Page 34 - Karmann Komment Vol42 Issue 2

Karmann Komment Volume 42 | Issue 2
1966 KARMANN GHIA CABRIOLET continued...
The complete area was then rubbed down and treated with Rustbuster fe-123 which I find to be the best rust treatment and the complete area then repainted with 3 coats of satin black and a coat of Dinotrol clear inhibitor.
Next job was the front shock absorbers. That should have been a nice easy job, but the lower fitting left the inner insert stuck firmly to the spindle, a little gentle persuasion with a blow lamp and WD40 soon did the trick and the new shock absorbers went on with new nuts and bolt.
The fuel tank was then refurbished with the inside being treated to the Rustbuster Tank Renew Kit (https://www.rust.co.uk/product/ tank-renew-kit/). The tank was thoroughly cleaned with Tank-Kleen and their Slosh Fuel Tank Sealer. The lower half of the tank was treated to the Tank Guard epoxy coating whilst the top was painted in a gloss black finish.
A quick inspection of the wiring loom had given me nightmares as just the loom from the fuseboard to the headlights uncovered 20 connectors of some sort, from twisted wires and tape, to scotch and bullet connectors, it had the lot. So, the old loom was carefully removed from the car marking up everything I could, and a new loom was ordered from Autosparks (part code VW42c), not an exact year (1968) replacement, but close enough for any minor modifications.
The spare wheel tub uncovered about 30mm of stagnant water lying in the bottom as
the drain hole was blocked with paper and rubbish, unfortunately this had taken its’
toll, and two very small areas of metal work required to be welded in. Once repaired and the areas treated the complete well and the whole front inside of the car was repainted in preparation for the new loom, etc.
Now this is where it got interesting. The
car had been listed as Lotus White and not knowing what this colour looked like I took
it as gospel. A few tins of Lotus white were ordered but it soon became very apparent that the car wasn’t that colour, and I had no idea what it was. A trip to my local paint
shop and a scan of the rear licence plate
light housing brought up a 95% match but it still didn’t tell me what the colour was. I’m thinking it may be Savannah Beige, but who knows, when I need paint now, they just mix it to the formula that they have.
I then removed the interior of the car including dash cover, clocks, glove box etc. The dash was then prepared and repainted in 2K gloss to match, (the aerosols cans of 2K have a ring pull on the bottom which releases hardener into the car to give you proper 2K paint and gives a far superior finish to the standard 2K gloss paint). I left all the new paintwork a good week to harden fully.
34