Scarlet

The 1963 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet

On the day Scarlet was born in November, 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President of the United States. Now, almost exactly fifty years later, she's being re-born through a restoration that as of this writing is just being completed. ...This is a part of Scarlet's story...

AT RIGHT: Scarlet's second drive in around 30 years, after slumber, but before restoration...

Please Note

I haven't the time to write the whole story at once, so I'm doing an outline and then filling in parts of it as time permits... Contact me if there's something specific you'd like to see!

Because this story is mostly told through images, to keep the load-time reasonable, Scarlet's story is told on a number of pages, as outlined in the menu below.

This is Scarlet's "main page." In the telling of her story that follows, there are links to other web pages distributed among the contents of this page, which is more of an outline. Several visitors have said the link situation was unclear, so to clarify things, in what follows, the FIRST SET of bullets below are on OTHER pages, and the SECOND SET of bullets have links on THIS page that introduces various subjects. Hopefully this will make navigating the site more clear!

Scarlet Links to OTHER pages

Initial Rebirth

Origins

NOTE: This may need some edits!

Manufactured in November, 1963, Scarlet was sold in February, 1964, to a nuclear physicist named Balazs, who worked at Stonybrook in Long Island New York. He received delivery with a dealership installed AM / FM radio, a Bendix Saphire - quite a thing at the time. He lived with his family near by. The vehicle served him and his family through to the mid 1970s whereupon it fell into disrepair due to some issue that required the fuel tank to be removed. Mr. Balazs' daughter enjoyed riding in the car as a young girl but went off to boarding school in Cambridge, England, as a young girl, to return as a bright young lady sometime later. She is the one who has conveyed this story and whatever errors here are certainly mine.

During its service life, it served as a commute vehicle for Mr. Balazs, and at some point Mrs. Balazs had an incident in which she ran the vehicle "through a picket fence." This constituted, by far, the worst damage to the vehicle, however, the damage wasn't too bad and it continued in service sans repair (which was a very good thing).

However, Miss. Balazs doesn't know the reason the vehicle was parked and fuel tank removed, only that Scarlet was in the detached garrage the family referred to as a salt-box barn in 1982 when the house burned to the ground. The garage was unharmed, and Scarlet sat therein, ignored, for decades. Eventually, Mr. Balazs passed away.

Around 2005, Mrs. Balazs decided to sell the remants of the house and lands, and the garage with, and the young Miss Balazs decided she had to rescue the Karmann Ghia Cabriolet she had enjoyed as a child. She contacted me for advice and later decided to send it here because I was the only one whose advice was focused on her needs, not their own. And, she (correctly) figured I knew what to do with her.

It is not known that any photographs of her (the Ghia) survive from before 2005 - if any do, they haven't been found yet.

Initial Rebirth

Scarlet's initial rebirth from all her years sitting alone, ignored, in the salt-box barn in Long Island, New York, told in 35 images, can be found here.

On that page:

AT RIGHT: Scarlet's original engine, rebuilt and ready for service, about to be installed. Here, it looks beautiful, but be sure to click over to the Initial Rebirth page to see what this engine looked like BEFORE the rebuild! Also note that every single part on her that could possibly be made serviceable that's not a commodity item (like the spark plug wires) is the orignal from this car. So yes, that's the original fuel pump, carburetor, etc.

FOLLOWING REBIRTH, Scarlet was driven! She drove around the San Francisco Bay Area, making an appearance at the Vintage VW car show known as simply "Kelley Park", and later she took a trip for two up the Pacific Coastline all the way to Victoria, British Colombia, Canada! And, she continued on in this condition for many years, driveable, but unrestored.

Restoration

Eventually, it was decided her time had come for a restoration. ...Well, almost... For financial reasons, a full pan-off restoration was not performed. In my view, it's very disappointing that the push to do the whole job was out of reach, but we did the best we could for the funds available.

Scarlet's restoration began as she changed hands to a new owner who, interestingly, happens to live in Long Island, New York, not very far at all from Scarlet's first home and where she sat, waiting patiently, all those years in the salt-box barn. So, homeward bound, she was finally getting the attention she deserved!

The Damage...

There were two types of damage: corrosion, and collision - pretty typical! Thankfully, neither were too bad, but of the two, the corrosion was the worse, and this is also a good thing because replacing metal that's not mis-shapen is relatively easy, especially because the corrosion was limited to the typical places and wasn't extensive.

The collision damage was limited to having been driven through a "picket fence", thankfully, between two supports, so it mostly suffered at the headlight corners and scrapes down the sides. Damage to the nose itself was thankfuly limited, and thankfully no repair was attempted!

