1959 Karmann Ghia Coupe Dash

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AT LEFT: Here's the dash as it is now, with the horn circuit finlly all back to funtional condition. You can also see the front footwell rubber mat discussed elsewhere on these pages.

BELOW: This is a close-up showing the gauges better that we took while getting the horn working. We finally got a correct steering wheel with horn button and cover, along with all the dinky little parts that are needed to get it working! (There are no after-market horn-button kits like there are for 1960 and younger cars.) ... The parts we installed are all correct for the car. Also, three original, 1959 dated gauges were fitted - but first, they were restored by a VDO service center and are, as of this writing, still under warrantee, clock and fuel in 12v! They're beautiful! And note the switch knob to the lower right of the clock; this is for the mandatory-in-Germany four-way flasher, but the knob is unique to the Karmann Ghia. It illuminates when the flashers flash, and it works!

As noted elsewhere, these gauges were rebuilt and are set up for 12v. Also note, as described in the image caption above, that the red knob is a genuine early Karmann Ghia-only emergency flasher knob! And yes, it works great, too! WONDERFUL to have working four-way flashers in this car - for safety and novelty! (These were mandated in Germany - no "grandfather clause" to get around it!) Headlamp switch is above the emergency flashers and wiper is above the ignition switch. The radio blockoff plate came with the car!

Here's the horn ring and button - not installed as of this photo because the logic of the system is reversed from what was there before, and there's some head-scratching involved, but we got it done.

We had to fix the very typical botched radio installation mess.

Here's a new radio area being made in our milling machine:

Here, the dash is being painted to fix that radio hole - and there were a few minor paint flaws anyway:

Finally, it was done.

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