April 9: Winning Bid on this low mileage, 48,012 miles, Karmann Ghia Convertible. Flawless transaction on Paypal. Buck had the title in my hands in days.

April 19: Received car from United Road Transportation Company. Shipped from PA to GA, received it two days late but it got here in one piece.



April 19: Had car towed to MVP German Specialists in Tucker, GA to redo motor, drive train, brakes and new tires.

May 1: Drove car over to T & C Paint and Body shop in Tucker, GA, where Trevor the owner will strip the exterior car, buff, repair dents and rust.


May 3: Okay so we are nowhere near finished on this Ghia and what do we do. We get on Ebay and bid on another 1973 Volkswagon Karmann Ghia. This one is in white and in Connecticut. The seller "Jeremy", nice guy by the way needed to sell it because he had to get a truck.

Jeremy's original ad "Let me start by saying this car runs great. Starts up right away after sitting for the winter. Cruise around just like a Classic VW should. I will tell you what I know is wrong with the vehicle. Nothing major... mostly cosmetic (as the pics will show. One screw for the oil screeen is missing so it leaks slowly from that area, easily fixed with a new screw. some rust with the rear bumper mounts so it can move up and down a little but won't fall off. Little rust on heat boxes Driver side front 1/4 pan has the most rust but seems to be solid front tires rub on fender at slow speed making sharp turns like a U-turn. Their is rust in spots but few are all the way thru. like near the driver side mirror (see pic). That's the worst one on the body. Dome light doesn't work left blinker indicator is out. The engine compartment hood doesn't latch but stays put fom the weight when driving and doesn't bounce. It seems the old owner put a new nose on you can see the welds in the luggage compartment but looks good on the outside. the top needs some repair... or sewing but doesn't leak. The back seat doesn't fit like it should and has no back . When I registered the Ghia the VIN's didn't match due to the new nose so I had to get a new VIN assigned from NY. It is on the driver side door panel. The back window is glass and is fine. I put a new front beam in last year and new shocks. Also put new head lights in but the right side needs a new bucket for better aiming. I put 999999 miles in the listing because I'm not sure of the actual mileage, but I believe its less than that. That's all I can think of right now. If I have more I will add the info later. Please ask any questions and I will answer to the best of my ability. I love this car and planned on fixing it up slowly but recently cracked up my truck and have to get a new one so I need to sell this."

Needless to say, we won the bid. Yike. we arrange to have it shipped with United Road from CT to GA.

May 4: I start to order the parts for the Ghia. I start off with Karmann Ghia parts and Restoration (KGPR).

1 x 707-137 73 74 RP - Bumper Bracket Cover, Front Left @ $23.65
1 x 863-461 65 74 RP - Brake Lever Boot @ $7.54

1 x 711-115 ALL RP - Shifter Boot @ $3.99

2 x 868-171 72½74 RP - Arm Rest, Black @ $21.45

1 x 141-100 72 74 N KT - Body Rubber Restoration Kit @ $160.21

1 x 707-197 72 74 RP PR - Bumper Bracket Seal, Pair @ $1.85

1 x 707-138 73 74 RP - Bumper Bracket Cover, Front Right @ $23.65

1 x 707-193 72 73 RP PR - Bumper Bracket Seal, Pair @ $5.52

2 x 707-335 72 74 RP - Bumper Bracket, Rear @ $60.40

2 x 707-135 72 74 RP - Bumper Bracket, Front @ $68.00

4 x N140951 65 74 RP - Screw, Sunvisor Pivot or Interior Mirror @ $0.55

1 x 857-553 65 74 RPBKPR - Sun Visor, Black Vinyl,W/MIRROR, Pair @ $67.50


Then the next vendor I use is M & T Manufacturing Co. I ordered the following:

1 10-1502-KG 64-74 PAIR OF SEDAN OR CONVERTIBLE FRONT DOOR PANELS IN SINGLE COLOR VINYL. WITHOUT POCKET.

2 111-706-KG 68-74 ONE SEAT BELT, 3 POINT NON-RETRACT W/HDWE.BLACK

1 141-102-L/R 72-74 PAIR OF ABOVE DOOR PANEL TRIM PIECES. BLACK GRAINED PLASTIC.

