Well, as some of you may know, my previous car (a 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder), which I had a deep fondness for, was totalled last November. I’ve been in insurance/doctor/scumbag hell ever since.

This is the Spyder, post-accident:

In the next couple weeks, I’ll finally be getting a replacement: a 1969 Karmann Ghia. The interior needs lots of work, but the body seems straight and rust-free, though there’s some evidence of repair work having been done in the past. I’m going to start with the easy stuff first and do the interior.

My end goals are:

• Full body/pan repair: strip the car down, strip the paint off the shell. Repair/restore any damaged areas of the body and pan. Seal and paint everything.
• Full interior restore/customize: New carpet, headliner, seats, etc. Find somewhere to mount speakers and a stereo.
• Air conditioning.
• New motor: swap a Type IV engine & 5-speed gearbox in. 30hp & 4 gears just aren’t going to cut it after the 140hp, 5-speed Spyder. At the very least, rebuild a Type I motor and throw dual-carbs and an exhaust on it.

While I think I’m capable of this, I’ve never attempted anything like it before. VWs are very simple cars, though, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, aside from the motor swap.

I’ll have more this weekend.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2005 at 5:51 am and is filed under 1969 Karmann Ghia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.