1969 Karmann Ghia and Story

[ghiastein]

Back in early 2001 I was currently living near Cleveland Ohio. I have just graduated collage two years ago and I was having fun at my new job. I was driving a 1999 New beetle and I was about done restoring my first love a 1978 Rabbit Diesel. During my trip to Indiana to see my Grandparents. My Aunt said that her Boss had a weird old car sitting at his house, but she had no idea what it was. So she asked me if I wanted to go with her to check it out. This is what I found.....



I knew what the car was but I had no idea the year. Unfortunately this is the closest that I have been to an air cooled VW.
At this time the Owner or Aunt's Boss came to see what was going on near his car. We talked for a bit and then I asked the question. "Is it for sale?"
His reply was "It all depends on how much you have."
Being fresh out of collage and at my first real job starting out money was tight. So I said back "$500.00."
His reply was "The car is worth more than that."

Well my Aunt and I got back into her car and left. End of story........ So I thought......

[ghiastein]

A few months pass and my aunt calls me to tell me that the owner of the 1969 Karmann Ghia has got an other offer of $500.00 on the car. Since my offer was first he was going to let me have it.
After a quick trip back to Indiana to fully go through the car and finalize the deal. I come to find out that the car is all stock with out missing any pieces. Just all of the parts are used and some interior pieces were broke but no big deal.







Upon finalizing the deal the Owner asks if I would also like to purchase the other 1969 Karmann Ghia in the barn. I was dreaming this kind of stuff never happens to me ever. We walk over to his bar to check out the other car. He politely informed me that it was a parts car only. After the doors open I could see what he met.





Even though it was rusty once again it was a complete car but with a better interior. Well I ask for the price and the owner says $100.00. Wow 2 1969 Karmann Ghia's for $600.00. Who would pass up a deal like this I must be in dreaming.
I payed the man and arranged for my Aunt to pick them up and move them to her house for a bit until I was able to pick them up.

More to come

[Dustin]

Great story so far, Wow that parts car sure is rough. Nice deal for $600

[ghiastein]

Well being broke after buying two VW's is not fun. Thankfully my father was willing to help me out with bringing the cars home. We rented a U-haul trailer that my Dad pulled with his truck. Took two weekend but I got the cars home.
Once again the luck was on my side. After having the yellow KG home I connected up a jumper battery and attempted to turn over the engine. It cranked and cranked well. Well enough to make the oil pressure light go out. So I had a little gas left over from something and I poured it into the carburetor. Cranked the engine again and it fired right up and ran like a top after sitting 15 years. With the old gas and the old oil. Sorry rookie mistake but it was fun.
A month went by and I insured the car, registered it and I drove it.
I drove it everywhere with out doing a thing to it other than changing the fluids.
During my spare time I completely disassembled the blue car and saving everything.


Until I lost my Job...

[ghiastein]

After I lost my job things were not fun. I lost my job due to cut backs after 9-11 and I was having trouble finding an other one. Lucky for me I took a part time job at AutoZone before all this happened. The bad news is that I was denied unemployment because of the part time job.
I finished the stripping of the parts car and recycled the body. I had a complete frame with only a little rust on the pans. I was planning to buy a fiberglass body and turn it into a buggy. Well money was very tight I was almost evicted from my apartment and almost lost my New Beetle.
Well luck was on my side. My Grandparents just both retired and were very bored. So they decided to take me in, but I had to move to Indiana. During the move I threw out alot of stuff even my complete frame. My grandparents were willing to let me take my hobby just not all of it.
Never throw out any thing VW related learn from my mistake.
During my stay at my Grandparents I was able to transfer my job at AutoZone. I was also able to work on the Ghia. At the time I loved the look of the RatRod so I turned to my Ghia and had fun again...

Actually that is my favorite picture all three of my cars. 1978 Rabbit, 1999 New Beetle, and 1969 Karmann Ghia Dated summer 2003

Back to story
At this time my Ghia was primer black with a black interior, aluminum rims, and a 1600 cc Dual Port Engine. I remove the 1500cc because I wanted more horsepower bad mistake.
I scored the engine from a regular customer along with three others for nothing. I just had to pick them up. The engine was good but I was stupid after the install I fired up the engine and forgot to add oil. Oops I will NEVER make that mistake again.
I removed a perfect 1500 cc engine and installed a 1600 cc engine that I started with out oil. Well I did pour oil in later just not soon enough. The engine never ran right. After a few months in service it blew out the rear main seal on my way home from work.
Back to the 1500 cc engine.

[ghiastein]

Also in 2003 I returned my leased New Beetle and bought a 1986 Golf GTI nothing really happened to the Ghia during this time but I did occasionally drive it. I also met my second love my wife and we dated a ot. This was kind of a pain because we met on line through a dating service and she lived in Kalamazoo MI. I lived in Indiana many miles on the cars.

In 2004 I moved closer to my Girl Friend aka Wife and brought all of my cars here to Michigan 1986 GTI, 1978 Rabbit, and 1969 Ghia.

