made some progress today - Karmann Ghia

I have been using PPG shopline but then I could not resist the good deal I found at TCPglobal. It seems that if you buy a 'standard' color their price really goes down.... I got 1gallo of urethane basecoat "diamond blue", reducer and a gallon Kustomshop clear with activator for $200 ($220 shipped).

The basecoat covers as good as the shopline, the clear flows good and seems to be as good as the shopline.

I added blue pearl from "paintwithpearls.com" and it makes for a nice color shift light to medium blue. Can't wait to see the entire car painted. :bounce:

I am really curious how much better the PPG or Dupont stuff is but I can't get myself to spending $60 for a pint of basecoat.

I painted the '79 almost three years ago and the shopline paint and clear is holding up just fine. By the time it starts fading I'll be bored with the color anyways....
 
awesome stuff, i love vw's, i got a 69 beetle, with a 1915 with way too much cam, it'll stand the front up a couple of feet whenever i feel like it. me and my dad had a ghia together that we put a 3100 buick v6 in the back of, willlllllllllllldddd. good luck and keep the pictures comin.
 
The V6 is very tempting but the 1600 is good enough for now, this was never meant to be a fast car... I am considering a stroker though.... very likely going to happen after I test drove it :thumbs:

... the stock 1600 50HP Ghia was advertized at 73mph...... :crap::smash::eek:
 
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awesome stuff, i love vw's, i got a 69 beetle, with a 1915 with way too much cam, it'll stand the front up a couple of feet whenever i feel like it. me and my dad had a ghia together that we put a 3100 buick v6 in the back of, willlllllllllllldddd. good luck and keep the pictures comin.

OH shit!! :1st: what a GREAT combo.....I bet that 3.1 hauled ASS.....:shocking:in that thing.....got any pix of that install???

interesting project....gotta show them to a VW enthusiast friend....

:beer:
 
awesome stuff, i love vw's, i got a 69 beetle, with a 1915 with way too much cam, it'll stand the front up a couple of feet whenever i feel like it. me and my dad had a ghia together that we put a 3100 buick v6 in the back of, willlllllllllllldddd. good luck and keep the pictures comin.

OH shit!! :1st: what a GREAT combo.....I bet that 3.1 hauled ASS.....:shocking:in that thing.....got any pix of that install???

interesting project....gotta show them to a VW enthusiast friend....

:beer:

i'll look for pictures, but i'm not sure if i have them or not, i never drove with the v6, but they guy that bought it did, and did well racing it in the open classes. i love karmen ghias, well really just volkswagens, get some pictures of that ghia up as soon as you get the paint on, i'm all excited about it.:trumpet:

sam riley
 
Here are few older pics: the day I bought it...

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Somebody f'ed up the rear fenders and made them round instead of straight at the top.... btw, the seats appear to be from some mid '90s car, first thing that went to the curb :smash:

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cutting out rusted sections:

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Fender lip repair patch welded in place:

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Primer


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new floor:

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interior:

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exterior:

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Ok. you passed, next time you come back to germany you can cut away all of the rust in the plum crazy coronet r/t
 
Ok. you passed, next time you come back to germany you can cut away all of the rust in the plum crazy coronet r/t

Plum Crazy, Jeezus, one of my oldest friends, the Mopar racer from 42? years ago, he that Federal cop I know...fairly high up too....anyway That is his all time favorite color, he mixed up a batch of that in metallic for one of his cars some years ago.....saw that thing from backside of the MOON.....freeking NASA even commented....what in hell is THAT>>>>

:hissyfit::shocking:
 
Why not drop an LSx in there while your at it. Looks like your making good progress!

This would be a mid engine LSx. The engine will definitely not fit in the front. I guess you could mount the radiator and the tank in the front, the engine behind the two front seats ... hmmm...... I guess you could fit a F-body axle in there but the driveshaft would be somewhat short...
:devil:

Here's the stock 1.6L 50HP air cooled powerhouse:

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Over here people pay good money to sleep on left hand cut moose nut sack hair or whatever they stuff in those Hästens mattresses :D You have a potential goldmine there :D
 
It felt like it was right hand cut so I tossed it :quote:

Didn't take long to strip them down... I also cut the headrest and converted to lowbacks (1967 style)

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It felt like it was right hand cut so I tossed it :quote:

Didn't take long to strip them down... I also cut the headrest and converted to lowbacks (1967 style)

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100_3758Small.jpg

Need a aluminum V6 in there, gotta be something that works, pushout 240 hp or so....just gotta be a way.....no excuses, just DO IT man....

:devil::bump:
 
Just use a transaxle out of a newer 5.3 impala. You would get independent rear suspention to boot.
 
OK, here's this week's progress:


Rear half with two coats of Epoxy primer :

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Urethane primer/surfacer:

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.

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two coats light blue base :

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First coat blue pearl:

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Second coat blue pearl:
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It's amazing how the color changes from light blue to medium blue. This is what it looks like when the camera flash hits the pearl:

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Can't wait to get in outside in sunlight....
 
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