There were two objects, one on either side - probably the support poles for the fence - that gouged indentations along much of the car's length. The left side suffered this more than the right, and both were, on the larger scheme of things, minor, but made it more difficult to smooth out the car.

Karmann had not painted the interior of the rocker panels - and you can see the proof of this in these photos where there's just primer inside the rockers - so they are always rotted, the only question is how badly. The other primary places they rot, are precisely the places Scarlet had rust damage, so, on whole, she survived pretty well, especially given she lived very close to the ocean in a salt-box barn for around 40 years. The only other casualty via corrosion were some of the chrome pieces. And, as mentioned elsewhere, there was rodent urine damage.

OK, so now we know what we have to address...

Teardown

In broad terms, restoration is a four step process: dismantle, restore the body leaving it in paint, restore all the loose pieces, and, finally, reassemble. So, the first step is to take her apart in preparations for all that comes in restoring the body to proper condition.

Metalwork

This section covers working with the body's sheetmetal until it's ready for painting preparations.

AT RIGHT: Scarlet's nose in mid-metalwork phase. The right headlamp and turn signal area is welded in, but the left hasn't yet even been tacked into place, much less welded fully. Dents in the nose have been gently removed...

If this material were presented in strictly chronological order, it'd be very disorganized and skipping all over the place due to the nature of the work. Therefore, this work is organized in a combined way, first by topic / section, and roughly chronologically within each section. This means that in some photos, you'll see adjacent areas that are further ahead or a bit behind...

Before providing links to the many pages that describe Scarlet's metalwork, it seems appropriate to show the worst of the body damage caused by direct impact.

AT RIGHT: Without a doubt, the worst of the colision damage is visible here. This locaiton is behind the driver's door.

Note that more damage was done in an attempted repair than the original injury! Whoever it was couldn't be bothered to reach around to the inside and "ding" the metal back into shape. They merely drilled holes and used a "slide hammer" to try and pull the dent out - a horriffic way to do bodywork!

This area was re-repared, this time correctly, by dinging it out from the inside with a bodyworking hammer and dolley.

Here are the extra web pages that were created to hold the hundreds of images of all the metalwork:

Here's one image from each of those pages:

AT RIGHT: Scarlet's nose from the inside after the dents in the center were bumped out. The nose was really only tapped. As Karmann Ghia noses go, this one is in superb condition. The filler on the right wheelhouse is there because of the damage to the right airbox caused by a rodent nest.

AT RIGHT: The front right headlight and turn signal area. Because the rear decklid was too badly damaged for re-use, metal from it was salvaged to become the replacement metal for the turn signal area, which in this image, below the headlight, is seen in its rusted state before repair.

AT RIGHT: The left rocker is seen immediately following the removal of the outer skin and before any (additional) repair activities have been performed. What's remarkable here is just how good the rockers are! They did NOT receive paint from Karmann, rather, the pieces were primered before they were welded in and the body was dipped in a vat of primer. (Keep in mind, primer isn't paint!) And, water drains through the rocker, so their survival is remarkable!

AT RIGHT: The rodents set up several nests, one of which was against the rear lid. Here we see the damage they cause has been cut out and the area is ready for new metal to be installed. We also see here the battery tray has already been replaced.

Once all that was done -whew!- it was time for paint preparations...

Preparations for Paint

Preparations for Paint really begins with metalwork in that it's the quality of the metalwork that really determines just how good the paint will be, though there is a vital intermediary step known as "paint prep". This form of bodywork involves any final rust removal, applying primers, possibly "underlayment paints" and, where necessary body filler, smoothing it to the texture of a lover's bottom (better, actually!)... Here is where that work is shown.

AT RIGHT: Scarlet in her first coat of primer in half a century. This primer is a catalized red oxide and is a good choice for many reasons, including that it has anti-corrosive properties beyond a simple primer, that it has tennacious grip, that paint adheres to it very well, and that its color is complementary to the paint, assisting in what painters call "coverage."

Painting

Painting is just exactly what it sounds like! Applying the paint! In this case, she got a good spraying but there were some drips. To remove the drips requires sanding and there is some risk of sanding through the paint. So, as insurance against this risk, the whole body was sanded down to provide grip for another coat, and a second coat was applied. She now has enough paint on her that a competent paint detailer should not go through!

AT RIGHT: Scarlet after her first session in having her new dress fitted. A bright red party dress!

Here's where painting work is shown.

Reassembly

As with painting, reassembly is exactly what it sounds like! The order of reassembly is vital! ...Here is where reassembly work is shown.

Upholstery

Then we get to upholstery! This includes most importantly, the Cabriolet Top, but also includes carpet, door panels, etc.

Here's where the upholstery work is shown.

[work needed here! See the restoration pages by using the links in the menu above...]