Now that the dolly is on I am stripping the car down to the shell to ready for paint. Most everything is off the car now. Struggled more than I would like to get that chrome off the doors by the glass. Some minor (I hope) rust spots and then to the paint shop for some 2 stage (?) Agave! This car was sprayed once with Agave darkened a bit. I will bring to original Agave. Have not found any bondo but I know there is some here and there.
A tricky rust spot under the left rear
Getting my car ready for paint. Thanks to Bart at TheRestoShop for recommending Tom at O2again for a dolly. Hats off to Tom@ O2again for the plans to make my dolly! All went well! Thanks Tom!!!
-got the plans
-ordered the materials from McMaster
-started welding!
-without the hard tooling I did some improvising too ?.
-done in a weekend - and a bonus- pulled the rear subframe...
-started the stripping down to bare shell for paint!
Previous owner poked holes in the tunnel to get wires through i guess. I just do not see the wisdom and did not want the fumes / sound in the cabin. Tried a trick I saw during my umpteen thousand test welds during my covid welding course. It worked! Butt welds are tough for sure. You make a piece to fit over the hole and tack it on. Then you take your trusty Dremmel thin cut blade and cut around the edge of your piece and push your piece in and tack it in flush.
Not a great
Moving on to the other few spots of rust on the car - this one was under the heater box. Was a fun project - took about 3 hours. Notice the rust gets worse as you go from left to right - I replaced the entire section to remove all the rust. Those two cut holes are from air conditioning I removed. Yes it is time for a new fuel line and vent line.
Here is the piece of metal I fabricated and welded in. The butt welds are by far the hardest. The Rosettes are easy.
My fit-up number umpteen - going well. front to rear location, shock tower location, floor pan location all good. getting ready to plug weld all the holes from drilling out the previous brake fluid rotted rail. Once those are plugged I plan to fit in the rail once more and weld it in. Nice working with such a solid California car - no rust in the pan or any other portions along this mount up. I would say the most difficult fit area was here where the fire wall meets the floor pan and the ne
So the title has a bit of history - my first resto project was a very rusty Karmann Ghia - back in 1977 or so I restored a 1968 for a friend of mine. It was fun but it was crude. Lots of Bondo and lots of sheetmetal and lots of rivets.
Well I am finally in the big time - during Covid I decided to get me a TIG/MIG welding machine from ESAB and get to some serious work on my pride and joy. First order of business.... about a 1000 test Rosette welds (aka Plug Welds) before get even
OK so when I built the engine the first time I assembled the flywheel and noticed serious runout. Came to find out the flywheel was machined on a table that was not calibrated and yes it was seriously out by about 8 thousandths. So I re-machined it and finished the engine build. All was good except I had this nagging feeling that perhaps the crank was wrong too? The engine idled roughly but at high rev. it screamed.
So....when Covid came I figured time to tear down the engine and
OK so it is time to "catch up" a bit here. COVID 19 has kept me busy with my BMW - aka "the occupier". Been sitting for five years after I "got it running" with a lot of necessary parts - The Engine, The Brakes, The Shocks, The Electrical and The Fuel.
Was good but it was kinda like that first and second date. She needed a lot of work.
I sold my 1972 Karmann Ghia Convertible to pay for the BMW Project ... and yes I do miss my Ghia dearly.
So where I am n
Hello folks - if you have an early model with the original hood and the wind blows it shut you have a few options. I went this route. I am satisfied!
Here they are completed - but need primer.
I started with these
And I researched and did not like what the parts stores were offering so I decided on this design...
I risked life and limb with my drill press converted to a mill (do not do this at home)
Hi Folks - just getting the hang of this blog process. Here is the before shot...
And the after shot
New motor - but the old one still works. Rebuilt heater core - San Jose Radiator. New grommets, new foam, cracks epoxied, sex bolts to replace the rivets, rebuilt valve (new oring) and valve mounting bracket. Could not have done it without my Dremel - first Dremel I ever owned!
Hi All - I need to shop for a set of pistons for this engine. it is a 1mm oversize bore with a 121 head that has the intakes increased to the same as an E12 head. I hope to get my sidedraft dellortos running on this combo. Suggestions?
Hi everyone - a few entries ago I appeared on this site - I think it was on the way home with this car behind me. I asked hey - why does this car have Dual Dellortos? Well now I know a bit more - they are rev. C and they were NOT rebuilt like the PO said so. ? Well there are a lot more of those said so's but hey I am having a blast.
Here is what I knew when I bought it.
Interior had some Recarro seats on cool chrome mounts and the fabric matched the back seats - wasnt that bad of shape
