The resurrection of my 1960 karmann ghia

[Antoine_P]

Hi Mike,
In Schweinfurt, at the "Handwerkskammer" I made already their 2 metalshaping class ("Abschnittsreparatur" and "instandsetzen") and now doing the first english wheel class. Where are you based in Germany?
Grüße
Antoine

[Oldnek]

Your doing a fine job Antoine.

[Antoine_P]

Thanks John

[Mike Whelan]

Hi Antoine,

I live close to Trier.


Mike

[Antoine_P]

Well, I think it's time for an update. Not so much to show but that will bring my thread close to the actual condition

While waiting for the driver's seat rail to complete the pan, I decided to work on the front. First with the right side. I had bought the repro parts as basis, knowing that they will need work but I thought they could make a good starting point for their (cheap) price. Positioned and it doesn't look soo bad:


Until you look in detail..
The front opening is not bad:




But the top where the fender sits wasn't matching at all




Same thing on the bottom:


And this "dent" isn't on the repro part:


For the top I draw the correct profile and corrected it using hammer/dolly:






I then draw where to cut to keep as much original metal as possible, keeping the non reproduced indent and still have only good metal:


After a lot of notes, measuring, checking with the front part, the hood and the other side, I jumped on the big decision and cut both parts:




The new front part is really well adjusted and fitting:




I will just have to transfer all the small elements into it:


I did not welded it yet as I should first work on the metal I now have easy access to. Teaser pic:


Stay tuned

Antoine

[racer-john]

Nice work Antoine. I always like the Karman Ghia'seven though they were under powered for the styling. Should have had a 1500 or 1600 engine.
I still have most if not all my VW specialty tools from 1958 -60 when I was racing.

[racer-john]

Nice work Antoine. I always like the Karman Ghia's even though they were under powered for the styling. Should have had a 1500 or 1600 engine.
I still have most if not all my VW specialty tools from 1958 -60 when I was racing.

[Tobi/DFL]

Great progress, Antoine!

[Antoine_P]

Sorry for the lack of updates, I did continue to work on it and will bring the topic back to current status!

So the part in front of the tank is rusted, deformed and it will be better to replace it. I will keep the middle art where the body number is but replace the rest. Now you know me, not going the easiest way so I decided that I will be building it. I am then sure that it's rust free and I can learn more on the way.
First step was measuring all the parameters and transfering them on my metal sheet:


Then I decided to start with the beads and thought about doing them with my bead roller. Had a friend doing some rollers for me:




And the first test wasn't bad:


But then something unwanted happened while working on my part:


After discussion with other metal shapers, I did it another way, I will show it in a future update!

This issue with the rollers did not reduce my motivation so I worked on another part of it: the triangles connecting to the middle.
Made a paper template:


And then first tried building a hammerform:








The first trial was ok but not as sharp as wanted:






So I made a trial using only the bead roller:




Better but the curves where with a radius too big so I made a mix with bead roller/hammering and then I was satisfied:


I then made it like that on what will become my new front part:




Stay tuned,
Antoine

[Antoine_P]

My plan is to build as much body parts as I can but I still use some repro parts I bought in the past or I thought were/are beyond my skill level. One of them are these air channel:


But as with every repro part, they are not really fitting well..On the bottom it's not that bad:


But the top misses quite a huge part:


Which would let the air fly away:


You can see the difference compared to original:


So I made a paper template:


Cut it in metal, made a few welding points to fix it:




And finally welded it:




I then finished welding and grinding the passenger's side:


and positionned:


and did the driver's side:










I also did collect some more 60 only parts:




and locally this 60 steering wheel:


Cheers

Antoine