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/