Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

[John Stone]

Couple of bags of cement should do the trick John.....
Looking smart

[coons]

Slam that bitch!

[80 Vert]

Couple of bags of cement should do the trick John.....
Looking smart

Haha John, there's 2 bags of sand in there now Ddin't seem to do all that much though.
Just needs the front torsions adjusted waaaay down.

Roof is on for good, all welding done apart from a few of the stays that attach the drain box to the inner frame but I'll get those done next week.
Didn't think I'd get this far yesterday but there you go, sometimes stuff just works out.

With that out of the way I lifted the body on to the chassis for a test fit and found a couple of areas of concern, few of the holes don't seem to line up all that well but really need to put the bolts in first to make sure what's actually going on.
Seems like one of the pan edges is too wide pushing the body over to one side too much at the front so grinding that back should sort most of that out.

Still not a fan of the big / little tyre combo but looking at what clearance I have now I should be able to run a bigger tyre in the front to match the rear a bit better.
Was always going to be close with 944 brakes and Fuchs under stock unmodified guards.
I think a 185 50 16 should be better on the front making things look more even.

Had to laugh when I saw those floors remembering what they used to look like, nice not to see just rust and holes!!! :lol:

[brian]

This has to be the best thread there has been on here

[80 Vert]

Whole days work yesterday pulling stuff apart, chassis is ready for the stripper tomorrow along with all the rear subframe and other susp parts.
Also cleaned off 5 decades of old grease / crud off the front end which I completely pulled apart as well, have to replace the lower arm bushes which are no longer available but have found some which are 1mm smaller on the inner dia so they should work.
All going well i'll machine down the front arms 1mm taking off the little wear they have to give a nice surface for the new bushes.
Next couple of weeks should be cool as newly painted parts start coming back, will have to get my chemicals together to start plating all my chassis bolts and other hardware.

[80 Vert]

Picked up all the powder coat this week, chassis was finished yesterday which has come out pretty sweet.
Ordered a box of chassis related parts last Saturday from the US which turned up today, 6 days total which is damn good service!

Once I make some space the chassis will go together fairly quickly since all the brakes an other modifications have been figured out and mocked up already.

[80 Vert]

Made some progress towards assembling the chassis today, sorted out most of the chassis bolts and where they go as well as assembled some smaller parts.
Luckily I took pictures of the caliper brackets I made as I couldn't for the life of me remember how it all went together 
Really need to clear a space now where it can sit while I put it together, tomorrow I'll order the parts I need to rebuild the transmission as I also pulled that apart.

Does anyone know what the 3 big washers at the bottom of this picture are for??? Pretty sure I can place 2 but not the 3rd one......... :?
Stub axles and steering rods together, Another annoying this is that the nuts securing the ball joints to the front arms don't fit the new ball joints 

[coons]

Shiney 

[badhabit]

Pretty sure there are only 2 large washers needed. Used for main fixing points for body to the pan, accessed from rear engine cover area.
Small version of washer is for the front beam / body fixing if my memory serves me correctly.

Some mexi-can may have doubled up your washers somewhere!!

[80 Vert]

Jetta done and back on the road, bay window bus sold means I now have the time and a assembly space for the Ghia.
Been looking forward to starting on this, just love packets of new parts.....seems like Christmas every day!
Bolted the rear subframe on and flipped the pan over setting it up on jack stands, bolted the front end on tonight and started making new hard lines.


Stripped the brake calipers pulling out the pistons and all seals so that they can be powdercoated, incredibly tough paint on them what ever that might be!
Just no point getting it all off so a good blast was all they needed.
Once coated I'll sand off the raised Porsche casting to highlight it.
Tried masking off the area of the piston holes but that didn't work out very good so the solution in the end was very simple, cut slightly oversize cardboard circles and push them in to the holes.

[80 Vert]

The fun stuff continued yesterday finishing off the hard lines, I just used one of those universal kits but none of the lengths are actually suitable for Type 3's but at least they are new and I just cut them to length and re flared one end.
I'll probably put the pressure switch where the line joiner is which should work ok.
It's a shame that the 944 one gets in the way of the steering rods as it fits soo nice where it is and haven't given up on using that one just yet.

Had a little fail moment putting the pedal cluster together, once installed the spring it pulled the pedal towards the master cylinder and strangely I didn't think anything of it till later on when it was all completed realizing the spring was on backwards DO'H 
With that corrected the rest of the front end went together with little fuss.

Onwards with the rear end, got the spring plates in, hard lines finished completing the rear until the transmission is back together.
Not a whole lot more left to do till I get my brake calipers back to complete the front end, all gone together pretty quickly really.
Better get my act together and get back on to doing the body to get some paint on this sucker..........still, there's always the engine to build as well 

One strange thing is this pan has no provision for the rear brake union to screw on to, no evidence of there ever being one there either
Not sure wether to just leave as is or make something for it.

[nacnud]

  Brand new!

[Omes]

The level of details!!!! I love this crap!    Gona be too clean to take out on a rainy day even!

You wana preserve that under chassis just as it is now.

[80 Vert]

Mate this will never see rain, way too detailed for that hahahaaa
Bit OTT but it sure looks good.

[RobClubley]

Better than new!

[badhabit]

Purrrty!

[ritmo]

Nice work

[SZC]

Looking on point! Wish i had your patience and skill. Definitely my favorite build in progress to get updates on at the moment 

[Fizz]

looking good john! good progress 

[80 Vert]

A rear support bar would be beneficial  to help keep the motor/box in place but I'm determined not to modify the stock body in any way so that it can all be unbolted and be returned to 100% stock.
That means no welding in mounts or drilling holes for mounts. 

If I didn't care then it would be running a quad cam Subaru turbo.........doing that though the T34 purist fraternity would probably castrate me haha.
Anyway, got my calipers back and have nearly finished re assembling them, didn't help that I put the dust seals back to front so that wasted another hour taking them back apart again.
Front hubs and bearings greased and installed along with the new rotors, pretty happy how all of this just bolts on.
Will have no problems certifying it this way as welding any susp / brake brackets can be a nightmare to get legal.


Have the trans in pieces as well with most of it cleaned so far, I'm using a later T3 IRS trans with splined shafts which I'm converting back to swing axle.
Again that way the weaker stock trans can just go back in for originality if ever needed.
Building the new box with super diff, extra spider gears, welded 3rd / 4th, steel shift forks, new bearings and synchros.
That's the next big job to be able to complete the rear half of the chassis.