Here's how my KG is as of the moment. The first thing which might have caught your attention I guess would be the dent on the nose section. Mind you though that this wasn't my fault or the previous owner's. The bump on the nose happened just a day after I had brought the car home after aquiring it. The rear brake cylinder had a leak which I didn't know about until it was too late. I was parking the car in our shed when the brake pedal suddenly went all the way down to the floor! I tried to pull the handbrake but it was too late. KABLAM! I had slammed into the rear of my uncle's 1991 Mitsubishi Galant head-on! I felt and heard the nose section caving in in front of me. My worst nightmare had occured just a day after getting my dream car! The very tip of the nose section had collapsed which looked really terrible at first but I felt that I had to rescue it immediately. I quickly ran and got a rubber mallet and began hammering it back into shape. It doesn't look too bad now but I wish it had never happened in the first place. What a terrible feeling that was!
A few days later I decided that the best thing to do while I'm still saving up for the restoration is to remove most of the exterior and interior trimming while I have nothing else better to do. I started out by removing the headlight assembly, and to my surprise, the headlight buckets had major holes on them and are in their critical stages of rust cancer! Next on the list was the bumpers. I removed both the front and back assemblies including the mounting brackets except for one. The front left bracket had a really tough bolt that had lost its thread, so up till today it's still there on the car. I then tried to take off the turn signal assembly from the fenders but the small nuts had rusted itself to the bolts. I just left them as they were cause I didn't want to accidentally tear the lens in the process. I'll get to them when I have the time. In this picture you see that my trunk is kinda messy. The wiring looks worse than I could have ever imagined. The wires aren't even properly arranged. The fusebox, which incedentally is from a Japanese car, wasn't even bolted to anything. it just lays on the trunk floor and is held in place only by the accumulated dust and dirt in there! Wow, all those wires are just waiting to start a fire one of these days. Needless to say I cleaned up a bit and disconnected some of the leads. The tank as you can see doesn't have a fuel sender, but the PO had given me an improvised fuel gauge, a rusty metal bar for poking into the wide gas tank opening to check the fuel level. Oh well, all in all the trunk looks pretty good considering it hasn't been used for so long. I'll see what I can do to spruce it up a bit when I do the resto.
Here you see the extent of the nose damage that I was talking about earlier. It doesn't seem that bad besides the flaking bondo but I think I'm going to have a difficult time re-shaping the curved channel. The lower edge around the vent openings also have a slight tear so I'll need to get them punched-out so the vent grills will fit flush with the body again. The turn-signals are still attached to the body because of the little 8mm nuts that hold them there have rusted to the studs. Once I have them removed I'll get them polished and probably re-chromed to their former glory. I still don't know what I'll do with the horn opening on the bottom sheet metal. The metal bracket that hold the horns in place behind it is missing so I'll have to go and take a look at a friends KG so I can get them repro'd. I was thinking that I could make an improvised halogen driving light housing there instead. What do you guys think about that idea?
In this angle you can clearly see the stock 5 lug rims. They have been painted in a silver grey color which isn't half bad at all. I've removed all the stock chrome hubcaps before they fall off and get smashed in while I'm working on the car. Notice that the side mirrors isn't the original swan-neck type. This one is a small pear-shaped mirror on a curved stem which I think are from an early convertible Beetle. It's installed on a non original mounting hole, but the mounting holes for the stock mirrors can still be seen due to the PPO's poor attempt at covering them with bondo. The chrome trim on the rain gutters are also still complete and in fairly good condition. I don't think they had been removed during the last paint touch-up which might explain why they are still attached snuggly in place.
In this view you can see that the body is still pretty straight. The dorrs and front fenders have barely any body filler in them but the rear fender has some around the tail light area, probably due to some rust damage before. The 4" rims that are on the car right now look kinda thin and as such when the viewed from a certain angle, the car look as if it's missing it's tires! The 155/R15 Hankook tires has just the right height to fill the fenders nicely. I was wonder though if all KG had the round holes on the bottom rear section of the fender where the torsion bars can be serviced? Most KG's I've seen have them but mine doesn't. I have the short torsion bars and so I have the torsion bar covers which do not have the openings on them. I've tried to see if the holes had been patched-up by the PPO but the body seems smooth to the touch so I guess my KG really didn't have them originally.
From this rear view shot you can see that the decklid is beginning to fall apart right as we speak. The sheet metal is rusting heavily and is begining to fall into pieces, literally. I don't know if it will still be salvageable though. I might try and find a replacement decklid from a friend but chances are that I'll get the holes patched-up and hopefully save the sucker. The taillights are the all-red US versions. The right lens is still intact but the left lens has a gaping hole in the lower section. The reflector had fallen off and had simply been glued-on with rubber cement by the PO. The chrome strip on the license light housing is also in perfect condition so that's an added bonus. The going prices for this part according to the ones I've seen in catalogs are ridiculous! I've also removed the Karmann Ghia script on the decklid. It's now in three pieces. I didn't break it mind you, it was like that when I got it. The G is cut into two pieces along the junction between it and the H. The tail-end of the G is also a piece on its own. I'll temporarily glue the three pieces together until I can find a good repro.