2005 was not a fun year The Rabbit blew a head gasket and the GTI had fuel injection issues. I was unfortunately using the Ghia as a daily driver and it to was in need of repair. I was able to fix the head gasket but it blew again due to a warped head. I was in need of a different car so I traded the Rabbit in on a 2003 Chevy Blazer

2005 My Girl Friend aka wife moved in and she needed a set of wheels so guess what she got my Blazer. That left me with out a car. I turned to the GTI ripped off the fuel injection and added a progressive Webber. Wow what fun the car just came alive.

[ghiastein]

Also in 2005 I started messing the Ghia. Money was tight and I needed something to do so that fall I was going to start my project.
First up was the lowering job just jack up the rear and adjust the rear splines on the torsion bar. Simple right, NO the last person to touch the bolts on the suspension of the Ghia had to be the Germans back in 1969 every bolt did not come out easy. Over a few weeks I got it done.
On to the fronts. I bought my weld in beam adjusters from R&N Sport Buggy. I removed my whole front axle assembly and took it to my buddy in Indiana who is a professional welder. He did an excellent job after I installed the axle assembly my car looked like this.


That my wife in the car how sweet she is in the drivers seat. Get a good look because that will never happen again.


Notice rear tire camber luckily it not a swing axle.


Looky rear tire all tucked in and ready for bed. Ahhh how cute

One problem I now have no front suspension travel. No big deal on to much more fun stuff...

[ghiastein]

The 1500cc engine had been making a funny noise it sounded like a unadjusted valve "too loose" I knew that all of my valves were adjusted correctly so I thought no big deal. During the spring of 2006 I removed the engine and did some exploratory surgery. What I had found was that I had lost a rod bearing and my rod was banging on my crank note the noise. Well scrap that engine I had a bunch others. So learning from mistakes from the past I decided to build a 1500cc engine. The build went rather easy which was scary. My Father once told me that if a engine builds easy and starts the first time that is a sign of bad luck. Well that aside this is my completed engine.



The rest of the time was spent stripping off all of the parts from Ghia because some day I was hopping to have it painted just did not know when. During my removal I did not label any of the wires because I had a wiring diagram in my repair manual. Very bad mistake that I will suffer from later...

[ghiastein]

At this time the Ghia is just an empty body sitting on a frame. I did not do a body off because I don't have the room plus my body is not perfect. This will be done some time in the future.

Lucky for me I work at a company that does fabrication work. So I made arrangements with our master welder to come in on a weekend to do some welding on my car. What I wanted done was the removable of the drip rail down the edge above the side windows. This required cutting and re welding of the seam.

During my trip towing the car I made an other stupid mistake. I forgot to tighten up the lug bolts because I was in a hurry. Some where on 94 are 4 lug bolts. My driver side rear tire came loose while in tow. Because of the over hang on the rear wheel arch my tire never left the Ghia. The center of the rim just stayed on the center of the brake drum riding on the lip of the center nut. Thus destroying the rim.

The welder did an excellent job my car looked a lot smoother with out the drip rail. Now on to the body sanding and prepping for paint.

[ghiastein]

Well today August 10 2008 is a special day well for me at least. I went on my first real drive in the Karmann Ghia. The wife and I drove down Stadium Drive to Gull Road. What an excellent drive the car ran beautifully I have worked out all of the kinks in my suspension and redid my brakes. I got a lot of looks, more I think were confused as to what kind of car it was. Still have tons more to do but its road worthy. I hope to see everyone out in their Volkswagens too.

AJ

[bren]

Very cool AJ. Congratulations! Hope to see you on the road soon.
-Bren

[Southpaw]

Hay AJ , Did you glass stay in place ?

[ghiastein]

Yes the Windshield and rear window stayed in place. Thank you again for the help. I sill have more to do but I may take the Ghia out again tonight.

[ghiastein]

Did you know that sanding a car is a pain in the butt. Well I do I spent the winter of 2006-2007 sanding sanding and more sanding the problem that I ran into is the more sanding I did the more oopses I found. Well the spring of 2007 my work was going to install a new paint booth. Ooooh wow how cool getting my car sprayed in a new paint booth. Well our painter was not so cool about it he wanted to charge me a lot coin to use shop's air, shop's spray gun, and shop's paint booth with my purchased paint. The main kicker was the fact that he has never painted a car or used base coat, clear coat paint. He wanted to use MY GHIA as his PRACTICE CAR and CHARGE ME. NOT COOL!!!

After talking around I find out that my new manager is into cars how cool. Plus he has painted several cars in his garage and he is willing to paint my car. Well arangements were made and on Memorial weekend of 2007 my Ghia was in tow to my managers house.

[ghiastein]

Sorry for the spelling errors in that one I pushed the wrong button too soon.

Well here in the picture of the Ghia in route to be painted.....



Well I spent tons of time sanding the car I thought it was perfect. I went into this project wanting a 10 point car. Looks good 10 feet away and going 10 miles a hour. Money is short as always but my biggest issue is.... Never restore a fun project car without being able to drive an other fun car because you will rush.

Upon arrival to my managers house the first thing he said was what did you use to sand the car a grinder?