1 143-609-KG CIRCULAR SEAL UNDER NOSE EMBLEM. 56-74

1 22-1628-KG MID ’69-74 BOOT, CHOICE OF COLOR MADRID BOOT VINYL.


1 VW-36. 1969.5-74. CONVERTIBLE TOP HEADLINER (ORIGINAL WAS PERFORATED VINYL) PREMIUM QUALITY MATERIAL., Color: Black Perforated

May 5: JC Whitney was my vendor of choice for carpets and seats.

784290 12 PC KIT CARPET KARMANN GHIA
1 @ Total Price:$183.80 USD

788271 RECLINER SPORT SEATS
1 @ Total Price:$513.18 USD (Seats are due to ship on May 26)

May 8: The stripping process begins.

May 11: The arrival of the Ghia 2 at T & C Paint and Body Shop. This one seems to be in rougher shape but the engine does run. We wont begin on this one until Ghia 1 is complete. For now she'll sit tight with Trevor.

May 12: Alot more bondo on the car than expected. But Trevor feels he can get the exterior done in two weeks. Hmmm.

May 22: Trevor from T & C is a bit backed up. The car had an overwhelming amount of bondo and he was flooded with a bunch of other projects, he anticipates another two weeks.

May 24: Ghia Girl went to Taggarts Driving School to inquire about manual stick shift driving lessons. THAT's RIGHT, GHIA GIRL CAN'T DRIVE A STICK SHIFT! The owner tells me to call Tuesday morning.

JUNE 10: It's been a awhile since I last posted, I did stop by Taggarts and they wanted an unbelievable $70 an hour for manual lessons. You got be kidding. I can rent a manual car in ATL for twenty bucks and practice for an hour or two. I think this will be the route I will take.

The car is being primed right now, he straightened out a number of items on the car. Trevor from T & C says he has over 40 hours logged onto the car already. Cross your fingers, hopefully by weeks end, it should be painted, unless there is an unforseen item that comes along.

I sold my 2005 VW Jetta this past weekend, so the pressure is on to get my baby painted and then I can start to work on the interior. By the way the new seats came in from JC Whitney yesterday and they are beautiful!

JC Whitney
788271 RECLINER SPORT SEATS (Pair)
Total Price:$513.18 USD

Fri, June 12: Stopped by T & C Collison center, I had my fingers crossed. Okay Im getting a little anxious. Ghia Chick has been driving hubbys 2004 Ford Thunderbird. Okay it's nota VW but remember I sold my VW Jetta last week and I was carless. I had no choice.

The car was not painted and Trevor spent an additional twenty hours smoothing out and sanding out the back. The trunk was not closing properly, it looks like the back was hit. Needless to say, it was a bear in that section alone. He told me to come Monday and it will have the first coat of paint.

Mon, June 15: Trevor calls in the morning, he painted the car and wants me to drop off the rubber kit. As a reminder I purchased the rubber seat kit from armann Ghia parts and Restoration (KGPR).

The car was still in the paint bay when I came in. When I walked in, my eyes glistened. WOW! The car is beautiful. VW bright yellow. The car needed minimal sanding but first coat looked awesome. Okay so I stood and looked at the car for about fifteen minutes. Trevor will be finishing it up this week and replacing all the rubber seals.

He will call me mid week and let me know how it's going. Check out pics below. See Picture 1, notice the second 1973 Karmann Ghia Convertible in the background. This will be the next restoration car.

Wed, June 18: Trevor call and says the car is ready. Unfortunately I had to leave town and won't be back till Saturday. He advise that I get some replacement mirrors because the ones that are currently on the car are in pretty bad shape and It needs a gasket around the engine compartment, apparently the one in the rubber kit did not fit.

Thurs, June 19: Aint technology sweet, I orde

r the mirrors and rubber gasket from EIS Supplies (Econo International Supplies) on my IPHONE on the way to Tampa, Fl from Kissimmee, FL. Scheduled delivery is June 24.

Sat, June 21: Back from Florida and drove straight to T & C from the airport to get the car. It looks fantastic. I had to put the original bumper on in the back because I did not order new ones yet and I was hoping I can find a deal somewhere. Okay I admit, I didnt drive the car back home because I haven't learned how to drive it yet. Hubby drove it home but I was still the proud mama following behind in the contemporary gas guzzler SUV.

Sun, June 22: The demolition begins. We rip out the inside carpeting. The seats, the door panels and this is what we discovered.

