Aircooled VW South Africa

Thanks Old Red for the inspirational pictures, I started stripping all the crap dash board imitation leather from my ghia on Sunday and found an intact solid dash just like yours. Today I got home from work and found that my 2 appy's had removed all the dials and rubbed the dash down to bare metal.

Thanks for the info on the tyres. Have you ever loaded the back of the Ghia? I want to know if the tyres touch the body. Thinking of changing to 14" rims.

hitlers revenge wrote:Thanks Old Red for the inspirational pictures, I started stripping all the crap dash board imitation leather from my ghia on Sunday and found an intact solid dash just like yours. Today I got home from work and found that my 2 appy's had removed all the dials and rubbed the dash down to bare metal.

Thanks for the info on the tyres. Have you ever loaded the back of the Ghia? I want to know if the tyres touch the body. Thinking of changing to 14" rims.

we obviosly dont believe you HR. that sounds TOTALLY unreal and unbelieveble!!

WERE R THE PICS???

seek and you shall find!

HR

No problems at the back but I have a slight rub in the front when I do a very tight turn, nothing serious though.

OK, time for another update.

Now as you might have noticed from my previous pictures, the original tulip style dash buttons are missing from my Ghia's dash and were replaced by regular Beetle buttons. These things are an absolute pain in the ass to find and the only guys who make decent reproductions are Brezelwerks (Thanks to TheSamba) Unfortunately I do not have near enough gold fillings in my teeth to pay for their workmanship. So in the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson, I thought to myself: "How hard can it be?"

Step 1: Take the one remaining tulip button from your Ghia and make a plaster of paris mould. Coat the inside of the mould with grey primer to provide a nice non-stick surface.

Step 2:Use glassfibre resin and ordinary Plascon Antique Ivory spraypaint and mix together to obtain the correct shade of Ivory. Do not even think about using Humbrol model paint as it triggers immediate hardening of the resin, completely messing up your mould, mixing cup, kitchen table and your wife's thin-worn patience. (ask me how I know this and how many times I've tried)

Step 3:Extract moulded piece from mould and scream like a primary school girl each time you bugger up the mould while doing it. Drink 3 beers in quick succession after your first succesfull extraction.

You should now have this:



Use your handy Dremel to do some rough trimming and this is what you get:



Now use some 120 grit sanding paper to smooth it down a bit:



Work your way up to 1000 grit and end off with a nice polish with a soft cloth and some Silvo/Brasso:







The base still needs finishing but give me a break, it's 24h00, my kitchen looks like shit after all my buggering around and my wife might just kill me when she sees her kitchen table tomorrow morning. But, one button down, only six more to go.

Wish me luck.

Now thats awesome. Well done to you sir!
Expect orders to be placed soon from other Ghia-owning members !

And we're back...

After a bit of a hectic festive season, I'm busy sorting out the new parts that I've got for the Ghia.

First off we've got two new rockers to replace the rusted out old ones:





Then there's an original, uncut lowlight dash to replace mine that was cut to accomodate 5 additional gauges and the sweet Fiat tractor ignition switch:





Added to that, I got two original headlight buckets from a scrapped '66 (to reverse the Mini headlight conversion) and an old valve radio that I picked up for a 100 bucks.

Now I just need to visit my panel beater on Friday to deliver the parts and see if it's at all possible to shift him into a higher gear. Wish me luck...

Well done getting all the required parts.
Nice find on the valve radio! Is that another salvageable Ivory button I see? Only 5 more to make then

Good Luck RED....

nice going finding original parts

Thanks guys.

My biggest frustration at the moment is the body work. It's difficult getting a decent panel beater in my neck of the woods and this guy is very experienced at using lead rather than body filler. I've also seen a '32 Ford that he did for somebody else and it looks like just rolled out of ol' Henry's factory. It's a pity because I originally planned to have it going in time for the George show. Maybe I should have specified which year...

So I guess I'll have to be patient and hope that all good things come to those who wait.

Good job. That looks really nice

OldRed wrote:OK, time for another update.

Now as you might have noticed from my previous pictures, the original tulip style dash buttons are missing from my Ghia's dash and were replaced by regular Beetle buttons. These things are an absolute pain in the ass to find and the only guys who make decent reproductions are Brezelwerks (Thanks to TheSamba) Unfortunately I do not have near enough gold fillings in my teeth to pay for their workmanship. So in the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson, I thought to myself: "How hard can it be?"

Step 1: Take the one remaining tulip button from your Ghia and make a plaster of paris mould. Coat the inside of the mould with grey primer to provide a nice non-stick surface.

Step 2:Use glassfibre resin and ordinary Plascon Antique Ivory spraypaint and mix together to obtain the correct shade of Ivory. Do not even think about using Humbrol model paint as it triggers immediate hardening of the resin, completely messing up your mould, mixing cup, kitchen table and your wife's thin-worn patience. (ask me how I know this and how many times I've tried)

Step 3:Extract moulded piece from mould and scream like a primary school girl each time you bugger up the mould while doing it. Drink 3 beers in quick succession after your first succesfull extraction.

You should now have this:



Use your handy Dremel to do some rough trimming and this is what you get:



Now use some 120 grit sanding paper to smooth it down a bit:



Work your way up to 1000 grit and end off with a nice polish with a soft cloth and some Silvo/Brasso:







The base still needs finishing but give me a break, it's 24h00, my kitchen looks like shit after all my buggering around and my wife might just kill me when she sees her kitchen table tomorrow morning. But, one button down, only six more to go.

Wish me luck.

OK, it's been a while but at least there's some progress. I've refurbished some of the parts (more pics of that later) and the bodyman's been doing his bit (when he's not in hospital, that is.)

New rockerpanels are in:





The future heir and heiress of OldRed busy with quality control.



Also done (but I can't find the pics), old Mini headlight buckets are out and real Ghia buckets are in. Most of the rust spots and additional holes drilled by the PO have been fixed and filled.

The only real problem areas still left are the dash and the engine bay. Hell, I'm getting excited already!

Hi Old Red

Is it possible to post a picture taken directly into the headlight bowl, with out the headlight in position. I would like to see where and how the headlights are fstened down

Thanks.

Will do so HR. Just need to go and search for the pics.

PM sent.