Current Status

My Ghia in it's current state. That lowered look in back is the result of the body not being aligned properly when the repair work was done some 20+ years ago. It could be worse, the body could be sagging due to rust. It's one of those things about the car that bothers me to no end, but it'll have to wait for a future restoration to be fixed.

An aside: In 1988 I bought a used GTI. It was black. After a few months of ownership I swore I'd never buy another black car. But... every car I bought over the next 14 years was black! I thought the Ghia would finally break that string. Then I was going through some paperwork on the car and came across some info from Volkswagenwerk, and guess what color they claim the factory painted this car originally?

Contrary to all evidence found on the car, VW claims this thing was originally black.

05/11/01 While perusing the Big Blue Bentley (BBB) service manual for information on how to install a new engine seal, I discovered that the door gaps can be adjusted by placing spacers at the body mounting points by the rear shocks. Hmm... perhaps I can do something about the misaligned body without a total restoration?

05/20/01 While installing a new engine seal, I changed the pad between the body and rear shock towers, along with adding a spacer or two. The engine seal now lines up a lot better with the cooling tin and the door gaps are better. Well, maybe not "better" so much as different. While the large gap at the top rear part of the door is better, the bottom gap is now about zero in places. The rocker section truly does need to be rebuilt I'm afraid.

07/21/01 If you click on the engine link (left side of screen), you can see the initial stages of the 356 engine teardown. That project was put on hold after driving the car with the stock components. The steering was just too bad to ignore, so now the money and time is going into getting the chassis ready for the other upgrades. I know this is the logical first step. I thought the car was in better shape than it is.

Along those lines, today I ordered a new front beam assembly, spindle to spindle, and will be covering it's installation once it arrives. I suspect there will be many more parts added to the bill before the front end is actually replaced. Click on the suspension link to see the progress in that area.

02/03/02 The only recent progress has been on the 356 engine. I'm finding out that some of the parts I thought were bad are actually fine, but some of the parts I thought were good are actually bad...

04/07/02 Progress on the 356 engine was basically nonexistent this winter. All was not lost though, instead of building it up I enrolled in a "Vintage Auto Engine Rebuilding" course and rebuilt a Type IV engine from a 914. It was in pretty good shape to begin with having been "rebuilt" before I got it, but in tearing it down I discovered a few things that would have made it a rather short-lived engine if it had been used as-is. Those have been corrected, and the engine has been sold. It's finding it's way into a Puma in the Great White North.

06/01/02 Plans for the 356 engine have come to a grinding halt since discovering the case is damaged. That may explain a few things.

03/31/03 Plans for the 356 engine live. Another case is on the horizon... though not much will get done with it until this latest Ducati project is done.

06/30/07 The Ghia has been retreived from it's long term storage and is back in the garage at home. Parts are ordered, plans are made... it may see the road this summer yet!