Aircooled VW South Africa

I'm learning some interesting things about my recently acquired 57 Karmann Ghia lowlight...

From the research I've done on the net it seems all years of Ghia's only had the indentation and actual badge on the passenger side fender of the vehicle, and not on both fenders as I originally thought,can anyone confirm this please?

What size and make replacement tyres are generally being fitted to the Ghia's with standard suspension, the 4j rims doesn't give you too many options? I'm not too concerned about keeping the same od, I would rather fit wider tyres with a lower profile for the looks, some advice please.

Does anyone have some nice good quality pictures and detail of what the original interiors looked like?

Thanks

Jack

Jack,....badge ws only on one side,...thar I can confirm,......there seems to be different badges for different years I believe.

From what L hear and read,... the widest that can fit in the back comfortable without "mods" to fendoers are 185's,.....I will be fitting 5.5j all round when I get there.
Lowlights don't require a dash pad ,.....it is steel

Bottom line is how deep your pockets are?

My '60 is beiing done on a "sympathetic EXTREMELY budget friendly " basis

Haans

Hi jack

Congratz on owning a lowlight, they are quite beautiful.

yip, 1 side badge. lowlights have the bat ear style side badge (pic attached)

I am running 195/50/15 rear on 6.5j steelies and 165/50/15 front on 4j steelies.

Early Ghias have short shaft gearboxes, so they can fit a wider wheel.

My Ghia is lowered quite alot.

Thanks Haans and Cogita for confirmation of one side badge.

I would like to fit 185's, but think it will be a stretch on the 4j rims, looks like I will need other rims for wider tyres. What is beetle rim size, are they wider than 4j?

Any info on original upholstery style and colours?

Hello Cogita !.......and Jack

Cogita, did you do any mods to the rear fenders of your car ?,......roll a little coke bottle perhaps ??......eyes can be deceiving,.... and mine is not that great ?

Jack,......google boet! That is the best advice I can give you,....mine's interior is based on a'59 that I saw and like. And fitted the BUDGET!!!!. I will update when interior is complete

That looks real good Haans

Cogita, how do you lower the front?

You are correct Jack, Karmann Ghias only had a fender badge on the right hand side (in your case, passenger side).

This is the "bat-" or "cat-ear" badge for an early (lowlight) car. So called for obvious reason...


This is the badge for a later (post-lowlight) car

Here are some images of an original interior in a Dolphin blue '59.











From what I've seen, I would venture a guess that your car was originally L41 Toucan black.

The interior combination should be as follows:

Thanks Fourier, usefull info. Something I noticed on the pics you posted is that the passenger has an armrest, but the driver only has a strap to pull the door closed, also the “emergency” back seat doesn’t have a bottom cushion.
When you say you guess my car was black, are you talking about the paint colour of the car? Based on what are you saying that? I find this very interesting since my dash is black and the inside of the door frames. I think you might be right...I have never seen a picture of an original car where the dash is a different colour than the body colour.

Your observation on the arm rest is correct. The cars had an arm rest on the passenger side, and a pull strap on the driver side.

The "emergency" back seat, had a very thin bottom cushion. So thin that at first glance you could think it had no cushion. Guess that's why it was called an "emergency" seat. You certainly would not want to sit there on a planned trip!

My guess would be that the original paint colour of your car was black, based on the black paint on the dash panel, and the door frames.