Two thumbs up Chris! There are no words to convey how pleased I am with the final bodywork - painting product as shown here. Chris did all the work himself for me, and I will be eternally grateful to him, and his family, for taking on my project car. Since I was dumb enough not to know just what a huge undertaking this car was when I bought it, Chris was literally Moses leading me out of the wilderness, to use an analogy that explains where he has taken me. I don't understand my facination with this particular automobile, or aircooled VW's particuarily, just that they are the only cars I am interested in owning, period. It was a revelation to me that other people are so attached to these cars, and I have benefited from all the advice and knowhow of some pretty great folks here at aircooled.
-As for the workmanship, it was amazing to see Chris's talents a bit at a time, as he turned parts of other old wrecked cars into bits and pieces for my \"ladybug\". (As my five year old has named it.) I understand that the floorboard now has parts of a 63 beetle, and that some of the difficult repair work around the front \"bonnet?\" enclosure where the rain channel was completely rusted out is part of a beetle door, where the window curves. Many of the parts for my new- old ghia were manufactured by my resourceful friend Chris, I am fortunate indeed to have made his aquaintance. All the quarter panels have been replaced either with metal or fiberglass, and the workmanship on these was absolutely seamless. The interior of the front door assembly was so Bolixed up by Adria imports when they repaired it that Chris had difficulty repairing their repair, but he did the best he could under tough circumstances. In fact, I would have to say the restoration is a good as it possibly could be, with the only other alternative being a complete professional resortation in a shop with the body off, with the acid dipping and everything. Since my objective was a daily driver, and never was a show car, and since I work for a living, this was never an option.
There was quite literally rust throughout this Ghia. As my Pop said at one point, when the car was in Vancouver, you could shovel sand through the floorboards. When I bought this car off ebay, there were lots of pictures, and the quarter panels and the floorboards, around the front end, had all been bondoed, with gallons of the stuff. At some point someone sprayed the undercarriage with Grey paint, so on a cold morning in 2004, when I drove down to Poulsbo, I didn't pick up on the fact that the rust was so very extensive. The car was definately misrepresented. Yes, the door was hanging, but I felt that because I had put a bid on ebay, I was committed. The person I bought the car from was an agent for someone else, and thus had a very high rating indeed. It wasn't until I brought the car back across the border that I began to realize my mistake. The car sat for three months at my sister's farm, until I had it towed into a shop in Vancouver. Their bodywork estimate of $5000 dollars changed after the car sat in their shop for a month and they had started work on it. All of a sudden the estimate became (at least) $15,000, and they already wanted 1000 from me for stripping the car apart. The project looked to be going into the toilet, and I had just flushed $4000 dollars. Can anyone here spell m-o-t-h-e-r-i-n-l-a-w? Ouch.
At one point Chris agreed to give me an opinion on my car firsthand, and he felt that the car could in fact be restored. That it was still safe, and the safety of the frame could be repaired. There was no rust on the (beam)? Center part. My '74 has a new life as a Royal blue baby, and hasn't looked this good since it rolled off the assembly line. What a first class paint job, and a first class act.
- All of this repair work has been qoing on quietly at Chris's house, and it has been murder being patient for this last day waiting for the big painting day which was last saturday. There is now quite graphic proof of what a talented automotive wizard RustyBus is, and he deserves and has my respect and admiration all around. As he mentions in his post, we hope that we will have the car back together soon, and actually on the road. As a side note, I am still married, although sleeping in the backyard. For you married guys, you may already know that this can actually be an an improvement at times. lol. I intend to take lots more photos of the ladybug as it comes together, and hopefully I can get some of them on this website as a follow up. Best of luck to all of you with project cars, and I sincerely thank Chris for his dedication, work, and support, his wife for hospitality and coffee, his son for playing with my daughter and pushing my car out of the garage, and his entire family for hosting my little car. They are just the best. -xcasper-
