Son's '73 ghia - a distraction - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

**d3ghia** · December 23rd, 2011, 11:40 AM

So, I know this is nowhere near the level of builds I see on this site (so many talented builders) but this is my son's car. We started it as a father son build, but he has no interest in cars. He helps me work on it a little bit, but I think he is just more interested in having a car and not the build process. That is OK with me, I have encouraged him (and my three daughters) to find something in life that they are passionate about and go do it, and do it well. So, it is ending up as my gift to him, since everyone should have a VW to cruise around in. He picked his colors and fabric etc for the final look of his car, and now I am working on trying to finish it up so he can have his freedom (and to get it out of the garage so I can work on my projects). I may not be good at first at posting pics and updates, but I am an old dog, and slow to new tricks. So here is the first photo, how we found her, sitting next to an old barn near Lake Havasu in AZ.

**d3ghia** · December 23rd, 2011, 11:53 AM

We looked this car over, it seemed like a pretty good deal, looked decent, needed some TLC, but was restorable - yeah, guess I missed a bunch of things! It happens to most of us I suppose. So we got it home and unloaded from the trailer.

1jarhead2 · December 23rd, 2011, 06:37 PM

First things first,Welcome aboard! Second, I fell in love with vintage cars from Arizona as there is little to no rust to fix and all the bolts come apart easily. I see multiple VW powered vehicles in your pictures so you have already been broken into the VW family and their little quirks. Good luck and have a blast building that Ghia.

**V8Transporter** · December 23rd, 2011, 08:30 PM

Welcome to the site. We got no project too small, or too large, and a lot of good stuff in between.

Oh, plus plenty of 'fringe' stuff.

Franklin · December 24th, 2011, 03:12 AM

Looking forward to seeing where this one goes-

**d3ghia** · December 24th, 2011, 08:35 AM

Thanks for the welcome here, that is awesome. I have come to this site off and on for awhile, and it seems more family oriented than anywhere else, so I knew this is where I should be spending my time on the computer!

Jarhead - I am assuming you are a Marine? Thanks for your service! It can't be said enough to all that have served and are serving this country.

Franklin - Man, you have some awesome R/C's!!! I saw those and have been showing everyone at work (almost got me busted for not working and playing on the internet...lol!)

V8 - Love your build...that will be really fun when finished!

And to all, happy holidays. Thanks for helping a dude feel welcome here.

**d3ghia** · December 29th, 2011, 12:53 PM

OK, some more pics of where this car has been, and where it is going. Here is some more photos of bringing her home

**d3ghia** · December 29th, 2011, 01:00 PM

And then the dismantling begins.

**d3ghia** · December 29th, 2011, 08:44 PM

That car looks pretty solid from what I can see in the pics,, is it?

Depends on your definition, LOL! The pan halves are completely rusted, the rear window tray plus a few small spots throughout the car, but nothing like you were working with on Bugsplat (great build by the way, I spent almost six hours reading the entire thing!).

The real issue is once we got the paint off (pics coming) it would appear that this car has been painted four previous times (originally green, redone in green, changed to red and then redone in red). The sad thing is that is would also appear that someone spent about $3,000 on Bondo and $5 on bodywork under that Bondo! It looked like a used aluminum foil wrapper from a baked potato. Talk about tons of hammertime!

What's your plan?

Sticking to the original idea for the car that it will be for my son (and the timeline we have to finish it), the plans are his. He wants it to be Dodge purple (You would like that Carlene) with a grey interior. No mods to the body, just some rims and some tire stagger to give it a good rake. I have a 1915cc motor to put in it, plus we are converting the autostick to a manual. Small stereo and some window tint will finish the look. Nothing exciting compared to what is on this site, and the guys at thesamba will be happy with it.

but really no rust anywhere else on the car.

**V8Transporter** · December 29th, 2011, 08:49 PM

"Nothing exciting compared to"...etc. Are you kidding? Getting a VW on the road is not only exciting around here, it answers that eternal VR question, "is it done yet?"

**d3ghia** · December 29th, 2011, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V8Transporter

"Nothing exciting compared to"...etc. Are you kidding? Getting a VW on the road is not only exciting around here, it answers that eternal VR question, "is it done yet?"

Yes, very true! It will be VERY exciting for him and I, just wasnt sure about everyone else, but thank you for your words of encouragement. That is my opinion too, any VW that is on the road is a fantastic VW, and the ones waiting to get on the road are great VWs! We are on a timecrunch, so we are trying for March 1st, 2012.

**d3ghia** · January 14th, 2012, 08:25 PM

Who,

I have been working! LOL! This place is sooo distracting though! So many great ideas and builds to watch. Anyway, the past couple of weeks we have made a little progress.

The body is off the pan, and I have started to clean up the front suspension and cutting out the old pans.

Franklin · January 15th, 2012, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d3ghia

Who,

I have been working! LOL! This place is sooo distracting though! So many great ideas and builds to watch. Anyway, the past couple of weeks we have made a little progress.

The body is off the pan, and I have started to clean up the front suspension and cutting out the old pans.

Progress-I see progress. Awesome! I hear you-this place can be a time vacuum.

