Copyright © 2007 - 2024, Coachworks For contact data Click Here.
Copyright © 2007 - 2024
Copyright © 2007 - 2024,
Coachworks For contact data
Click Here.
1958
Karmann Ghia CabrioletNOTE!
This web page is under-construction!
To make construction easier, the
page for this other Karmann Ghia was used as a template!
This notice will be removed when all the old data from the
other web page has been correctly converted over for this Ghia.
AT RIGHT: This car waitign for attention. The body is sitting on a chassis that's serving as a dolley while the chassis is to our right of the body, waiting for assembly.
My first Karmann Ghia was a '71 Cabriolet I bought with very low mileage in 1983. Within a year, I'd discovered the '50s era cars and really wanted an early Cabriolet, so I started hunting. The first one I found worth owning was in 1986 or so and was a whopping $3000 for a project car (well over $10k in today's dollars). I passsed. But as the years wore on I couldn't find any for sale in any condition, good or bad, for close to a decade. Then, in 1994 or thereabouts I found three in a row in successively better condition. This one was both the earliest and in the best condition of these three.
It had been in the process of restoration by the previous owner. They'd started the restoration, then went off to college and ignored it for over 20 years. Eventually they realized they'd never finish it and gave up on it. It was originally white, but they liked the Bernina Blue - and so do I! I'm going to keep it blue! However, the body work they did was lacking in some details, so I paid someone to fix these problems - they painted on the grey primer you see here. They also did a crappy job! So, I realized, "I'm going to have to just do it my own damned self!" ...I do have the skills. Now, here it is 2016 and I have let it sit for more than 20 years! Time to get it assembled!
AT RIGHT: This Ghia...
After checking it out, and learning that there were still some of the original parts laying around from back in '86, especially including the original chassis, I figured I could return it to proper condition. Please note that I only did the work necessary to return it to a more proper condition - within some limits. For example, I didn't return to original the electrical system and kept the car at 12v.
As a fan of more horsepower, along my journey, I had collected 1950's era speed equipment, including the ultra-rare, ultra-high-performance Denzel. In 2009, I finally got my first Denzel engine running and campaigned it at Bonneville (and Mojave) - you can read up on that effort here. ...As it happened, I had two more Denzel engine's worth of parts, so I built one for this car! I happen to have an engine dynamometer and I will be running in this brand new engine as per specifications before installing it.
ContentsABOVE RIGHT: This is not the '58 KG cabriolet that is the subject of this (set of) web page(s)! ...Gotta have some eye candy! The '59 will look very similar to this!
In order to avoid having a hundred photos all on one page, all trying to load in your browser at once, I'm breaking them into groupings:
Want to see more of this vehicle? Click on one of the links above! ... This is the car's "home page!"