The resurrection of my 1960 karmann ghia

[Antoine_P]

Also a pan update:

I finally received the last missing seat rail, so directly welded the small bracked to stop the seat on:


And welded the driver's side rails


Starting to look like a real pan:


And one "happy driver", first time I was able to seat on MY ghia's seat ops:




But there was still some work left. First cleaning the welds/putting the bottom in primer:


And you surely noticed the missing jack points, so here we are:


Everything with welding primer:

Adjusted:


Welded:


And in primer:


Pan is now ready, waiting for it's coat of fresh paint but before, I will "use" him in order to weld the heater channel properly. So here we are, with the heater channel waiting to be fixed on it before I lift it under the body ops:


Stay tuned

Antoine

[pistol]

Looking good so far .love the early ghias.thanks for posting
Cheers Paul

[neilb]

looking good Antoine, keep at it!

i too would have sat in my drivers seat when the floor went in, but i still have to make the seats

[Antoine_P]

Thanks a lot guys!!
@Neil: well, they need to be re-upholstered but at least I got them

So, next update!

If you remember, I wanted to use my bead roller for the metal part in front of the tank but broke my wooden prototypes. After discussing with some "experts", I decided to try my luck with some hammer work

I built myself with some rest material the basic installation:




And it was time for a test part:


Turned up quite ok I think:




So I decided to start on my "real" part. Process is in several steps: hammering the basic shape, correcting it by hammering the contour and then planishing it using a rounded dolly behind. Here in pictures:









And then there were four beads:








Stay tuned for the next steps

Antoine

[cliffrod]

I like what you're doing, Antoine. If you are looking for suggestions, I was able to produce a smoother result on my hammerforms by

1. Using a softer (non-metal) hammer to produce a witness line around the perimeter of the cut-out in hammerform at the very beginning and

2. Use a hardwood corking tool that was driven by a metal hammer to actually stretch the metal to shape. I did it in a few passes, not all at once.

This worked better for me than trying to form it all with a metal hammer that didn't fit the contour as well. It was easy to saw & sand the wooden corking tool to the shape I wanted. The resulting metal surface was much smoother than what I produced with a metal hammer.

You may be able to make and use one to easily smooth up what you've already done. Making one with shoulders on it, matching the finished profile of the original panel, would help equalize the depth.

[Antoine_P]

Hi Rod,
Thanks a lot for the tips!! I smoothed it almost completely using a aluminium hammer and a dolly but your method might be way better.. I will try it!
Cheers
Antoine

[Antoine_P]

Next on the panel was to create the side's holes:


With the same width as the original ones:


The first one finished:




And then they were 2:


The logical next step was cutting the central hole:


The small cut in the bottom:


And bending the top:






Test:




And with the central part before cleaning/blasting:


Cheers
Antoine

[Jaroslav]

Antonie. It's good. If you can, don't hit the mallet directly into the plate. Use a round profile. On to this profile, give a blow with hammer. You'll have a smoother surface.

[Antoine_P]

Thanks for the tipp! It will certainly save me a lot of "smoothing" time!

Antoine

[Antoine_P]

So the next update:
It was then time to make the holes on the top part:


And weld the (original, sandblasted) nuts to hold the tank:


Next step was to blast the central part with my original body number.
Before:




And after:




Positioning them together:


And welded:


On the car for a last fit:


Now let's finish to clean all the metal behind, put some primer and then I will be welding it back

Bests

Antoine