1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Convertible on 2040-cars

In 1997, I decided I wanted a “fun car”. I figured that a Karmann Ghia - the poor man's Porsche - would be just about right.

I decided that if I was going to buy a Ghia, I wanted to buy a 1974 model since that was the last year VW brought them into the United States. I also felt that if you were going to have a 2 seat "fun car", you might as well buy a convertible since they are not very practical anyway. That made the choice sort of simple - now all I had to do was find one. And if you have been looking for a 1974 Karmann Ghia convertible for any time, you know just how difficult it is to find one that isn’t rusted out, beat up, chopped up – or all 3.

After searching the Auto Trader for a few months, in April of 1997, I found this Ghia in Hollywood, Florida.

The history, as best as I could deduce, was that it was owned originally by a lady from Boston. According to the paperwork, she basically bought it in the spring of 1974, drove it around Boston for the summer, and then drove it down to South Florida in the fall and left the Ghia in Florida as her "winter" car. Because it was only used a few months out of the year, it didn't accumulate very many miles.

Somewhere along the line, the lady backed up into a parking block and the engine started leaking oil. She was getting along in years and just not coming down to Florida that much so it ended up sitting in the parking garage. Of course, it got parked at the edge of the parking garage exposed to the sun and rain. So the paint was badly faded. And water had gotten in to the car. So the rear pans were rusted through on both sides.

When the lady passed away, her estate didn't want the car. In October 1989, they sold it to a local high school shop teacher. The car had a fairly strong body, so the shop teacher fixed the rust in the pans by pop riveting sheet metal over the holes.

He also had the car re-painted. It looked like it had been put on with a roller. They also didn't bother to paint the inside of anything like the hood, trunk, or gas cap. Since the original color was red and the re-paint was white, this sort of made a difference.

To top it all off, the shop teacher didn't like the chrome with the new white color, so he sanded the chrome off of everything but the bumpers and painted all the trim black.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find some of that chrome? Stuff like the chrome window scrapers? Those window scrapers only fit the 1974 Ghia convertible. With that limited of a production run - there were only 1,558 Ghia convertibles produced in 1974 - worldwide - do you have any idea how hard that stuff is to find and what that stuff costs?

In a fit of what I can now attribute to total derangement, I bought the car. When I bought the car in April 1997, the Ghia supposedly had about 25,000 original miles.

After driving the car for a few months, in the late summer of 1997, I decided to take the Ghia in for a complete re-build.

We started by stripping everything out of the car down to and including the wiring harness. We fabricated a couple of braces so we could take the body off the pan without bending it in the middle since we had the doors off also. We cut off both full pans and welded in the correct new convertible pans.

Everything got completely re-built including the brakes and pedal assembly. I bought a new, heavy duty transmission with "freeway gearing" from Transform.

We sanded off all of the paint. The right door had rust along the top and bottom and it was replaced.

We painted the car Arctic White. The body got put back on the frame. The doors, hood, and trunk were all hung. 

Then the guy that was doing the work went out of business. So I towed the Ghia back to my house.

The Ghia was sitting on real old, dry rotted tires and rusty rims. The first thing I had to do once I got the Ghia back home was get the wheels and tires changed. I went with the original style wheel only in chrome. I think they also call that a 356 style wheel.

I found out that you can't use the 5 1/2" wide rims on a 1974 Ghia - because of the IRS suspension or something. I had to use the 4 1/2" rims unless I wanted to cut the fender wells - which I was not going to do. I used the late model, nipple style hub caps with a Wolfsburg emblem. I also installed chrome valve stems.

In March 2000, I had Pat Downs over at CBPerformance build an engine using a new, hydraulic lifter case. It was setup with 90.5 pistons and a 78 stroke for a total displacement of just over 2 liters. All new black tin [dissipates heat better], serpentine belt, Total Seal rings, MagnaSpark ignition, and fuel injection. All that tied through the 1 5/8" extractor with a Bugpack Mondo muffler. The package dyno'ed at 137 hp.

We received the engine in April 2000. We took it into the garage and then the Ghia and engine just sat. There just wasn’t the time or energy to get it put back together and running.

Finally in 2011 we installed the engine with a Kennedy Stage 2 clutch.

We also almost finished the wiring – or at least as much of the wiring as I plan to do. The fuel injection and adjustable control module were all wired. The interior dome light doesn’t work and I haven’t even tried to fix it. We did the lights for the gauges and all of the external driving lights. The turn signals used to work. Now they don’t. I think a wire has fallen off. The backup lights are not wired correctly. They work. But they also work with the ignition turned off. So you cannot leave the car in reverse!

The fuel gauge works. The sending unit is new. Everything was working. But I noticed that the vibrator isn’t mounted very well to the back of the gauge. And without that solid mounting, there isn’t a good ground. And without that ground, the gauge reading isn’t accurate. It works. It just isn't accurate.

We never bothered to wire in any of the other stuff. No need for seat belt warning lights or any other the other “safety warning” stuff.

