VW Karmann Ghia - New addition to the family

A year or so ago Shelly called me into the lounge to show me a scene from a movie she was watching. It was the well known 80s teen movie 'Pretty in Pink.' The star of the film, Molly Ringwold, was driving a beaten up pink Volkswagen Karmann Ghia (an early low-light model no less!). She said, "that's the car I want." Deep down a little voice inside went "YES!" because I've always loved the Karmann Ghia.

I thought it would be fairly easy to find one, but I was very wrong. While there are quite a few for sale, finding one that hadn't been too molested (chopped, dropped, slammed or otherwise messed about) or met Shelly's stringent acceptance criteria was a challenge. We had a few false starts, offers that fell through, and other disappointments, but we've now purchased one. It needs a complete new paint job, but that's fine as Shelly wants a red car.

The car is in Melbourne and will be shipped over to Perth in the next fortnight.


Interior looks good.

1200cc engine

Floor looks okay. Not rusted out.

When finished it should look something like this -

http://karmannghia.org/sales_lit/color_combinations.html

Update - 27 September 2013
The car is on its way




Update 9 October 2013
The car has arrived!




I had the car dropped off at V-Dub Repairs and Spares for the mechanical once over.

http://www.v-dub.com.au/

Update 25 October 2013
The car is now home.  It's running a little rough and still needs quite a bit of work done to bring it up to scratch. Next week we'll take the car to K-Paz Painting for a full strip down and repaint.


For the next step in the car's restoration, go here: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2013/12/karmann-ghia-project-painting-begins.html
And the follow on (because there was always more wrong): https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2014/03/vw-karmann-ghia-progress.html

Some links -
http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/car_info_volkswagen_karmann_ghia.htm
http://www.karmannghiaconnection.com/history.html
http://www.karmannghiaownersclubaustralia.com/
http://www.karmannghia.com.au/
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewforum.php?f=7
http://the-nautilus.blogspot.com.au/

DKW Panel Beating 2013

The DKW

Oh dear!!

They put the warning "do not drive or operate heavy machinery" on drugs for a reason. For a couple of weeks in August was laid low with a dose of the flu. In fact, this winter the flu has taken me down three times. On one of my days, wallowing around in man-flu misery, I had to move the DKW out of the driveway and, in my stupor backed straight into the fence. Great!!! Actually I said something quite else. So, the baby had to go for some medical attention.

I took the car to Karson at K-Paz Spray Painting, who did a great job repairing the damage. The panel looks fantastic and he was able to match the paint perfectly.

While the car was in the shop I asked Karson to look at the front wing. When I bought the car there were two small bubbles in the paintwork, both about the size of a ten cent piece. The front bubble cracked open shortly after the car arrived allowing moisture to get in, causing the bubbles to run. By this time the two bubbles had become one long cracked bubble, almost a foot long. The panel was removed, stripped back and repainted. Fortunately there wasn't really any rust under the bubble.

The bubble as it originally was. It got much worse!

And is now gone!

I am very happy to recommend his work. He can be contacted here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/K-Paz-Automotive-Spraypainting/128098420553883?fref=ts