Front left fenderwork. At some point a PO attempted to weld on a new right front fender section from a Ghia older that 67 and had an exterior gas fill tube. The gas fill hatch was welded shut. Probably best to just remove the whole bad section.

I started to working on the seats while deciding how to handle the body work.

One seat is missing the lower back support rod and I will need to weld in a new one.

The engine deck is off in depth as it appears that the rear of the engine is higher. The deck needs to be rebuilt as it is missing the deck lid closure lock mechanism. This car is turning into a money pit..but I will get 'er in shape.

The Ghia has been media blasted with glass and sprayed with primer so that the body work can begin.

With the paint and bondo lifted off, there appears to be some nasty metal rot and welds that need to be redone. The front nose was poorly welded together...2 different nose sections? I have a new nose patch to weld on to replace this. The left side of the car down by the rocker shows some rot issues and perhaps a rotted door column.

New floor pans have arrived from Airhead parts along with all of the rubber needed to reseat the body to the pan. Additionally a new nose skin and rear bottom side fender skin have been ordered and on their way.

Getting  KG Lisa (Karmann Ghia Lisa) prepped for removing the body. All of the body to pan bolts have been removed,

Engine bay..all connections to engine removed.

Getting somewhere! The instrument panel and all instrumentation were removed. Every wire identified and tagged, screws and mounts all separately bagged. Overview of the instrument panel wiring.

The original instrument panel is intact! I removed the fiberglass overlay instrument panel and look to restore the original instrument panel. Good news!

Comments

To people that may be reading and or following this blog, please feel free to make comments, ask questions and offer suggestions if you have some.Thanks

8/7/15
Busy day today. The door windows were removed from both doors as well as all of the locking mechanisms and door handles.The parking brake lever was removed.

Step two- Removed the front seats to expose the floor pan. Gasp..surprise, quite a good size hole was previously cut out of the floor boards to remove rusted portions. The majority of the rusted floor pan is on the passenger side and the front of the pan as well as the back which has a big piece cut out. I am honestly surprised that one of the previous owners  saw fit to cut out this large section of floor pan and covered it with wood and reinstalled the seats instead of welding in a new floor pan.

Another interesting thing is that the seat belts at some point were replaced with GM seat belts. Grrrr. Hardly in keeping with the make of the car.
Looking towards the rear interior.

The next step is to pull out the rear seat and wood panels, remove the instrument panel and steering wheel.

7/31 Ongoing. Interior. I pulled out the carpet to clear the floor pan and to assess the rust damage. There is some rusting through on the passenger front side, close to the body well. I will need to have a piece cut out and a new section welded into place.

The backseat floor board has a considerable rust spot and hole covered by wood. I will need to have a 12" x 8" section of metal flooring welded in.  No photo at this time of this.

7/25 The headlights and assembly were removed and some minor rusting found on the replaceable pieces, thankfully. The the body around the body, framing the headlights, shows some areas of previous rust or mechanical damage.

7/31 Busy day. Removed the door panels, door handles and locks, the remaining exterior lights as well as some interior work.
On removing the window trim I found evidence of the original color of the car, Ivory, and the same color that I wanted the paint the car anyway! Cool.

Removed the door panels, exterior door handle. There was an interesting baffle in each door of some sort of insulation material.

This weekend I am stripping off the accessories to include the windows, mirrors, headlights, door handles and more in preparation for having the car media blasted. I found a shop in Peoria called the The Stripper shop that will be doing this stripping work sometime next week.

Rust evaluation...part 1

More photos to show some of the rust damage. There was rust that had formed underneath the original paint and a priority to sand off before more damage occurred.

 

  Immediate above photo- Car rear mostly hand sanded down as well as the rusted portions of the bare metal. There is still some discoloration.

May- Bought 1965 Karmann ghia. The body is in poor to fair shape. No big dents, just rust damage. The damage is primarily to the rear bottom of the body just forward of the rear tire well. There were a couple of nick spots that were rusty on the front hood. The hood top has a projection of metal underneath the paint..sheet metal? There appears to be body damage in the nose area of the car as well as some rust damage and fiberglass repair work around the headlights. Otherwise, most of the body is clean, the glass all good. Interior has original upholstery but the interior has been pretty much stripped of glove box, the original dashboard, heater controls.