2. Karmann Ghia Retoration - The strip begins

Well the stripping has begun on my 1971 VW Karmann Ghia convertible and the more I uncover the worse it gets, although that is no surprise. On every restoration that I have done, when I've started to pull them apart they have always revealed hidden disasters.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I had decided to do the tow bar first. Well as usual, that didn't work out and although the car has now been measured for the tow bar, there is no further progress in that direction. So I decided to get on with the rest of the project.

The first thing was to try and find out how far the rust has spread under the paint. So I set about the car with a very heavy duty wire wheel mounted on my angle grinder and wherever I saw signs of rust I attacked it with the wire wheel. This disclosed holes around the headlights and around the front air intakes. Obviously both sills have gone and, now the bumpers are removed I can see considerable rust on the rear panel.

Of course the other problem with stripping a car that is this old, is that many of the screws and bolts you try to remove simply snap. Even the bigger nuts and bolts were seized solid. Fortunately some of my special tools came in handy, particularly my air wrench and some special sockets, that I was given for Christmas, that have a conical cutting inner shape and dig into old rounded off bolt heads. Many of the tiny pozi headed self tapping screws, holding in the interior trim just would not move and I had to resort to cutting a slot in them with the Dremel and then using a straight cut screwdriver.

The next stage, after removing the bumpers, was to take off the bonnet and boot lids and strip all of the furniture off them. This was quite easy compared to items that had to withstand the weather on their fixings. However, removing the battery from the engine compartment revealed the inside of the near side wing and this was a surprise. There were three rows of small holes drilled the length of the inner wing about 60 holes in all and these all had small amounts of filler poking through the holes.These holes combined with the huge amount of filler that I found on the outside of the rear wing has convinced me that this car had had a near side accident at some time and that these holes were used to pull out the wing as best they could. If you click on this picture of the outer wing, you can see just how deep the filler is on this side.

Well, with all of the outer trim, lights, badges etc. removed, it's time to look at the interior.
So "out with the seats" - mistake!!!, I'll explain that in a minute. The drivers seat slid out easily and, apart from needing a new foam base, revealed that it had a seat heater fitted in it (not standard). The passenger seat was not so easy and required a friend to pull it whilst I pushed with both feet from the rear, but as you can see, it did come out eventually. Now the carpets and door sill trims can be removed and reveal just how bad things are underneath. Well the front of the floor pan is OK and the off side rear section is too, but the near side rear floor pan is only held together with the sound deadening material stuck to it.

I now decided that this was a good time to remove the windscreen, but first I felt that it would be easier if I took the steering wheel and column out first. Not too difficult but someone has already replaced the ignition switch before and all of the wires have butt crimp connectors on them and will not withdraw through the hole in the dashboard. So I've had to cut them. That done and with the steering coupling removed, it all came off quite easily. As did the padded top on the dashboard, which is only held on with plastic nuts and will have to be replaced.

Now to reveal why taking the seats out was a mistake. It's time to remove the windscreen! I know the correct way to do this. You sit on the seat, put your feet on the glass and gently push it out forwards with someone to catch it on the other side. But I had already removed the seats!!! So I decided to try a different approach, as the screen rubber seemed quite soft and I had no one here to help me. So I tried gently levering the rubber out from the front. I should have known better and you know what's coming. Yes I broke the windscreen. !!!****   Idiot. The surprising news is that I found you can still buy one, but I could have done without the expense.  Another look at the floor pan revealed that the heater channels will also need repairing.

I don't know if you've seen the episode of Wheeler Dealers on TV, where they renovate a Karmann Ghia? But if you did, you will recall that Edd had to repair a large strange hole under the dashboard that he informed us once held an auxiliary heater for the USA. Well mine has got the same hole (neatly covered with masking tape), so this will also need to be repaired.

Now for the doors. Removing the handles and the door card is easy, just a couple of philips screws on the handles and then unclip the card and lift and off it comes. But getting the window glass out is a different matter.

To remove the window on a VW beetle, you simply unbolt everything and draw the glass out through the bottom of the door aperture inside the car. Not so with a Karmann Ghia. I downloaded a manual extract to tell me how to do it. First you have to remove the chrome and rubber strip on the top edge of the door. Then, looking down the hole, you can see two rubber buffers. These also have to be removed. Neither of these jobs are easy as you are literally working down the slot. But the next bit is worse. You then remove the window mechanism (that's easy) and that leaves the window with the metal plate fixed to the bottom of it. The manual then says remove the window upwards through the slot. This is almost impossible. I suppose that when the car was new and things hadn't rusted then the window and plate might have fit through the slot. But now, with age, it is a nightmare trying to lever the rusty metal plate through a slot that has now distorted with age and now has wavy internal edges. I was certain that I was going to break the windows, but by some miracle I didn't. However the thought of getting them back in again, when the doors have nice new and soft paintwork is somewhat worrying.

My next task will be removing the convertible hood. I've already taken the rear window out, which was just a couple of bolts and so I suppose the next thing to do is unbolt it and see what happens. I would like to remove it in one piece so that the trimmers can see how it should be when I take it to them. But I can also see that there are some repairs necessary on the frame too.

But more of that next time.



You can contact me on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

Copyright 29.03.17 all rights reserved.


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

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

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

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