Here's the engine compartment. Kinda dirty don't you think? The engine is a 1978 1600DP from Brazil. It was installed by the dealer when the original 1192cc seized. Does this make my KG an original 1960 1600DP KG? Notice anything missing on the engine block? I don't have a stock mechanical fuel pump. If you look over to the upper left hand side beside the decklid spring you'll see a little brownish metal box. This is the electric fuel pump. It's supposd to be a good upgrade because it ensures constant fuel delivery everytime but I think mine is shot since it can't even prime the carb without me sucking on the fuel line. I'll get a mechanical pump installed once the time comes around.
Here's another shot of the engine. It looks as if it's a single port but being a Brazilian engine, it has the ultra short DP manifolds. They are only about 3" long but they do work nonetheless. The carb is a new 30 PICT-3 with a foam element filter. The filter doesn't seem to have done much besides collect oil. It acts more like a breather element rather than filter the incoming air. I've already found an original off-set oil bath oil filter set-up so the chrome one seen here will be a gonner. The PPO had some of the engine tin chrome plated which is why they look kinda different. The fan shroud is also Brazilian made so it's a little longer and squarely shaped. I'm planning to replace this with a 36hp repro next time though. I like the look of the smaller shroud a lot more and also when people look at my engine they'll think I'm still running the stock 1192! This will be perfect for my resto-custom theme.
Here's how the driver's side door looks like with the door panel removed. Not a pretty sight huh? The PPO didn't bother removing the old paint before painting over the metal so some of the previous British green color is still evident. Notice that even the window glass has some red paint on it! The chrome trim on the top portion of the door is also still in good condition so that's just about compensates for the PPO's stupidity! The door skin has few bondo on it but on the inner portion it has a layer of black under-coating in wrinkle finish? The window crank handle isn't the correct one but I'll find the proper ones soon. I'm still unsure of the color scheme for the interior so I haven't decided whether to go for the ivory, grey, or black knobs.
Here's how the interior looks like after I had removed the dash pad, clock, door panels, carpet and radio. The seats have been re-covered in a two-tone vinyl material but has since faded from a red color to an ugly shade of brown. The steering wheel is the stock two spoke type. It came with a 3/4 circle horn ring which I have previously been told was a rare dealer option. It's now sitting in my room waiting to be rechromed. If you read through my Intro section you'll have learned about the EMPI leather steering wheel that I was fortunate enough to have found. It's an NOS wheel in perfect condition that I might consider using in the KG if it will not clash with the interior color scheme. If anybody has an early KG steering wheel and would want to trade for it please send me an e-mail and I'll consider doing the trade. I'm also missing the metal speaker grill on the dash so if anybody has any leads to an extra set for sale please let me know about it.
Can you tell what this is? It's a picture of the ceiling with the headliner removed. makes you want to throw-up huh? That's how I felt when I saw it too. The PPO simply brushed-on rubber cement to hold the headliner in place. He should've used a spray adhesive instead. Now it's going to take me forever to scrape off that darned ceiling clean. I was considering having a canvas ragtop installed but the guys over in the KG mailinglist convinced me not to. Being 6'2" tall, the top of my head is insanely close to the ceiling so I'm hoping to figure out a way to lower the seat a bit to give me some more head room. I'll see what I can figure out and post it in the GloveBox section.
Yuck, what is this! It's just the rear seat area with all the carpetting, seat rest and seat back removed. See all the remnants of the rubber cement used to keep the carpetting in place? It's the brown looking stuff. See how the rear shelf had been brutally cut-up to install the speakers? I'm also missing the shift-rod access panel. The opening in the tunnel is now chock full of dust and dirt. Will a metal panel off of a Beetle fit this perfectly? The flooring had been painted in a grey fleckled finish which is why you see all those tiny colored dots all over the place. I'll probably get the flooring repainted in satin black. I don't think there is any shop here capable of powdercoating an entire VW chassis.
Here's another view of the rear section. You can see the depth of the rear luggage space here. Notice that my KG still has the old style rubber door latch? This shows how the transition model year (1960) had used some of the early parts with the newer body shape. I'm going to be removing the rear seat area and will be installing a parcel shelf area instead. The space there isn't even big enough to fit a tool box much less a person. I'll just cover the place with carpet or leatherette-vinyl to simulate a large trunk space. I might use the extra space to fabricate a couple hidden shelves or speaker boxes.
