11. Karmann Ghia Restoration - Moving Forwards

It's hard to believe, looking at this early picture of my 1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible, that the left side front wing area could hold so many problems. But what was hiding under the surface was about to reveal itself.

On the last blog the rear of the left side had been reconstructed and it was now time to move forward to the left side front wing. After removing the front wheel the first thing that became apparent was a suspicious looking metal plate that had been welded to the inner wing. This plate, measuring about 75mm tall and 200mm long, reached from the back of the "A" pillar and stretched in towards the centre of the car. It was decided to remove the plate and take a look at what it was hiding. The answer was "Nothing", literally. No inner wing, no back to the heater channel, no inner heater channel, no floor to the heater channel. Nothing was left in there and all that was giving the appearance of a heater channel on the inside of the car was rust held together with paint and carpet glue.  This was serious. The front section of the heater channel (which carries no heat as it is redirected up to the dashboard before this section) provided strengthening support for the "A" pillar and the chassis. 

So there was no choice but to cut it all out and start another reconstruction. To do this the bottom section of the front wing had to be cut away along with the front corner of the floor pan and, of course the rotten remains of the inner heater channel. The remains of the heater channel were retained to allow it to be copied and maybe salvage a small part of the curved section.

Now a new floor of the heater channel could be made and welded into place. 

Closely followed by new side plates and a new inner wing back plate. 

 On this picture you can see the cut-out section of the floor pan just offered back into place to make sure it still fits. Although it will never go back as I've already bought a complete new floor pan for the left side. Whilst in place, the holes for the bolts that hold the floor pan to the bottom of this new heater channel floor plate could also be marked, ready for drilling and the fitting of new captive nuts.

 Now for the hard bit, the reconstruction of the curved section of the heater channel. As I mentioned on previous blogs, my car is currently at my friends business, Unit 2 Services, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and Colin, who owns the business is pretty good with sheet metal, but I didn't realise ho good until now.  Colin salvaged the usable curved section of the heater channel and grafted in a new corner section. The next problem was to cut a 50mm round hole in the new top plate. Now neither of us had a 50mm cutter so Colin drew a circle on the plate and then proceeded to cut a perfectly round hole with a hammer and chisel. I could not believe it, but there it was perfect. 

The next stage was even more amazing. We now needed a 49mm tube to fit through the hole with a flange on the bottom.  Colin had some 2" tube that was slightly too big. So first he beat a 5mm 90 degree flange around one end of the tube. Then, using "Pi" he calculated the circumference of the existing tube and the circumference of the tube required and took one from the other to calculate how much metal to cut out of the tube, which was about 5mm. He then cut the 5mm out of the side of the tube. Now all that was left was to close up the gap in the tube. But that would leave a oval tube. The next bit amazed me. Colin beat the flange (not the tube) with the wedge end of an engineering hammer and slowly the tube shrank closing up the gap and leaving a perfectly round tube. Wow!!  

Finally the new section was welded in, closely followed by the new bottom outer wing section.

Well you would think that the problems under the front left wing were now over, but they weren't.

Another problem was lurking at the front and this was the fresh air intake box.  The grills, on the front on the Karmann Ghia, allow fresh air to be directed up to the dashboard. 



This is done via ducting boxes under the front wings  and, true to form, the one on the left side was rotten. The rotten areas had to be cut out and new sections fabricated. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the repaired air box. but I'm sure you can visualise it, and it is now solid and back in place.

Well things are going to jump forward at this point, as Colin decided to go into work over the August Bank Holiday and do some work on his own and to my surprise, when I turned up the following Wednesday, the car had turned around on the lift and was now facing the other way for the first time in a year, and it had gained the following.

Two Headlight sections

And a new Spare wheel well . He had also patched all of the small holes around the air intakes and the edge of the bonnet (hood). 

By the way, all of the "black" that you can see appearing on the repaired sections of the car is rust proofing treatment.

So this is an enormous jump forward and we will soon be moving onto the right side of the car  and a look at the other sill.

Finally the gearbox has come back from being overhauled and looks great.

You can contact me on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

Copyright 30.08.18 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