Volksauto’s - 1970 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Coupe

[Volksauto]

Poor Man’s Porsche​

Hi everyone, I hardly have posted anything in the past year or two. Life and my career has just been a bit too busy. Nevertheless, I’d love to share what I’ve acquired a few months ago.
As some of you know, I’ve been a vintage Volkswagen enthusiast since grade school. For years I’ve dreamt of owning an air cooled VW. Over the course of the past year, I finally took the search for a car (preferably driver condition) seriously and although I primarily was looking for a 1966 or earlier Beetle I found this cute Type-14 Karmann Ghia. I love Ghias as much as the Beetle so I gave it a shot. It was pretty close to where I lived and it was a deal I couldn’t resist.

This Karmann-Ghia underwent a budget conscious preservation by the previous owner. He had bodywork done, he shared photos of the car prior to paint and I was surprised to see a Ghia without 2 inch thick bondo. True it had filler here and there but nothing extreme. It had an exterior respray of it’s original color Light Ivory. Car is pretty solid. It was originally a Florida car. Only bad rust area is under the battery tray.

Engine is the stock 1600 single-port with a Solex 31-PICT carburetor, 009 distributor, and original oil bath air cleaner. One of the cylinder #1 pushrod tubes has a nasty oil leak which will require replacement eventually.

Since I’ve owned it, I haven’t had too much time too work on it but this is what work I’ve done to it so far:

• New rear brake shoes, hardware, wheel cylinders, drum
• Adjusted parking brake
• New inner/outer tie rod assemblies
• New German braided fuel hose with filter
• Tuned carb and cleaned jets
• New belt
• Installed stainless trim rings with Atlas portawalls on wheels

Car is far from perfect. It’s a WIP summer driver. I love driving it whenever i can. This car is a milestone for me and I thought I’d never see the day. It’s a dream come true!

 

[Volksauto]

Met a fellow aircooled VW enthusiast on my way home from work today. We had to pull over and chat. His ‘74 Super Beetle is his daily driver year around.

 

[Volksauto]

I went to a swap meet recently and picked up some goodies. Mostly maintenance items but found these nice NOS clutch and brake pedal pads and replaced the shredded ones that were in my car.

Also a bonus photo of the car at work.

 

[Volksauto]

I tried driving the Ghia to a cars and coffee today only to see the generator light would not go out. Quick check with a multimeter told me the battery wasn’t being charged.

I tried polarizing the gen with no success. But upon inspecting the brushes, they’re long overdue for replacement. I’m pretty sure they’re just not making contact anymore so I got some on order and hopefully it’ll fix the issue.