Here's how my KG is as of the moment. The first thing which might have caught your attention I guess would be the dent on the nose section. Mind you though that this wasn't my fault or the previous owner's. The bump on the nose happened just a day after I had brought the car home after aquiring it. The rear brake cylinder had a leak which I didn't know about until it was too late. I was parking the car in our shed when the brake pedal suddenly went all the way down to the floor! I tried to pull the handbrake but it was too late. KABLAM! I had slammed into the rear of my uncle's 1991 Mitsubishi Galant head-on! I felt and heard the nose section caving in in front of me. My worst nightmare had occured just a day after getting my dream car! The very tip of the nose section had collapsed which looked really terrible at first but I felt that I had to rescue it immediately. I quickly ran and got a rubber mallet and began hammering it back into shape. It doesn't look too bad now but I wish it had never happened in the first place. What a terrible feeling that was!
A few days later I decided that the best thing to do while I'm still saving up for the restoration is to remove most of the exterior and interior trimming while I have nothing else better to do. I started out by removing the headlight assembly, and to my surprise, the headlight buckets had major holes on them and are in their critical stages of rust cancer! Next on the list was the bumpers. I removed both the front and back assemblies including the mounting brackets except for one. The front left bracket had a really tough bolt that had lost its thread, so up till today it's still there on the car. I then tried to take off the turn signal assembly from the fenders but the small nuts had rusted itself to the bolts. I just left them as they were cause I didn't want to accidentally tear the lens in the process. I'll get to them when I have the time. In this picture you see that my trunk is kinda messy. The wiring looks worse than I could have ever imagined. The wires aren't even properly arranged. The fusebox, which incedentally is from a Japanese car, wasn't even bolted to anything. it just lays on the trunk floor and is held in place only by the accumulated dust and dirt in there! Wow, all those wires are just waiting to start a fire one of these days. Needless to say I cleaned up a bit and disconnected some of the leads. The tank as you can see doesn't have a fuel sender, but the PO had given me an improvised fuel gauge, a rusty metal bar for poking into the wide gas tank opening to check the fuel level. Oh well, all in all the trunk looks pretty good considering it hasn't been used for so long. I'll see what I can do to spruce it up a bit when I do the resto.
Here you see the extent of the nose damage that I was talking about earlier. It doesn't seem that bad besides the flaking bondo but I think I'm going to have a difficult time re-shaping the curved channel. The lower edge around the vent openings also have a slight tear so I'll need to get them punched-out so the vent grills will fit flush with the body again. The turn-signals are still attached to the body because of the little 8mm nuts that hold them there have rusted to the studs. Once I have them removed I'll get them polished and probably re-chromed to their former glory. I still don't know what I'll do with the horn opening on the bottom sheet metal. The metal bracket that hold the horns in place behind it is missing so I'll have to go and take a look at a friends KG so I can get them repro'd. I was thinking that I could make an improvised halogen driving light housing there instead. What do you guys think about that idea?
In this angle you can clearly see the stock 5 lug rims. They have been painted in a silver grey color which isn't half bad at all. I've removed all the stock chrome hubcaps before they fall off and get smashed in while I'm working on the car. Notice that the side mirrors isn't the original swan-neck type. This one is a small pear-shaped mirror on a curved stem which I think are from an early convertible Beetle. It's installed on a non original mounting hole, but the mounting holes for the stock mirrors can still be seen due to the PPO's poor attempt at covering them with bondo. The chrome trim on the rain gutters are also still complete and in fairly good condition. I don't think they had been removed during the last paint touch-up which might explain why they are still attached snuggly in place.
In this view you can see that the body is still pretty straight. The dorrs and front fenders have barely any body filler in them but the rear fender has some around the tail light area, probably due to some rust damage before. The 4" rims that are on the car right now look kinda thin and as such when the viewed from a certain angle, the car look as if it's missing it's tires! The 155/R15 Hankook tires has just the right height to fill the fenders nicely. I was wonder though if all KG had the round holes on the bottom rear section of the fender where the torsion bars can be serviced? Most KG's I've seen have them but mine doesn't. I have the short torsion bars and so I have the torsion bar covers which do not have the openings on them. I've tried to see if the holes had been patched-up by the PPO but the body seems smooth to the touch so I guess my KG really didn't have them originally.
From this rear view shot you can see that the decklid is beginning to fall apart right as we speak. The sheet metal is rusting heavily and is begining to fall into pieces, literally. I don't know if it will still be salvageable though. I might try and find a replacement decklid from a friend but chances are that I'll get the holes patched-up and hopefully save the sucker. The taillights are the all-red US versions. The right lens is still intact but the left lens has a gaping hole in the lower section. The reflector had fallen off and had simply been glued-on with rubber cement by the PO. The chrome strip on the license light housing is also in perfect condition so that's an added bonus. The going prices for this part according to the ones I've seen in catalogs are ridiculous! I've also removed the Karmann Ghia script on the decklid. It's now in three pieces. I didn't break it mind you, it was like that when I got it. The G is cut into two pieces along the junction between it and the H. The tail-end of the G is also a piece on its own. I'll temporarily glue the three pieces together until I can find a good repro.
Here's the engine compartment. Kinda dirty don't you think? The engine is a 1978 1600DP from Brazil. It was installed by the dealer when the original 1192cc seized. Does this make my KG an original 1960 1600DP KG? Notice anything missing on the engine block? I don't have a stock mechanical fuel pump. If you look over to the upper left hand side beside the decklid spring you'll see a little brownish metal box. This is the electric fuel pump. It's supposd to be a good upgrade because it ensures constant fuel delivery everytime but I think mine is shot since it can't even prime the carb without me sucking on the fuel line. I'll get a mechanical pump installed once the time comes around.
Here's another shot of the engine. It looks as if it's a single port but being a Brazilian engine, it has the ultra short DP manifolds. They are only about 3" long but they do work nonetheless. The carb is a new 30 PICT-3 with a foam element filter. The filter doesn't seem to have done much besides collect oil. It acts more like a breather element rather than filter the incoming air. I've already found an original off-set oil bath oil filter set-up so the chrome one seen here will be a gonner. The PPO had some of the engine tin chrome plated which is why they look kinda different. The fan shroud is also Brazilian made so it's a little longer and squarely shaped. I'm planning to replace this with a 36hp repro next time though. I like the look of the smaller shroud a lot more and also when people look at my engine they'll think I'm still running the stock 1192! This will be perfect for my resto-custom theme.
Here's how the driver's side door looks like with the door panel removed. Not a pretty sight huh? The PPO didn't bother removing the old paint before painting over the metal so some of the previous British green color is still evident. Notice that even the window glass has some red paint on it! The chrome trim on the top portion of the door is also still in good condition so that's just about compensates for the PPO's stupidity! The door skin has few bondo on it but on the inner portion it has a layer of black under-coating in wrinkle finish? The window crank handle isn't the correct one but I'll find the proper ones soon. I'm still unsure of the color scheme for the interior so I haven't decided whether to go for the ivory, grey, or black knobs.
Here's how the interior looks like after I had removed the dash pad, clock, door panels, carpet and radio. The seats have been re-covered in a two-tone vinyl material but has since faded from a red color to an ugly shade of brown. The steering wheel is the stock two spoke type. It came with a 3/4 circle horn ring which I have previously been told was a rare dealer option. It's now sitting in my room waiting to be rechromed. If you read through my Intro section you'll have learned about the EMPI leather steering wheel that I was fortunate enough to have found. It's an NOS wheel in perfect condition that I might consider using in the KG if it will not clash with the interior color scheme. If anybody has an early KG steering wheel and would want to trade for it please send me an e-mail and I'll consider doing the trade. I'm also missing the metal speaker grill on the dash so if anybody has any leads to an extra set for sale please let me know about it.
Can you tell what this is? It's a picture of the ceiling with the headliner removed. makes you want to throw-up huh? That's how I felt when I saw it too. The PPO simply brushed-on rubber cement to hold the headliner in place. He should've used a spray adhesive instead. Now it's going to take me forever to scrape off that darned ceiling clean. I was considering having a canvas ragtop installed but the guys over in the KG mailinglist convinced me not to. Being 6'2" tall, the top of my head is insanely close to the ceiling so I'm hoping to figure out a way to lower the seat a bit to give me some more head room. I'll see what I can figure out and post it in the GloveBox section.
Yuck, what is this! It's just the rear seat area with all the carpetting, seat rest and seat back removed. See all the remnants of the rubber cement used to keep the carpetting in place? It's the brown looking stuff. See how the rear shelf had been brutally cut-up to install the speakers? I'm also missing the shift-rod access panel. The opening in the tunnel is now chock full of dust and dirt. Will a metal panel off of a Beetle fit this perfectly? The flooring had been painted in a grey fleckled finish which is why you see all those tiny colored dots all over the place. I'll probably get the flooring repainted in satin black. I don't think there is any shop here capable of powdercoating an entire VW chassis.
Here's another view of the rear section. You can see the depth of the rear luggage space here. Notice that my KG still has the old style rubber door latch? This shows how the transition model year (1960) had used some of the early parts with the newer body shape. I'm going to be removing the rear seat area and will be installing a parcel shelf area instead. The space there isn't even big enough to fit a tool box much less a person. I'll just cover the place with carpet or leatherette-vinyl to simulate a large trunk space. I might use the extra space to fabricate a couple hidden shelves or speaker boxes.