We drove it when the weather was nice. But the interior at that time was old and I had not re-installed the top. So the car basically sat again in the garage until late 2013. At that point, I decided to get it done. We got a new carpet, new Scat door panels, and a new Scat Pro 90 seat package. We had all of that installed as well as re-installed the convertible top with all new rubber seals.

Everything was looking and running great. We drove the car around town for about 6 months and put about 4,000 miles on the engine and transmission.

Then for a variety of reasons, I decided to sell the car. The best place to sell it is at a VW show. So on March 15^th, 2014, I took the car on a road trip from South Florida up through Orlando and over to Lakeland for the VW show.

The car ran great. I could easily cruise at 75 mph on the freeway. I was getting about 25 mpg. The oil pressure was a solid 60 psi, the oil temperature stayed at 170 – 180, and the head temperature stayed at 250.

Those readings were constant on Friday on the 3 hours trip up to Orlando and on Saturday on the 1 1/2 hour trip from Orlando to Lakeland.

Then on Sunday, after the Lakeland show, I headed back to South Florida. Everything was fine for about the first hour into the 3 hour drive home on the freeway. Then it started to come apart.

I was cruising on the turnpike around 70 – 75 mph. The head temperature never went over 250. The oil temperature never went over 180. But the oil pressure started slowly dropping. Over the course of about an hour, with me watching it like a hawk, it went from 60 psi down to 50 psi. Then over the next hour, it slowly dropped from 50 psi down to 40 psi.

There was no smoke. The engine was running fine. There didn’t seem to be any major issues. So I kept driving.

I stopped for gas about 30 minutes from home. When I checked the oil, it was down about 2 quarts. There are 6 quarts in the engine with the wide glide sump and the large oil filter. But it had never used oil before. So this was a worrisome development.

I added the oil, filled the gas tank, and kept driving. Everything seemed to be running fine on the rest of the journey home. There were no apparent issues in the way that the engine ran. All of the temperatures and pressures were normal. There was no apparent smoke from the exhaust.

But I had a nagging suspicion. So when I got home, I did a compression test.

150 psi in cylinders 1, 2, and 4. But only 100 psi in cylinder 3.

So while the car runs, it is going to need repair.

But you can easily drive around town, drive it on to a car carrier, etc. I had it out for a drive this week. It really runs great, the engine pulls hard, and it sounds terrific. It is very hard to believe that there is anything wrong with the engine from the way it sounds and drives. But the compression readings are what they are.

Fair disclosure - when you bid on the car, bid with this potential engine repair in mind.

You can probably replace the number 3 piston and barrel. It is a standard 90.5 mm piston. While you have the engine apart, you might as well change out the hydraulic lifters. One of them leaks down if the car is sitting for any length of time. It clatters when you start the car. But it quiets down within about a mile as it gets pumped back up with oil. It has been that way since we installed the engine and started driving the car again in 2011.

Whatever you decide to do about the engine, you will be getting a terrific, very solid 1974 Karmann Ghia convertable with basically a new transmission, brakes, etc. The odometer currently shows about 31,800 miles. While I believe this to be original, I have no way to know what the actual mileage is.

I invite you to contact me with any questions you may have about this vehicle. I prefer email. Please contact Bill – wrobeson at bellsouth.net or call 561.five.zero.six.4948. If I missed any angle, please let me know and I will take additional photos.

Terms:

Please remember, this is a 40 year old VW. It is not a new car. My interpretation of the car will vary from yours. The car shows signs of wear and tear and there will be imperfections and blemishes. It will need to be properly maintained.  You are encouraged to come and inspect the car before making an offer or placing a bid. If you are unable to come and see it, you can hire an independent inspection service to check it out. Otherwise, the car will be deemed to be sold without inspection.

The car is listed locally and will be listed For Sale at the Show N’ Shine VW show in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend. So I reserve the right to end the auction at any time.

The car comes with a clear Florida Certificate of Title.

The car is sold “As Is”. There are no warranties. Any descriptions or representations are for identification purposes only and are not to be construed as a warranty of any type.

The buyer is responsible for all taxes and fees as well as the title and registration fees in the state and country where the car will be registered.

Buyer is responsible for picking up or shipping the car. I will assist in any way that I can. I can store the car in the garage – as usual – for a short period of time after the end of the auction. But if you want me to store it, please make arrangements with me during the auction. If the winning bidder is International, I will help deliver the car to the Port of Miami. Please know, if the car is being shipped internationally, there is a slight chance it will be chosen by US Customs for inspection. If this occurs, the buyer is responsible for any fees due to Customs.

I require a $1,000.00 non-refundable deposit to be paid via PayPal within 48 hours of the close of the auction and the balance to be paid via bank wire transfer or in cash within 7 days, unless other arrangements have been agreed upon during the auction. If the balance is not paid within 7 days, I reserve the right to relist the car or send a second chance off to the next highest bidder.