Check out the hole in the driver side floor. Okay so this is not going to be a 1-2-3 restoration process. Hubby helps out and puts metal rod reinforcing on the floors.

Wed, June 24: My mirrors and gasket come in from EIS, and I find out from Trevor, it's the wrong gasket again. I cant figure out what part this is. Ugh.

Sat, June 28: During the week, hubby picked up Dynamat from the guys at Red Performance in Atlanta, GA. It's a great car insulator, it has three layers of foam, cushion. Call them (404) 352-0010, or visit them at 1195 Menlo Dr Nw, Atlanta, GA 30318-4161. We put a layer of tar down on the floor, layered it with a piece of sheet metal, then placed the Dynamat on top. The floor is as rigid as it can be.

July 21, 2009: It's been awhile since I last posted, so much to say, so much has happened. We started putting in the carpeting, which as a reminder I ordered from JC Whitney. Ugh, no instructions on where the 1001 pieces of carpeting goes. I emptied the box and tried to piece together all the carpet pieces and there was NO CLUE where they all belong.

I do not recommend ordering carpeting from them, this was a nightmare. We finally figured it out and put the seats in, ordered from JC Whitney, awesome seats, recommend highly. They are beautiful and very comfortable.

788271 RECLINER SPORT SEATS
1 @ Total Price:$513.18 USD

Hubby has a 101 power tools and made a bench for the back. I bought this awesome black vinyl, leather lookalike material at Hobby Lobby, not sure if they have stores throughout U.S. but they are located in the south. the material was $9.99 per yard, I covered the bench in this material and we also did the side panels in this material also. It looks awesome. Then there is a carpet piece that sits on top which I decided not to glue on, since the back deck is on a hinge for a storage department, I wanted the ability to move that piece of carpet off.

Next job was the seatbelts, the seatbelts were ordered from M&T, 2 111-706-KG 68-74 ONE SEAT BELT, 3 POINT NON-RETRACT W/HDWE.BLACK. I should have ordered the retractable seatbelts. Ugh, it'll have to wait. Meanwhile we got these belts on.

The interior looks awesome, I have a new emergency boot cover. The one thing we do need to do is get new speakers. Definitely need some music for this ride.

I ordered mirrors and they were the orginal Ghia mirrors but my car did not have the original mirror and they have two screw holes on the mirror base that does that match up to the original mirrors. Yike, the search will continue.

I ordered the liner for the convertible top but it looks like we're going to have to replace the top. Ching, Ching, Ching, ching. I'll wait a little on this one. We put the convertible boot on and it looks fantastic, or shall I say fabulous (my favorite word)

Ordered from M&T ( 22-1628-KG MID ’69-74 BOOT, CHOICE OF COLOR MADRID BOOT VINYL.). We layed out the cover in the sun for about two hours then placed it on the car.

My first lesson was horrid, mu husband insisted on taking me through the rolling hills of our development. You can only imagine what happened stall, stall and more stalling as I limped the car back to the house. I stalled it one more time outside the house. Then it refused to start, engine flooded? We pushed the car back to the garage. What a sight.

My husband tried working on it for over a week and could not figure it out. What did we do? We had it towed to MVP. Ching Ching.

MVP worked on it for a couple hours and found out it was the voltage regulaor that had to replaced. We picked it up the same day. Then we took the ghia on it's first outing to the movie theater.

A real beauty. I had my second lesson, this time in an empty parking. I did okay, i have to learn how to incorporate that clutch in there. i'm such a spaz, when it comes to stuff like this. That's why I dont go to aerobics class because I have a hard time following the steps. LOL.

Still seeking bumpers and mirror, I stuuck the old back bumper on, but it doesn't look great. Here are the latest photos.

I'll keep you posted on the updates on the car. By the way got a wonderful insurance policy through Haggerty's, they will insure your classic car and give you wonderful benefits with your coverage.

Thinking about selling the second GHIA, according to T & C, this car has so much bondo, it will require twice the body work that my existing car has and who knows what other issues this car has. The other thought was if someone wanted to buy it, we'll do the restoration and hand the new owner the keys. Hmm, still thinking about it. Right now, it's sitting with Trevor at T&C. There has been a number of inquiries on it while it has been sitting there. Let you know what the final decision will be.