Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

[M M]

That looks great! Can't wait to see the interior put together. The color combination reminds me of strawberries and cream.

[BB]

Rhubarb and custard

[Omes]

WOW & WOW to the door cards!

Anything you can't do Mr Kanters? 

[80 Vert]

WOW & WOW to the door cards!

Anything you can't do Mr Kanters? 

I know, pretty sharp huh. 

[ranton-inc]

are those the badge holes on that panel with the vents?

[80 Vert]

Yeah, its got a really cool Karmann Ghia script to go on there.

[ranton-inc]

Yeah, its got a really cool Karmann Ghia script to go on there.

sweeeet!

[80 Vert]

Had a go at repairing one of my aluminium moldings which go on the bottom of the door panels, one was ok the other not so much......
Had a bunch of bends and large dents in it as well as a near 90 deg bend at one end so I thought I didn't have much to loose and everything to gain besides its would be good practise for the rocker trims which are dented from one end to the other 

Started out by making a nylon chaser which the molding could be slid on to allowing gentle taps and bending to straighten it out.
Most of it came out good and the nylon chaser was well worth making, the 90 deg kink however was quite a bit of work.
Below its been straightened out quite a bit and still took a couple more hours of gentle tweaking from here.
Sanded both of them 180 grit, scotch pad then 1200 grit, will follow that up with 2000 grit and polish.
Pretty sure these were clear annodised originally so will have to investigate some way of stopping them going dull again.

[SZC]

Brilliant!

[BB]

Excalibur's sword! 

[80 Vert]

Got done with the last of the blasting yesterday (until I start on the roof that is  :roll: )
First repaired the front of the bonnet, only a couple of holes but quite a lot of it was pitted pretty bad so the metal was wafer thin.
Decided that all those pitted areas should be welded as well.
After lunch I set up my blasting gear again and completed the bonnet and the inside face of the drivers door.
Managed to get right inside the door to get the worst of the rust off but of course you can't get all of it so a good rust wax once back together should help preserve it.
Now that the whole thing is in epoxy I'll weld the frame back in and finish that off, the bonnet is actually in pretty good shape other than a couple of small dents which I took out as well.

[ritmo]

Do you think this is your calling more than spinning spanners?

More great work.

[brian]

Do you think this is your calling more than spinning spanners?

More great work.

I think that the amount of time one is prepared to spend on a personal project, especially to this standard, would not be economic if being charged out to most potential clients as the customer base would be pretty small

[watercooled]

I think that the amount of time one is prepared to spend on a personal project, especially to this standard, would not be economic if being charged out to most potential clients as the customer base would be pretty small

Yea, maybe one of the best around anywhere,rustorations are nothing more than a labour of love @ the end of the day.
Have been checking the yankie 911 resto threads and they are getting a POS longhood purchased for bugger all and turning them into a 60-80+ grand car (dependant on model),appears there's the rich and the poor over there but theres always a market for restored cars like VW's and Porsches.

[80 Vert]

I think that the amount of time one is prepared to spend on a personal project, especially to this standard, would not be economic if being charged out to most potential clients as the customer base would be pretty small

There are people who want it done right and 100%, just not many in the VW world.......Porsche however is another story.
Many Yank muscle cars / hot rods are costing 250K upwards.
For me its just doing the best I possibly can and learning as much as I can, doing everything myself is just a way to do quality on the cheap.

[80 Vert]

Thanks Greg thats what I suspected, will weld it up in that case when I do the roof.
Anyone else dislike the new Photobucket? I think its turned to poos in more ways than one, just a complete headache to use now.
Anyways enough about that, all the body panels are at a point where I've been around them at least once so got back to concentrating on the body again, took it out of the rotisserie yesterday so that I can get at the rear panel and also finish off the nose.
Stripped back both jambs as I hadn't even touched where the door bars bolted in, blocked the rear 1/4 panels again as well as an 80 grit on the rear panel before priming everything in one go.
Bit dismayed to find out I wasn't really at the point I thought I was as far as things being straight but then I'm pretty particular about how I want it to look so its just more work ahead really.
Next job will be to hang the doors and set the front guards in place for good, test fitted the bonnet before I welded the front section back in too which was just as well.........amazing how things move around.

[the phantom]

I gave up on photobucket ages ago, find imgur much easier to use, drag'n'drop from explorer to upload

[80 Vert]

Few more things done on the sh*tbox, sorted through all my parts to be chromed and got that warm fuzzy feeling along with $$$ signs quickly realizing just how much stuff is rooted and has to be re chromed 
Also sorted through all the aluminium trim of which there is a lot too, quite a few pieces need dings etc taken out and all of it needs stripping of its anodizing.
Will strip them myself with sodium hydroxide then do repairs, polishing before I get them re bright anodized.
Thought about how to make a long but thin bath for the stripping solution and suddenly thought why not use a piece of gutter?
Cut some down to length and made end caps for it, should get the sodium hydroxide on Monday.........let the fun begin!
One of my headlight rings had a couple of decent dents in it and even though I could get one overseas I thought it more fun to try and repair it, cut the right radius out of a piece of ply and started hitting it  quite a tough little bugger too but its coming together nicely.
Really need to get the chrome stripped off now to properly metal finish it.

[80 Vert]

Yesterday I fitted the hinges and doors trying to line them up as best as possible then set the front guards in place bolting them on for good.
Having some trouble getting the body to a point where I'm happy with the straightness which lead me to think about how good would these cars have been right out of the factory? Am I getting to fussy?

The drivers door had some odd stuff going on with the B post gap from where the skin had been removed so rather than wait I thought now was a good time to correct that.
Simple enough to grind back the edge to where the gap was acceptable and weld the edge back together again (the folded over lip had now split apart)

The doors are actually giving me the most grief because they are so flat and don't have much strength the panel flexes when sanding it so I ordered sheets of dynamat to stick inside the door, hopefully this will stiffen the panel enough to help.
I wanted to dynamat the doors and 1/4 panels anyway so might as well do it now.

[Angle]

What's the engine plan? By the way I am truly impressed John - great talent.