Scarlet's Metal: Headlights

The continuing story of Scarlet, The 1963 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet

Here, on this page, the metalwork for Scarlet's headlight repair is described, illustrated in 18 images.

This is a sub-topic to Scarlet's Metalwork, which can be found here.

AT RIGHT: Scarlet in mid metalwork...

Scarlet's main page is here.
Find her "initial rebirth" page here.
The previous step, disassembly, is here.
The next step, paint preparation, is here.

Repair Strategy

Damage to be Repaired

The area surrounding both headlights was rusted through above and below the headlight buckets, and both front fenders were damaged from collision with the picket fence. Further, the regions directly below the headlamps where the turn signals mount were also rusted badly. And, the right-hand side "airbox" that conveys fresh air to the cabin (and also greatly strengthens the vehicle in the event of a collision) was badly rotted by rodents making a home inside it. And access would be needed through the headlight area in order to effect a repair.

Available Materials

Thankfully, both the headlight buckets and the surrounding metal are available for this model year as repair panels at reasonable cost. This meant salvaging the buckets wasn't necessary. Also luckily, the airbox is also available. Sheet metal that matches the skin in thickness (and other properties) isn't commercially available at reasonable cost, however, the rear decklid was badly damaged and could provide this metal.

Overall Approach

Because the position of the headlights is vital for the vehicle to remain valuable, and because positioning them from first principals is time consuming and difficult to accomplish, it was decided to preserve their positions by leaving the sound metal on the inboard side, and thus providing a place that hadn't moved from original fabrication in 1963. As there was no need to salvage the buckets, they were cut away leaving both the original outer skin and the part of the bucket that was spot-welded to it, while cutting away the remaining metal.

A suitable ink marker was used to mark the positions of the turn signal mounting holes (only the right side provided a good positioning - the left was too rotted, so the right was copied), and also used to make an outline of the properly fitted repair panels (as a best-fit to the various curves) to guide where to cut the remaining skin. Once that skin was removed, the fenders were "dinged" back into position with hammer and dolley using the Fairmount Method of body repair (circa 1952). Following this, the skin below the headlights was cut away and repair panels made from rear decklid material and welded in. Then, the remnants of the headlight buckets were gently removed from the remaining original skin.

The repair panels which provide the skin surrounding the buckets were then carefully fitted - as they were no longer full-circles, the new headlight buckets were used to help ensure proper circles in a flat left-to-right plane (and tilted from vertical as appropriate) - and tacked in place, then welded fully.

While access remained available, the right-hand airbox was replaced, with a bit of repair work to the inner wheelhouse on that side as well. Another access issue prompted that the headlight buckets be painted before installation as they're far easier to paint fully while not installed! They were properly washed, etched, primed, and painted completely. And finally the headlight buckets were welded in place, thus completing the repair.

Do note that all skin repair was effected using butt-joint type welds - no overlaps! Overlapping is dramatically inferior... Also note that the metal was fully welded in the original style, not just tacked in place.

The Work

Unfortunately matching right and left photos were not always taken. However, to help ease construction of this page, any corresponding image will be placed side-by-side and if missing simply omitted.