More wheel mockup pics

More wheel mockup pics
13's or 19's, you make the call!

Stainless Hardware

This past weekend I met up a local Honda-tech member and picked up one of the finalizing pieces of the exhaust, the test pipe (Cat-Delete). After removing the rusty stock hardware, it was deemed that I couldn’t re-install the new test pipe with this faulty hardware. So yesterday I managed to pickup some stainless metric hardware to complete the system. We are now officially 2.5" from the turbo back (And 100% stainless steel from the down pipe back!!). Judging by the butt dyno results last night the car feels to have gained a couple horses. It certainly appears to be breathing easier since the test pipe was added, you can tell just by the noxious fumes that now spew out of the car! Emissions exempt FTW.

Power Up!

This weekend concluded my battery tie-down overbuild. I finished constructing the bracket, sourced some metric all-thread for mounting, and then hooked it up. This was an exciting ordeal as this is the first time the car has been powered up in 32 years! Minus a couple of burnt out bulbs, and a rust filled horn i dont believe there to be any huge mechanical gremlins. Seeing the car all lit up really brings a tear to my eye.

Sidekick

Sidekick status...

EMPI GT Exhaust

Mockup of EMPI GT Exhaust. Cheap and suprisingly well fitting!

Exhausting Work

After a couple of hours, bloody knucles and cans of liquid wrench, i finally removed the lower half of the exhaust manifold! The top flanges actually seperated rather easily, while the lower flanges were totally rusted through and were just hanging. Look for a new exhaust mockup in the next posting!

New Ghia Parts

Finally the shipment of ghia parts has arrived. What can you spot?

Specs of giant wheels 19x9, yikes!

Awesome Beetle on Phonedials

Look at this beauty!!
This is more than a worthless post, but rather a picasa test :)

Karmann Ghia Engine Bay Restoration

So after staring at this vintage VW in my driveway for the past couple weeks the time has come to start wrenching! The obvious issues with the Ghia are the body damage and nonrunning motor. Rather than tackling the exterior body work first i decided to concentrate on the cars vitals. The project was received without a battery, which was no problem b/c the original battery was probably cooked anyway. I was able to reuse the Bosch Premium Battery left over from the rabbit project! Next I sourced some metric fasteners and proceeded to overbuild an aluminum battery tie down.

Although i said i would not get involved with bodywork until a later date there were some areas in the engine bay that needed some immediate attention in order to prevent weathering. I removed all of the side paneling and gaskets, stripped down damage metal, prepped the solid portions, and painted the entire bay Eastwood chassis gloss black. So far i have had great success with this paint and though the finish isn't show quality it has proven to cover well & be quite durable.

Other recent milestones for the ghia include:
-Chopping off bent and rusted exhaust tip (I was constantly tripping over it, grrr...)

-Removing the rear bumper brackets and shrouds (1 bolt had to be massaged off with the grinding wheel while the other three just broke off)

Some Before Pictures for reference:

There are many more parts and updates enroute! The next project i would like to conquer is to restore the gas tank.