Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

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

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dubstar

Quote from: BB on March 14, 2012, 09:42:25 AM
My mate put his tool through a few windscreens but I never did.

Was he still able to have kids after?
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

ritmo

Awesome work John. What sort of folder do you use?

80 Vert

Just an industrial folder, bit limited because of the blade set up so for a lot of the small folds I use a vise or do it by hand with hammer & dolly or on the edge of a bench.
The big folder is really only any good for folding longer lenghts of flat sheet, I made this patch panel tonight mainly by hand and used the bead roller with a set of step dies for the step in the sheet.
Once I get a chance I'll make a set of tipping dies for the bead roller which will allow that to also bend to 90 degrees.
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

5-pot

John,  I've come to the conclusion that you do this purely because you're just so f*ckin good at it.
?The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.? - Thucydides (Ancient Greek historian and author, 460-404bc)

- 1990 Coupe quattro - R.I.P.
- 1988 90 quattro project... Sold
- 2005 Golf 2.0 TDI

brian

This has become my favorite thread, great to see this standard of restoration
Škoda Fabia 1.0 TSI Race Blue

80 Vert

Its a funny thing, for me its not even about the car so much....
Sure I like them, always have but with this one as any project I've done its more about the journey rather than the destination. (most normal people are the other way round   ;D)
Metal work like this has always facinated me and something I've wanted to learn / experiment with, the Jetta had a little of it but nothing like making entire replacement panels.

With these Karmann Ghias there's very very little available in repair panels so in all reality there's not much option but to bodge it or make panels and fix it properly.
Plus there's probably less than 10 in NZ and mine is the oldest one here, may have also found an uber rare factory sunroof clip for it so that may see its way over here too.  ;)
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

le mans

Respect mate! Couldn't agree more about the journey - it must be very satisfying to finish something but the buzz of seeing it all come together is the real deal.

DubMan

Ooooooh sunroof....that is going to be amazing!

80 Vert

Not only that, electric sunroof!  Very very rare option back in the 60's...............we'll see if I can secure it first before I get too excited  :P
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

DubMan

crap!.......wow electric....get it cause I'm seriously excited.....that will be awesome.....rarerity....woohoo!

coons

Quote from: 80 Vert on March 16, 2012, 04:14:05 PM
Its a funny thing, for me its not even about the car so much....
Sure I like them, always have

Hah!

"Good for nothing piece of ...."

No further comments  :P

80 Vert

Got up this morning to see a wet driveway and thought OH GREAT here goes a week of prep down the toilet, not much good sandblasting outside when its raining!
Anyways headed off to work and finished making the other side C pillar panel which has sorted another big hole.
Also final fit / trimmed the big panel so thats ready to be welded in now.

By lunchtime I looked outside to see the sun and pretty clear skies so looks like sandblasting is back on the program!  ;D
Pushed the body outside and layed out a big tarp to make recycling the sand a bit easier as it seems to catch 80% of it.
Spent quite a few hours blasting the rear area where I've been making stuff for, quite nice to see some of the rust vaporised  >:D
Plan was to blast the whole area then epoxy prime it but as per usual NZ weather threw a spanner in that plan and started spitting as I was finishing blasting so the mad rush was on to get the bare metal back inside.  >:( >:( >:( F*cking weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::)
Not much point priming it after getting a little wet so I ended up acid washing the whole area, next week I can clean the acid off and prime it.
After all of that its actually not a dumb idea to acid wash it as in some places the metal is very pitted and chances are some rust will remain but the acid should take care of that.
Other areas look like swiss cheese, more metal to be replaced  ::) Maybe the badge on the front should be Fiat............... ;D


All in all a mixed bag today made better in part by the arrival of the new shoes in the way of 16x6 Porsche Fuchs for the car courtesy of Badhabit! Cheers!!
Don't need them yet but as Filx and Veedub will tell you, You can never have too many wheels!
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

Managed a good solid couple of hours on the rustbucket tonight, started welding the trans panel back in after doing quite a big repair to one of the wheelhouses which looked like swiss cheese after blasting ;D
The nice thing about new clean unrusted steel is how nicely it welds, just great to work on!
Thats one of the reasons I rather replace bigger sections as the chance of hitting thin steel is greatly reduced.

The sandblasting from the weekend looks like its a bust too, the acid wash became a bit of a gluggy mess so once the trans panel is in I'll re blast and prime the whole lot in one go.
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

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

80 Vert

Finaly feel like I've turned the corner with this rear area since the welding has begun, no longer does it feel like I'm just tearing stuff apart anymore.
Got all the holes pre drilled in the new panels and also epoxy primed inside the rear chassis legs before welding the new stuff in.
Finished final fit on the smaller shelf which will get welded in next, just have it located with a bunch of screws right now.
Idealy I wanted to re blast the area I did last week but watching the weather it said there would be rain so I flagged that and did a bunch of other rust repairs instead.


Repaired both lower corners of the body where it meets the pan, finished off the rear wheel house and also around one of the heater outlets, funny thing was that as I finished up for the day the sun was still out so could have done blasting anyway!  You can never tell..................
The plan now is to completely finish all the rust holes and any remaining metal work in this area then blast and prime the whole lot so in some ways its kinda better its worked out this way.


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

One day you will start with nothing and build yourself an entire car! :)
The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?

DubMan

Quote from: BB on March 25, 2012, 11:17:20 AM
One day you will start with nothing and build yourself an entire car! :)


Now there's a plan!.........THE VERT- MOBILE"......hehehe

80 Vert

Bit of an update from this last week with the welding, got the rear bulkhead / firewall back in the right spot and also welded in the new panels below the C pillar.
When I removed the parcel shelf I found the ends of the box section under it to be quite rusty so rather than patch them I folded up a new one.
Got to say I'm really loving this work and how its coming together, an hour or so each night makes a huge difference rather than just doing a Saturday on it.

With the side panels in place I could finally measure the length it needed to be and finish that piece.
Trial fitted the parcel shelf held in with some bolts giving me the exact place to weld in the new box section.
Also finished and installed the small lower back seat shelf as well.


The small corner pieces at the C pillar were completely rusted through so new ones had to be fabbed up.
I used one of the old ones to make some cuts so that I could squash it flat to be able to make a card pattern.
With that done I traced it on to metal. cut it out and folded it.
Bit of extra hammer / dolly work to get the rounds and curves in it like the original.
Welded up the cut lines and ground up it looks just like the original, now to make a reverse one for the other side!

This morning I started on one of the C pillars, best way forward was just to make a new one and replace the whole thing.
Again a card template to give the rough shape did the trick and with a combination of hammer / dolly and the bead roller we have this...........almost ready to weld in


Seeing as the weather was playing ball this afternoon I decided to re blast the interior rear area plus all my welded bits and prime them.
Since it was just the remainder of the gluggy acid that was left it came off in a big hurry so I kept going and also did the top of the rear compartment as well as the water drain area right at the back and inside the C pillar while its cut apart (well whats left of it anyway............)
All epoxied it sure looks a whole lot different now than that rusty mess I had before.




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

blackbetty

'93 Vr6 Golf Donor
'94 Vr6 Golf
'88 3dr Golf
'90 Honda Civic Pro -- RIP
'74 Series 3 SWB Land Rover -- Sold
'73 MK3 Ford Cortina

BB

The end is nigh, but the end of what is the question?