender works when I fill it with petrol.

Now with the fuel system in place I needed to devise a way of running the engine without filling the workshop with fumes. So I set about making an exhaust extraction system. This is a box with two heat resistant rubber hoses, to fit over the exhausts and another hose taking the fumes outside via a hole in the wall. This was successful and the engine now runs on fuel directly from it's tank and no leaks.

Well I now decided to fit the new door seals. Now these are only held in place by adhesive and so have to be fitted with great care. Also they cannot be fitted with the door on. So the doors have to be removed from the car. I then had to purchase some PU18 silicone adhesive and a lot of masking tape. I now applied a generous amount of adhesive around the edge of the door. On one end of the rubber is a small knob. This pushes through a hole at the top of the door, above the catch. This is the only physical fixing point for this rubber. The rubber could then be pressed into the adhesive and held in place with lots of masking tape and then left for 48 hours for the adhesive to set. The tape could then be removed and the doors refitted.

The next job is to fit the two remaining seals down the door pillars. (Not my photo) As you can see from the picture. these seals have no physical fix and have to be simply held in place with adhesive. So it's the same method. A bead of PU18 silicone adhesive is ran down the path of the seal on the pillar and the seal is then pressed onto the adhesive and held in place with more masking tape and left for 48 hours before removing the tape.

Two friends have very kindly donated two badges for the car. One is an RAC badge and the other is an AA badge. Both badges just needed cleaning and polishing and then I needed to make two stainless steel fixing brackets to wrap around the over-rider. They both fit beautifully and give the car a really good "period" look.

At last, after nine years of restoration, it's finally time to try the car up and down the car park under it's own power. What a thrill to actually drive it!  The short trial did throw up a couple of things that needed attention, but that was to be expected. The gear change was very vague, the steering wheel was too close to the indicator arm and needs spacing off and the headlights were permanently on. But these are minor and should be straightforward to rectify. 
 

Copyright 14.09.24 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

27. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Doors & Engine

 

Now for those of you that have assembled a Karmann Ghia's doors before, you will cringe as I start this rebuild as I did it all in the wrong order. But you only learn by trying!. 

So the first job was to dig out the window mechanisms and clean off 53 years of dirt and grime. Then treat all unplated parts with rust killer and lubricate all the moving parts. It was then a case of offering the mechanism into the door and bolting it in place. 

I then tried to offer the glass into the door and it will only go in one way and that is down through the slot in the top of the door. Well somehow I had managed to get the glass out of the door, when I stripped it, without removing the metal carrier on the bottom of the glass, but it was quite obvious now that there was no way that it would go back in like that. The slot was now too small to allow it to pass through. So I had to figure how to remove the carrier without breaking the glass. This was achieved with lots of WD40 and very gentle levering. I could then mount the carrier onto the mechanism and then lower the glass down through the slot and back into the carrier.

It was now a case of lining up the four fixing bolts and clamping the glass carefully in place. I now fitted the guide rubber to the windscreen pillar and then wound up the window and had to loosen all the fixings again to allow the angle of the glass to be adjusted until it sat in the rubber correctly and then re-tighten them.

Now this is where the fun really began! I fitted the inner wiper strip without too much trouble but then tried to fit the anti-rattle rubbers. There are seven on each door and of all the jobs that I have done on the car this has been the hardest. These rubbers fit into the outer skin of the door, inside the slot. You can't reach them or re-drill them and the only way I could attempt to fit them was to pass the rubber down through the slot with a pointed pair of pliers and then try and push them into the holes with a small screwdriver. 

This takes immense patience, I even went to the trouble of making a special tool to try and insert them.       

It didn't work! and it took me over three weeks and 21 rubbers before I managed to get only 5 rubbers into each door. If I had realised how difficult these were, I would have fitted them when I had the doors cut open and before it was sprayed . But you live and learn.

Now the other thing that I discovered when cleaning the windows was that the driver's door window was badly scratched due to being wound up and down without any rubbers in place and after finding that having the glass re-polished was more expensive than buying a new one, I bought a new one and had to strip the door again to fit it.

The final job was to fit the outer scraper strips. I had to wait weeks before the new fixing clips arrived and then managed to break three whilst trying to fit the strip incorrectly. I thought that the rubber sat on top of the door and pressed up against the metal strip between it and the glass. I eventually discovered that the rubber fits "over" the metal strip allowing the clips to snap in easily.

                                     

Now the good bit. It's time to fit the engine.  This involved removing the carburettors and manifolds and the heater pipes and the front tray. It was more difficult to fit than expected as the new sports exhaust hit the underside of the bumper preventing it from seating correctly on the bell housing. I eventually modified the exhaust to give it some clearance and in it went. The carburettors went back on along with the heater pipes and rear tray and with the electrics and petrol connected it was time to see if it goes?

The final touch was to fit the steering wheel. This involved finding the old steering wheel and removing the associated parts that operate the indicators auto cancel and transfer them onto the new wheel. This involved drilling and tapping the new wheel to get the parts in the right place, but it worked and also extend the wire to the horn button. But it worked and the new steering wheel fit beautifully.

