Hiya!

Im probably just thinking out loud here but ive been thinking about this for sometime now.

My 1960 parts karmann has a crap body but beautiful chassis and my 1961 karmann has a better body but very ordinary chassis

How hard is it to swap the body's over? Ive seen how to take body of a rolling pan on the "Bug me vids" and it doesnt look all that hard. Am i just kidding myself? How likely is it that the bolts wont line up?

Thanks...

remove the engine b4 you remove the body its much easier

undo the 7 or 8 bolts down each side

undo the 6 under the rear seat

undo the 4 from the fire wall

remove fuel tank and 2 bolts 2 front end

get 4 of yr mates to help iwth the lift Ghias are heavy

oh ok i wasn't sure about removing the engine...so how realistic is it that the bolts and holes will match up once transferred?

thanks

They will match up as long as no-one has botched something up, its still a fairly big job and the chances of bolts breaking in the heater chanels is always there as well as opening up a can of worms rust wise if there is botched up heaterchanels which is common on karmann ghias

These are pics of my red Ghia's chassis.....im thinking of putting this chassis on my Chocolate ghia...is it worth the effort? it has internal fiber glass pans also. The only part that may need a patch is behind the passenger seat.

Pics of my Chocolate Ghia's chassis coming....

the following are pics of my Chocolate Ghia...this ghia also has fiber glass internal pans.

mate you have a LOT OF WORK to do to fix those

i wasn't planing on fixing them...just swap the rolling pans. Was curious if people thought it was worth doing and if people think the red pans were much better than the chocolate pans?

the chocolate ghia pan is stuff nuthing about 4 days works carnt fix though

yes i would swap the pans before u start have yr feet drag on the ground

thanks vw54...not afraid of a little work I was hoping one day to separate a body from a pan in a resto. Just didn't think id be doing it to two cars at the same time.

Pan halves can be bought in Australia (and also imported for less than you might think).

Newt

I primarily do restorations on vehicles as a trade. My own opinion, and if I was doing it for myself. I would get the better chassis/ pan, get it fully garnet (sand) blasted, then a coat of etch primer within hours of picking it up. Then do any rust repairs to the now clean chassis and etch prime those areas also. Then you have a solid base to start working out what you want to do.

I would then concentrate on the underside of the body where it bolts to the chassis and get all areas that are suspect replaced with new metal. Then sit the body on the chassis. Then do all other rust and major body work over time on the body. Then once you have your solid chassis that is etch primed, and a solid body that is dirty, pull the two apart again, fully seal the chassis and paint it with whatever process you want to follow. Epoxy prime and two pack, POR 15 etc.

Then get the body in a clean state by media blasting. You may find some more small rust repairs to do and some more panel beating, but again get it etch primed within hours. Do the extra repairs, etch prime them, then paint the underside of the body with two pack etc. Then get the body and pan sealed and bolted together. Now you have a solid all metal clean straight Karmann to get painted.

You'd paint the body after its back on the pan?

Newt

Thanks Helbus that's great

I was definitely thinking of cleaning up the chassis and coating it in something like Por 15. But this isnt going to be a show quality custom car. Ive decided to rat it and just concentrate on fixing the cut wheel arches. If im going to be better off swapping the chassis i think id like to throw in a bit of protection on the under part of the body as well as the complete rolling pan. Just maybe not go the full blasting etc.... What is etch primer? Is that just the normal grey coloured primer i see people spraying raw panels with?

Id definitely do it by your instructions if i were going for that squeaky clean show quality look...or even major restoration job. Something i plan to do in the future on another project once i gain more experience.

Im not even sure if im going to take this car back to metal and paint anew.

I love this look...I know its not every ones cup of tea but i love it! Apart from the wheel arches it already reminds me of my car lol.

Helbus ive been meaning to ask you ever since you replied to my other thread after seeing John Kelly's youtube link on 'forming custom flares'....Where can i view some of your work? Do you have a blog, site etc? Im really interested in seeing your work mate...sounds amazing.

Love those 2 rat ghias up there and thats what i call "SLAMMED", ha ha,
i noticed you said both ghia pans already have fibreglass on the inside???, If a pan was any good they should not have fibregass on them so you might want to have a good poke under it with a screwdriver before you do the swap, personally if it was me i would just get 2 new pan halves and weld them in, then you also dont have 2 cars pulled to pieces, makes it harder to sell the other 1 later on too.

Rexy you've hit the nail on the head there....That's why i mentioned the fiber glass thing. I also thought "why put fiber glass in if the pans are solid?" Even though the reds look quite good im still not convinced....To Rexy or anyone who's ever in Brisbane's northern suburbs area and knows what to look for...there's a free curry in it for ya to come check it out!

Hey if you like that lowlight up there check out it's guts!!


PPPHHHOOOAAARRR!!!!!!!






and yes.....i'm so slammin this thing...

I can see by the pics the red pan will definitely have some holes in it, everywhere you see the bits of orange rust coming through you will be able to poke a screwdriver through

I know....anyone know where to get the best priced pans around Brissie?

dont know about brissy, you can try micks, classic in sydney or the guy in wa should have them

yep thanks VWCOOL...ive come to that conclusion as well. Think ill try to fix the Wheel arches first, then if that works out ill invest the dollars in getting new pans.

thank Rexy...

...might want to take a look at all the rust... ie whether it is worth doing the overall project...

yep that's the only bad rust...the rest of the bod is solid (thank God)...definitely worth rattin out

Click on this link

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=62221&page=1 

speechless....i have no speech...totally and utterly incredible. Well done bud