New 69 Ghia Project

[2jmotorsports]

Updates:

Bought a new buffer. Went to town with it:







Couldn't stand the re-upholstery foam crumbling into dust any further, so I decided to strip out a lot of junk. Ill do a full cleanup eventually:









Rebuilt my distributor with parts from an identical one, as well as new cap, rotor, points, condenser obviously:









Got tired of not being able to turn tightly or get in the car because of the huge steering wheel, so I bought a new one:







After the new brakes, tune up, rebuilt distributor, & smaller steering wheel, it runs and handles like a champ. Some sticky tires on my superlites would make it perfect.

[2jmotorsports]

Started thinking about my superlites. Conducted a test fit:







This is the fitment in the rear:



Crap. Both in front and back, the outer face of the wheel is flush with the fender lip. I suppose a slightly narrowed beam would take care of the front, but what about the rear? Custom narrowed trailing arms & axles? Thoughts?

[FJCamper]

Hi 2jmotorsports!

Your work on that Ghia is really paying off.

The trouble we Ghia people have is wheelwell clearance. To use a "wide" (and that is relative) tire, we need wheels with deep backspace. The only other alternative is expensive major surgery to fit narrower front axle beams, rear control arms, etc., and those bring their own handling problems.

The Minilight-style wheels you have should work on a Bug, but you might be in the position of refinishing your Sport Bug wheels or trading those beautiful Minilights for 914 2-litre wheels, or similiar.

FJC

[2jmotorsports]

Yeah my Sprint Stars are about 3 11/16" backspace (as best as I could measure with the tire on) and 4 1/2" wide. The Superlites are 3 1/8" (less) backspace + 5.5" wide (more). This will require some thinking...

[motogeezer]

2j
Nice ghia. When I did my '69 a few years ago, I purchased an aftermarket dash pad. The company selling warned they they weren't too hot. I looked good until i mounted it. The fit was terrible. I took my original (which was cracked, and the speaker area shot) to an upholstery shop and had them cover it with black vinyl with a thin padding of foam under neath. I reinstalled the original, and it looks almost factory, much better than the aftermarket unit. I don't utilize the speaker in the dash, so that wasn't an issue with me. I'll grab a photo if you'd like to see it. When a vender warns you that something is just "so-so" I tend to believe it.
I'm also looking at a wheel tire package of some sort, but can't quite decide. Keep us posted with your updates.

[2jmotorsports]

This dash pad was already recovered once and was broken into several pieces. I ended up pitching in altogether. Ill research a nice aftermarket one and hopefully try to keep the face around the gauges the bare painted look. Still up in the air.

[Greg Rickard]

If your gaugues need to be freshened up, North Hollywood Speedometer did a terrific job on the factory gauges for my '71 Ghia and did the work at a very reasonable price. It is now five years later, and they still look and work like new.

[2jmotorsports]

Continuing ripping out the horrible interior in the quest for lightness. Also currently fabbing a set of seat adapters for the much lighter 914 buckets.

Been driving the ghia trying to get used to the ass-engined handling. Currently running about 18 psi front and 28 psi rear on the stock sized tires. Tires howl going around corners in the street and understeers quite a bit. Any recommendations on tire pressures for "spirited driving"?

[FJCamper]

Tire pressures for hard driving --

Front 24
Rear 28

Start from here. Run the car through a one minute or more series of hard, fast, left and right turns. Check your front and rear pressures. The higher the pressures go up, the harder the tire is working.

2 psi grain per tire is good, suspension set right. 4 psi or more, too much work, suspension is loading that tire or tires too heavily. Add 2 psi to tires that gain too much, let the tires cool down, and try it again. Sometimes low pressures cause the extra work.

IRS Ghias understeer. If you already have a 19mm front bar, fit a 19mm rear bar.

FJC

[2jmotorsports]

Life has kept me busy. Busy job, baby on the way, & honey-do's. However the Ghia is thankfully still here in my driveway waiting patiently. I gave up on the Superlites for now and got a set of old American Eagle 2-Liter Fuchs replicas. They were cheap and horribly beat up. I figured Id try to clean them up a bit:

Not perfect, but definitely an improvement, I would say.

[FJCamper]

Hi-

The 914 wheels should work. I do like the Minilites -- what a shame the backspacing doesn't work.

What kind of tach are you going to mount and where?

FJC

[2jmotorsports]

FJC, glad you asked. In keeping with the 914 donor parts theme I decided to put these in. Much more informative. I just need to cut a hole in my dash and weld the panel in place.



It should BARELY fit. Measure 10 times, cut once.

[2jmotorsports]

Wheels done & installed on 195-50-15 tires. Fit just fine.





Moving on to the 914 gauges install, I need a bit of info from someone with an intact dash pad. When you have a bare metal dash there are a series of slots that run along the top edge of the front dash face. When you have the dash pad installed, does the pad completely cover the slots? Does the bottom edge of the dash pad just cover the slots or does it sit a certain distance below the slots? I need to know this so I can position the gauge openings relative to the slots so that the gauges and dash pad have a bit of clearance between them (please see attachment).

[FJCamper]

Hi 2J,

Replacement dash pads vary in size enough any one of them may or may not cover the holes. Your '69 originally came with that fake wood grain dash cover, which in OEM form with a factory pad met at the edges to cover the holes.

You would do best to make a full aluminum or sheet metal dash panel that covers the holes, radio area, etc.. This is easier than it sounds. You've got a big hole to cut for the Porsche instrument cluster anyway.

If you do sheet metal, cover it with carbon fiber texture laminate, or finish it in black crinkle paint.

FJC

[2jmotorsports]

Decided to do it the hard way...dash transformation in progress.