Scarlet's Initial Rebirth

Scarlet, the 1963 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet - "before"

...This page tells the part of Scarlet's story that picks up when Scarlet arrived in California in the late naughts and continues only so far as the start of her rebirth (not restoration) as she was put back into service following around 30 years of slumber...

Wheels and Brakes
Engine Teardown
Miscellaneous

Receipt in California

Upon arrival, Scarlet had to be dragged down - literally - from the flat bed that had carried her from Long Island to Oakland. It turned out that at first none of the four wheels rotated! Once on the ground, three floor jacks were needed to roll her into the driveway. However, with some coaxing - mostly just air in the tires! - three were made to rotate, but the final one wouldn't go. So, she was rolled into the safety of a bay at the workshop that was to become her new home for a while.

The first few photos taken on receipt of the vehicle, sent via flat-bed truck, point to point, were unfortunately lost. It is suspected that they were actual film and are in an unknown box or drawr to be discovered later... However, the following images were taken the next day. Of course, the first order of business is to get her rolling safely. Then, she could be looked over, and evaluated. Miss Balazs had asked that I get Scarlet running and safely driveable for her, nothing more.

Knowing it was coming anyway, and as I had to take it apart anyway, I replaced the slave cylinder and shoes on the right hand side, following removal and reinstallation of the right-rear drum.

The drum was frozen (rusted) to the shoes and wouldn't turn, so the ole drum puller did the job. I serviced the brakes and a new rear axle seal were installed as well - why go back in again later?

Upon opening the rear deck lid and inspecting the vehicle overall, it became immediately clear that rodents had long made a home in the Ghia. They found passage through the heating system and used it to get from the convertible top to the engine bay, and also up to the front right air ducting. There were three obvious nesting sites, all on the right - I suspect the right was, for whatever reason, the warmest side of the vehicle. Aside from the obvious piles of material from the headliner and padding from the convertible top, all three of these areas had been rotted badly by the rodent's urine.

Here's the engine bay:

Initial Rebirth Begins in Earnest

Wheels and brakes

The easiest thing to do, for the time being, was to just borrow some great wheels off of another vehicle! That was almost too easy. They got swapped on right before her first drive in 30 years!

The brakes, however, needed attetion right away. A new master cylinder was installed, and all four brake hoses. The brake fluid reservoir was cleaned out - thankfully, it already was pretty clean - and installed along with a replacement flexible hose joining it to the metal tube that routes the fluid to the master.

While in there, the steering "rag joint" was checked and found to be in good condition, and the fuel line through the chassis checked (it was fine) and a new hose fitted on the tank end.

Then, both front drums were removed and wheel cylinders inspected. They were untouched originals! This car had NEVER had a brake job in its life before!

(The rubber boots on the ends of the slave cylinders give them away as originals - later parts have differently shaped boots.)

So excited to see original wheel cylinders, on both sides, and as the cars mileage was low, I decided to see if they could be retained in service. So, I left them in! It turned out that after a thousand miles or so, shortly after returning from the trip from Oakland to Seattle, one failed, then, shortly thereafter, the other. I didn't have time to rebuild them, so I just replaced them with new - and saved the old ones. They can be rebuilt...

While doing this work - hey, you're in there anyway - time to dung out all the debris! So, I did - look at the piles on the ground! Astonishing! The photos do NOT do it justice - there was a LOT of debris on the ground! I wonder where it all came from?!

All three brakes I'd serviced so far were in pretty good shape, so I just left the left rear one alone and decided to service it only if there was a real need.

Engine tear-down and rebuild

The next order of business was to remove the engine:

Over the following months, it was torn down and rebuilt. ALL the major components were kept! This includes, remarkably, the pistons and cylinders! They were hard to remove, but it was done non-destructively... Here's the result - first the "long block minus heads":

And, what the cylinders looked like, inside, left side (3 & 4) on the left, right (1 & 2) on the right:

Several of the cylinders didn't want to come off, even with copious quantities of penetrating oil. Eventually, giving up on penetrating oil, I cleaned out their insides, packed the smaller volume cylinders (pistons up) with grease (and the combustion chambers, too) and then, using a grease gun, used the hydraulic power of the grease to push the pistons and get them free of the cylinders without harm. This worked perfectly! Here they are with that job just finished and in clean-up phase:

Thankfully, all this happened during an era when REAL solvents - petrolium based - were available! Today, this would be VERY hard to clean up!

Various techniques were used to get these parts ready for service again, including media blasting. The pistons (and carburetor, fuel pump, and other softer metals) were blasted with baking soda, harder metals, like the connecting rods, were done with either glass, granite, or "silica sand", as appropriate to the grit needed, pits of rust to get out, etc.

Below see a connecting rod after cleaning, blasting and now ready for rebuilding in the machine shop.

The rusted sheet metal needed replacement, so during this period I hunted high and low for the exact replacements. It is unbelieveable - until you actually look! - how many very subtle varriations in the engine tin there are! However, I was persistent and found the exact same ones in good condition. Here are the bad ones and the good ones.

Eventually the day came to assemble the case halves and put it all together. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos all along the way - wish I had! In particular, I lament I haven't got photos of the pistons and cylinders awaiting installation - they turned out remarkably well for fourty some-odd year old originals already with 70 thousand miles or so on them!

Anyway, the crankcase assembly ... note in the one image just how clean the crankcase is on the inside! This takes real work, even with good solvents. Things to note in the following four images include the interior of the right case half, but also what you can see of the crankshaft and rods, lifters, etc. This engine was done to my usual exacting standards but with the one caveat that I attempted more than usual to keep all the original components whenever possible.

Also note the two engine stands in use in the background - there were in fact four, all busy with other engines! So that's why this one was relegated to being assembled on the floor! This is NOT the usual program! But, it works fine...

When I get an engine to this point, and especially when all the parts are ready to go, it just falls together. This time it went so fast, I didn't think to stop and take photos, because it just progressed until done. The one photo taken between the short block above and a completed engine was this one of the right head. In it you can see how clean the head is, and part of a cylinder and can see how nice that is, too...

In the detail in these photographs you can tell that I am leaving a lot out from the description of all that was done from this text. EVERYTHING was attended to. The flywheel was media blasted, pressure plate balanced, fuel pump and carburetor carefully rebuilt, etc, etc, etc. And here it is, done, awaiting installation.

Yes, that's the original muffler! Or, at least the one that was on it when it arrived in CA.

Miscellaneous

Meanwhile, the engine bay got a battery put in it and Scarlet's wiring was tested.

Note in the image above the sticker to the left of the left bumper guard - there's a matching one on the front bumper. And, on the right corner, there's faculty - staff a parking permit from SUSB - presumably Stonybrook - for the 74-75 school year. As with the other sticker, the front also has one.

When the engine was finally ready, it got installed, along with a new battery, as seen here.

Both front and rear bumpers needed replating, but, as with the tires, they got loaners until the car could be restored. Here's the original front - the rear can be seen in several images above. Note the blue and white parking permit is from the Town of Brookhaven, New York for 1973.

Here's the loaner, awaiting installation - it was also red!

Before Scarlet could be driven, the car needed a "lube job", so, Miss Balazs did her part and got under there and lubed the front end!

Scarlet's story continues with her restoration here.