Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

Started by 80 Vert, January 28, 2012, 08:29:00 PM

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BB

Quote from: 80 Vert on April 29, 2012, 08:35:30 PM
Most of the car seems to be 0.8mm and then some inner panels are thinner so I'm just using 0.8 for everything.
Have always prefered to use electro galv for its resistance to rusting especially on the inside once welded as a lot of those areas you can't get to afterwards.

Yes it is a toatl drag that even tho you are going to be able to paint all in there, after you weld it all up you will burn the paint away where you weld and will have to just try to spray more paint etc in there to get to the welded areas.

You have done really well with that outer panel, bloody hard to do.
Are those wing nut things the weld clamps?
How do they work? Are they magnets?
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

schattenblau

#81
Celeb owner (the Fringe guy) pushes his own car after it breaks down


the phantom

Quote from: schattenblau on April 30, 2012, 04:39:25 PM
Celeb owner (the Fringe guy) pushes his own car after it breaks down



look at the top of the windscreen, is it a cut-down coupe?
Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

80 Vert

2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

#84
Ze german who made zis car vent crazy vis ze spotwelding gun  ::) drilled out 117 spotwelds just on the lower edge of the sill, its true what they say..........cars rust from the inside out!
Sill looked not too bad from the outside but in reality is rotten as a pear, tried to take it off as complete as possible so that I can copy it when I make a new one.
At the A pillar is where the real horrors are, everything pretty much rusted through, including the pipe for the heaters that goes up to the windscreen (for those that don't know, aircooled cars have heat exchangers on the exhaust for interior heating)

Kept picking away at the front pillar trying to remove pieces layer by layer to understand how it all goes together once new panels are made.

All of that took me up to lunchtime so with the weather looking good I did some more blasting, mainly inside the rear 1/4 panel and also at the rear air intake which had some serious rust at the bottom of it.
Problem with blasting the inside of the rear 1/4 is that you can't see anything at all so its pure guesswork, sand and dust just blows out of every orifice making it impossible to see anything.
Got there in the end and primed it, also managed to blast / prime the inside of the sill as well which was a bonus for today.


2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

BB

I'm doing my Fiat at the mo :P
Man rust suxs.
You just keep on finding it.
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

coons

Saw this thing again yesterday. What can I say, it's rusty  :-X

You've gotta have some balls to dive into a project like this!

80 Vert

Did some more work on the old girl tonight, my shrinking disc arived from the States yesterday so I put that to use.
The rear 1/4 panel that had previously been repaired poorly was of course wobbly as under all the poo they smeared over the repair, with it all ground out the panel itself had waves big enough to sail a yacht on!  ;D
The shrinking disc is just a stainless disc for a grinder which you can use to shrink metal back to its original shape, have read about it many times and now finaly bought one.............WOW, just amazing how well it works!
Not often I'm impressed with tools I buy but this thing is amazing, in just a few hours I have the rear 1/4 just about finished, 95% of dents / waves gone..............no bog needed  >:D 8)
Pictures just don't show how good it came out, can see this getting a lot of use on this car......
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

RevHappy

at work we have a spot welder that doubles as a dent puller and also has a attachment to shrink panels. AMAZING. much better than the old acetylene torch and a wet rag.
CURRENT: Mk2 Golf - 1.8t, Coil overs, Passat leather, 16x8, Daily Driven

GONE: Mk2 Jetta - Big Bumpers, Big Windows, Lowered, 15X6 Alloys, and MK1 Suzuki Cultus Gti G13b rally cams, bilstein shocks and springs, momo 14X7 alloys

BB

How does the disc work Vert? Sounds good.
You do such great work.
I am just trying to stop my Fiat rusting away rather than rebuilding it.
Ive not got the skills or patients do do what you do.
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

80 Vert

2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

BB

Nice :)
Obviously works best on nice solid old steel, but you could do any if you were careful, is its the stainless making the sparks as a sacrificial thing? Could you grind a hole if you went to rough?
Does the disc wear out?
You are really showing some pro metal skills and really I bet you enjoy doing the more technical bits rather than making beaches with a sand blaster :P
I just wish I had a good sandblaster at the, I may buy a spot type one that you get with the over head hopper. Have you ever tried one?
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

ritmo

Nice. Have seen the discs used with great results....but never in the flesh.

80 Vert

Here's a bit more explanation on how removing dents works, you sand to reveal all the low spots and then use a marker pen to mark out all your lows meaning you can then go and deal to each dent on its own.
Using a dolly and slap stick you raise each dent up to the level of the main panel, still leaves the surface somewhat wavy so thats where the shrinking disc comes in.
With the discs large surface it generates heat just on all the high spots and when rapidly cooled with water it tightens up the whole area taking the highs out.
Also really good when welding patch panels in like I did on the guard bottom, welding it on distorted the metal pretty bad but after a little effort with the dolly and disc it only needs a minute amount of filler

Carried on yesterday welding in the lower part of the rear guard and installing the rear water drain pipe, took me ages to get the little drain pipe in the right place...............was a lot more difficult then what I thought and not really looking forward to doing the other side!  :(

With that out of the way I could carry on and start looking at repairing the rotten A pillar, thtas the first area that needs to be repaired before I can make a new outer sill.
The outer sill covers pretty much all of the A pillar and the outer guards front and rear go over sections of the sill, rust trap? you betcha but hey its survived 50 years so far  ;D
First job is to deal with the rusted through heater pipe and its support plate, the plate was easy enough to make but the heater pipe not so much.
Got there in the end and welded it to the plate, primed it ready for welding to the body.

2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

ritmo

As much as i liked your other projects...... i am enjoying this one sooo much more. People who don't do metal work or seen it in person  will have no idea how much time it takes.

80 Vert

Thanks! I'm really enjoying it and learning new skills along the way.
I have  a lot of respect for guys who can do these kinds of repairs and use no filler what so ever..........takes a lot of skill and they make it look so easy  :(
You're right though and even I'm forgetting how far its come already, when you see it most days you think man its going quite slowly but looking back through this thread one can see just how much has been replaced already...................and thats just in the back half  ;D
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

RS ZWEI

Im really enjoying the metal work as well.
1980 VW Golf GTI Track Car
1995 Audi RS2
2003 Mini Cooper S (Written off - rear ended)
2005 Mini Cooper S
2006 Skoda Octavia vRS Combi
2009 Renault Megane 230 R26 (Written off - rear ended)
2013 Renault Megane RS265 Redbull RB8

BB

Me too.
Top notch job.
When I first saw the body I did not think it was as bad as it was.
Thankfully my Fiat is not as bad in the hidden places as that was.

It is hard and often horrible work doing grinding, metal cutting an shaping and then hot spattering welding, but having it on that rotisserie must be just magic.  And also having it all sand blasted back properly too. Not so much foul fumes burning off as you concentrate on welding breathing it all in :P
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

coons


80 Vert

#99
Thats the more common Type 1 Ghia, there's a cut away of the 2 different types of Karmann Ghia.
T34 or Type 3 Ghia top, Type 1 Ghia below.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration