Bugging Me

aaron

I haven’t had a chance to touch my Ghia is the last week. My 74 Super, which is my daily driver, had been developing a strange noise, and I decided that I’d better find out what it is. I listened it for a while, and eventually settled on it being my alternator. After calling around, I found a rebuilt one for $90, and put it in. Pretty easy once I figured it out. I could do it now in about an hour and a half. So I started it up and “GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”. Shit. Okay, so that’s not what it was… My old alt really was going bad though, so it’s not really money wasted.

The next day, I decided that I needed to take the alternator belt off and see if it still did it. Nope. Okay, the fan is hitting. It didn’t do anything when I spun it by hand, but that’s definitely what the sound was. So I tore it down again so I could get the fan off and stick another shim on it. Well, I figured out that I hadn’t put any shims between it and the alt, they were behind it. So I put it back together right, and everything worked.

Until I got home a realized that the only running light that was working was my left rear. I stuck a new fuse in, and it immediately started to burn. Shit, a short. I’d been mucking around in the back when I was trying to get to the front of the fan, so I figured that I’d pinched something. The next day I spent trying to figure out a wiring harness that I’d bought with no instructions. I figured out where all the wires went, and also that there was no way I was going to get it in my car with it all assembled. So I gave up on that idea, and started looking for the short. Figured out that it was the license plate light, so I just unplugged that, and it’s fine.

In the meantime however, I’d also removed the dash, and I don’t like what I see under there. All kinds of homebrew fixes. I don’t want to deal with it though, so I’m just going to cover it back up so I don’t have to look at it. I did manage to close off that annoying fresh air leak that makes me cold in the winter.

Rust Hunting

Rust Hunting

aaron

Got out to the shop last night for some more cutting. I’m going to have to get some more cutting wheels 🙂

Yesterday, I cut away the rest of the panels that overlay the rocker, the rear part of the front fender opening, and the front part of the rear fender opening.


In my diagram here, It appears that I’ll have to replace the entire rocker, outlined in red, or maybe split it at the seam with the green mark. I’m also not sure how to get the area where the door jam welds to the rocker (white line) separated so I don’t mess it up. Maybe taking the body off the pan first will help?

I also have a nice little hole here.

Yep, that there is a heater channel

aaron

Or at least it was. Next step I believe is to weld braces across the door openings, and take the body off the pan. I’ll have to remove the entire area between the fenders and replace it all. I’ll cut apart the other side to see whats there so I can order the heater channels and rockers. That’s about $600 worth of stuff, about doubling my projected sheet metal price. I hope to keep my sheet metal budget below $1800, or three times my origional estimate. My current plan of attack is to work my way from the back to the front. All this is easy complared with what I’ll have to do in the front.

Cutting Rust

Cutting Rust

aaron

I got the parts I ordered about two weeks ago, but since I’ve started working, I haven’t been out in the shop. So tonight I went out and made a couple cuts. You know how I said that I’ve spent about half of what I’ll have to spend on sheet metal? Well, I forgot to multiply my total estimate by 3. The first chunk I cut out revealed some bad rust in the rocker, possibly extending into the edge of the pan.

This behind the right door. Rusty bit of tube holds the wiring harness from the engine compartment, up the the front of the car. You shouldn’t be able to see it, but rust has eaten everything around it.

This is the hunk I cut off, and a pile of rust and dirt that fell out.

This is behind the right rear fender. I have all the sheetmetal I need for this area I think.

Cutting wheels wear out really fast.

Wohoo! Fundage!

aaron

I’ve just preemptively spent most of my first pay check on my Ghia. I bought hopefully all the metal to repair the areas around the rear fenders. Total so far: $363.20. This is, by my calculations, just under half the money I’ll be spending on body parts. I’m also looking for some scrap metal to build a rotisserie that will get my body up in the air at a comfortable level to work on, and allow me to rotate it to get to different areas of the car easily. I think I’ll wait until I actually get my second pay check before I spend any more.

Drilling, not cutting

aaron

I finally, with the help of TheSamba.com’s forums, figured out how to find the spot welds on the trunk lip so I can get the front fender’s off. So I’ve been working on it for about 3 hours, and haven’t made much headway at all.

Sitting in the trunk.

From Removing Fenders

I’m removing welds along the green line right now.

From Removing Fenders

A hammer and chisel takes care of it.


I’m told a rotary file will help me too.

No, this kind…

The First Cut

aaron

I Googled “the first cut” for it’s thoughts, and I got two conflicting opinions on the subject. First was “the first cut is the deepest”, followed by “the first cut wont hurt at all. Who am I to believe? I’ve been mulling over where I’m going to start cutting on the body for the last.., well, since I’ve gotten it.

There are a couple weld lines that I have highlighted on this picture. The red lines show the basic routing of the fresh air duct. It comes in from the nose and runs along the inner fenders to mixing boxes under the dash where you can turn fresh air on or off, or mix it with warm air from the engine. The welds on the red lines are pretty easy to cut out. You just drill out each spot weld. The other weld line runs along the seam between the tops of the inner and outer fenders. This weld also holds the weather stripping for the hood. There are no clear spot welds here, so I’m a bit stumped.

So here’s where I am now. Trying to decide where to cut.

Nope, not that one

aaron

Turns out that the guy didn’t want to sell that car for $100. Or maybe he did until he figured out that people all over the world would pay him $150 just to cut a piece off and sent it to them. When I called him, he wanted $100 for a fender. I think I can do with what I have for now.

I’ve been job hunting, and I might be getting close, so I’ll be able to afford to dump money into my Ghia pretty soon. I look forward to getting started.

Buying Another?

aaron

I overlooked this 1961 Ghia in Kent when I was shopping because it looks like it’s either had serious front end damage, or has just been customized to remove the fresh air intakes in the nose, usually something that happens when it’s been squished. It also is missing most of the interior. But now, I’m thinking that it will be a good parts car. It’s got an engine, glass, and fenders. I’m thinking that $100 will earn me more from selling unwanted parts, and get me the rest of the major parts that aren’t reproduced.

Stripping It

aaron

I’ve got the windows all out and all the outside trim off. I’ve also uncovered a munch more bondo on the front right fender. I might have to find a new one there too… I’ve also pulled the loose rust out a few places. I hope it’s not too deep behind the right side door… I may have a good left fender coming. There is a picture of the running 40hp engine though.