I have been looking for a street car for some time now. After searching high and low for that special something (low cost and in good shape) I finally found this gem, a 1970 Ghia. The body is in good shape and the price was right......FREE, sorta. I got the car for free but had to pay $100 for the five boxes of parts that came with it. Still a great deal.
This is what it looked like the day I went to pick it up. Floors are shot, but the body is in fairly good shape.
Once home the first thing I had to do was get a feel and theme for the car. It sat for a couple weeks before it hit me! I won't run the VW name or Logo in protest so I had to do something for a hood badge. A trip to EBay and an $8.00 pewter belt buckle later and there it is. Skull and Crossbones, a new menace will be on the road soon!
Down to business! The dash is a mess. Someone cut a huge hole where the spedo was and mangled the radio area of the dash too. The pans are toast and the amount of wasps living in this thing was incredible. I found a really good deal on a set of steel pans from Denmark. Very nice product, I'll let you know what the fit is like.
I got the trans installed. Going with a late Super Beetle all stock for now. I want to get this thing running so a trans rebuild is set for the future.
Got the passenger pan 99% removed. Bad weather rolled in so i moved into the garage to work on other things. One more good day and I should have both sides ready for new pans.
Cut the bad section of the dash out. Going to do a cool solid steel dash. Going with all Autometer Sport comp instruments, also going to install the in-dash CD player where the glovebox use to be.
For easy access to the 2054cc turbo motor I cut the rear apron section. Dzus fasteners will be installed in the next couple of days. Next will be motor install and header/intake fabrication.
The motor has somewhat been installed, just for turbo fabbing right now. I ended up using the header originally made for Frankenvert and modifying it to fit the Ghia. The spare bends came from an old tri-mill exhaust I got for this very purpose. There will be a slight amount of trimming to rear apron for the up pipe to the turbo but other than that is all fits pretty good. It's only about 80% fabbed and still needs full welding but should be done soon.
The turbo is in place! Getting the 3" exhaust worked out now.
It's finished! Full welded, waste gate installed and everything is looking good. This shot is of the weird waste gate placement I had to figure out. Due to how close everthing is it's the only way I could get it to fit.
Here is pics before and after. The picture on the left is when it was set-up for Frankenvert. I've had to do a fair amount of fabrication to get it to fit the Ghia.
With the header done, now it's time to dzus fastener the rear engine compartment back on. From the rear of the car it will appear stock.... except for the 3" exhaust sticking out!
Here is the placement of all the "dzus tabs". The reason I waited to fit the rear is evident in picture #2. I ended up using the exhaust pipe for a tab mount. If I was doing an NA car I would have welded all the tabs to the body.
I will be using two kinds of dzus fasteners. The self ejecting style for the outside body and a "no tool needed" style in the engine compartment.
The dash work is coming along great. The floor pans are installed along with the seats.
The new lowered stance has been completed. 175x65x15 front tires have the look of 135's with a lot more rubber on the road.
The dash is complete! Need to drill holes for the windsheild washer and headlight switches but other than that it's a done deal. Also have started the fuel system stuff as well as collecting all the parts for the breaks. things are rolling now.
Last updated 11-28-04 Come back soon for more updates!!!