On the next blog I'll be fitting the door weather seals and fitting a couple of beautiful old badges that friends have given me.
         

Copyright 02.04.24 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

26. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Dashboard and Hood Frame

 

Well this is the point at which I make a bad decision and without studying the dashboard too closely, I decided to start building the dashboard.  So after fitting and wiring the switches I decided to fit a new cigarette lighter. I managed to buy a suitable replacement for the original, that was missing, and offered it to the hole in the dash, only to find that the hole was too small. I was now faced with the problem, how to make the hole bigger? Now obviously I could try using a hand file, but the bezel was only 1mm wide and I would need to be very accurate. Plus I wanted the hole exactly central to the existing one. So I bought a 24mm Q-Max cutter and then set about making a spacer, to fit the hole in the dash, with a hole in the middle for the cutter bolt to pass through. This spacer then held the cutter exactly in the centre of the hole in the dash. Then with masking tape, to stop the cutter marking the dashboard paint, I cut the hole and it was perfect.

The next job was to renovate the clocks and as soon as I put them on the bench I noticed that I had two clocks with grey faces and one with a black face. The time clock was definitely an odd one out. Well I searched the web for a "grey" clock but could not find one anywhere. But eventually I found a grey faced Rev Counter of the correct size and purchased that. The next job was to strip and clean the speedo and fuel gauge. Removing the bezels and glass was a slow and delicate operation 

without breaking the glass  but the result was excellent and they now look beautiful. 

At this point I still hadn't realised the mistakes I was making, but it is visible in this picture. So Now I decided to buy the upper and lower dash pads. I had to wait some time for the top pad to arrive from the USA and the bottom pad came from Germany.

In the mean time I could fit the radio. This is a replica vintage look radio with DAB, USB and Bluetooth with four speaker outputs and a separate feed for a sub speaker.

Well my dashboard pads arrived and as soon as I offered them up to the dashboard my mistake was obvious. The holes at the top left and right on the dashboard were still visible below the pads. Plus more slots on the far right and left. I had mistakenly thought that the pads would cover these holes and I was wrong. I had really wanted to keep the blue painted dash. But now I had no choice. The whole dashboard had to be stripped again and I had to order the wood laminate facia. 

So while I waited for the dash facia to arrive, I decided it was time to fit the windscreen. You will have read that I broke the original screen getting it out. So I now had a new screen, new rubber and new chrome trims. Now I have a very good friend who used to work for Autoglass as a fitter. So I asked him if he would help and he came along to the workshop. 

As usual, nothing is easy, we managed to get the new rubber around the glass but could not get the chrome trim to fit and after a whole night of trying, we gave up and went home. I spent the next few days reshaping the chrome trims (which come flat) to fit the shape of the screen and my friend returned for another attempt. Surprise surprise, it wouldn't fit on the car. The whole screen and rubber appeared bigger than  the aperture. In a final desperate attempt, I found the old, 50 year old, screen rubber and spent a whole day cleaning it up. My friend returned for a third attempt and this time, with the original screen rubber, it fit!

The wood laminate arrived and it was time to start reassembling the dash. With the laminate stuck in place with contact adhesive, I now had the job of cutting out all of the holes. The larger holes were not too difficult, using a sharp Stanley Knife to carefully cut around the hole. But the switch holes posed a small problem as some of them were not indented on the laminate. I ended up using a small drill from the other side of the dash to find the centre of the holes and then drilling from the front by hand with the correct size drill. 

After refitting all of the clocks and switches I could now fit the two new top and bottom pads. I had previously only laid them in place. It was now time to fit them properly. Well the first thing that I discovered was that the captive bolts on the bottom (German) pad were 6mm. No problem. However the bolts on the top (American) pad were imperial and after a lot of searching I discovered that they were 3/16" Whitworth, which of course, I didn't have!  This meant a trip to a local Nut and bolt company who fortunately found some and gave them to me (Thank you).  Getting the nuts onto these pads is extremely awkward and takes ages to do, but there it is, fitted!

So now a change of direction, as I was looking at how to fit the four loudspeakers for the radio. Now the rear speakers had to go into the rear plastic quarter panel interior trims and these trims were in really bad condition. They had become brittle and had much of the edges broken off and one trim was actually broken in half. I searched for new ones on the web and found that they were really expensive. So I decided to try and repair them. I backed each one with thin aluminium, held in place with epoxy resin and pop rivets. Hopefully, once they are trimmed with vinyl, they will look fine.

Now in order to fit these panels, the hood frame had to be in place first. So it was time to fetch the frame down from the loft and have a go at fitting it. I had previously stripped the frame and had it powder coated. So now was the time to fit it. Well it's really nice to have something go well for a change and the frame fitted easily and even the rear window catch worked correctly.

So next time I'll be reassembling the doors and fitting the engine.

Copyright 30.01.24 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

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

Copyright 15.10.23 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html