**d3ghia** · January 16th, 2012, 10:22 PM

So, this was a long weekend.....and what got done? Where is my update? Hmm, well, moved the GF from her place to mine as well as cleaned her old one up for the security deposit, fixed a toilet, helped my daughter with her science project, washed and detailed three of our other cars, identified why my other daughter's '63 ragtop won't start (have to get a new starter - cuz her's of course is still 6 volt and none of my extra 12 volts will work), had a birthday, and even had to work for four hours on Saturday! Dangit! Have almost got the picture posting thing figured out so I can be more better at it in the future.

**d3ghia** · January 24th, 2012, 09:00 PM

OK, so we are making progress. 1 March is coming fast. I am actually farther along then in some of these photos, but I am also still learning how to post them.

So, I have been trying different ways to post photos and think I have finally figured it out.

Thanks to Carlene for posting a Thread on how to post pics. It got me started. I really didn't want to create a photobucket account, but it seems this is the only way to get pics on the forum like I wanted, so I did it. (I am hesitant to put my stuff out there for just anyone) It's ok for you guys (and gals) 'cuz we are all gearheads and not completely right in the head - even you JiI.....

and part of the VW family.

I am hoping that I don't end up with broken links to pics and stuff, cuz that is sooo frustrating when trying to look at old threads and there are no pics to go with what the topic of the thread was.

Anyway, here is the front fender. Hard to see in the picture, but the bondo on this fender was a half inch thick in some places. I was taking it all off, to bare metal, so alot of the waves and warbles don't really show that much. This is the BEST fender....the rear ones look like used tin foil

So, now that I have pic capability, in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned. I am still trying for that deadline! (and I don't want to be the slacker of the month!)

and for a mini-hijack of my own thread,.....I had posted something a few days ago, that one of the mods helped me with, so thank you. I really mean that. After your assistance I relooked the issue and totally agree with you.

**d3ghia** · February 5th, 2012, 09:59 PM

Hey everyone!

An update is due for the past couple of weeks. Aside from reading all of the progress on several other members' rides,

(very talented people here!!)

I have actually been working too

So, I got the pans off

And the body is looking pretty straight!

Door gaps looking pretty good!

Used to be a bunch of automatic transmission stuff in here, had to cut it all out and make it smooth.

Engine compartment looks pretty good now too, had to weld in some new metal to make it smooth

A straight nose.....lol!

A new motor ready to go in when all this is purple!

This side was pretty rough. A little rust on the bottom rocker and this rear fender had one big dent and about 30 small ones that were a result of someone using a slide hammer poorly. (they didn't even fill in the holes they made) Almost 1 inch of bondo on this fender.

Rust spots filled in, everything even

No body mods on this build. Just a straight resto-custom. We are probably going to miss our deadline, but hopefully by only a couple of weeks. I have two more builds to finish this year before I can start my dream project!

**purplemyth** · February 6th, 2012, 04:01 AM

Purple engine, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm more Purple

Looking good

So? is it dun yet?

1jarhead2 · February 6th, 2012, 05:38 AM

Wow, you guys work fast. The Ghia is looking good.

38Chevy454 · February 6th, 2012, 07:00 AM

Nice work, your sone will have a nice car when you are done.

**d3ghia** · February 6th, 2012, 04:29 PM

Thanks guys. Yes, Carlene, you should like the final paint job of this car. Going for MOPAR purple (I forget the name - but it is the OH MY GOD PURPLE).

The body was the hard part, so I wanted to get that out of the way first. Now it is just cleaning up some of the old parts that are reusable and digging through my old stash of parts to limit what has to be purchased.

It is for my son, so new rotors and brake lines were a must. I also had Kevin at KCR build a freeway flyer since it was autostick and we wanted to go manual.

Tonight I am exhausted, so I will probably crash early so I can get to work earlier tomorrow. That way I may be able to get home at a decent time and get a few hours into it tomorrow night. I am wanting to have the new pans welded and sealed by Friday night.

bigguy · February 6th, 2012, 04:47 PM

plumb crazy purple or more like the prowler purple.

**purplemyth** · February 6th, 2012, 05:18 PM

Plum crazy is Mopar. Almost went with it but found a Ford Royal purple. Then hubby tweaked it so it's now Dragon's purple

Look forward to seeing it done :)

**d3ghia** · February 7th, 2012, 08:18 PM

Plum Crazy! That should look pretty nice! Dragon purple sounds interesting too......hmmm.....LOL!

**purplemyth** · February 8th, 2012, 04:26 AM

Sorry, you won't find mine on any shelf or in any code book >:)
Nice to have access to a paint room when mixing starts. Add a smidge of this, a few grams of that, oooo an extra tablespoon of this powdery stuff~

Dragon's up for a repaint soon and gonna add a little more darkness to his evil coat

So, is it dun yet?

1jarhead2 · February 8th, 2012, 05:21 AM

LOL! I am the same way. I start off with a basic paint formula and then the mad science begins,add some of this, toss in some toner,a spoonful of bling,stir well,spray a test card and maybe adjust to flavor. I learned a lesson the hardway ,when I built my 1939 Chevy I didnt weigh it out as I mixed it and then ran out of basecoat. It took a good friend of mine 8days to get a formula close enough to blend. The Prophet didnt even read it right and kept coming up with a color in the next galaxy. I now weigh it as I mix and I write it down as I go.lol