1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia For Sale in Spanish Fork, Utah 84660
I’ve always loved Karmann Ghias and always had the goal of owning one. My dad found this car in a classified ad in spring of 1993 while on a business trip in Arizona. The car was located in Chandler, AZ and my dad went and had a look. After passing his litmus test I traveled with him the following week to Chandler and had a look for myself. I loved what I saw and immediately struck a deal. The current owner’s dad bought the car new in Lompoc, CA and she had all receipts and documentation for the car back to 1971, including the car’s original owners manual, window stickers and even the receipts her dad received when he paid his down payment and final purchase of the car at the dealer. The car stayed in the San Jose area until 1981 when he sent his daughter off to ASU in Tempe, AZ in his old ’67 Ghia. Fast forward to 1993 and she and husband need a down payment for a new home purchase and are forced to part with the Ghia that has been in the family since new. She was so sad to see it go and made me promise to take great care of her dad’s Ghia. I have lived up to that promise and have done a ground up restoration starting in 2004 when I had the financial means to put into the car. I was living in Tucson, AZ and worked a side job to get the extra cash for the project.
The car was originally cherry red and was badly oxidized. Over the years I buffed the cloudy oxidation off the paint but it would always return. I had rubbed all the way through to the primer in some places on the car. I began the restoration process by removing the engine, body trim, windows and the entire interior taking photos and documenting the process in a journal so the reassembly would go as smooth as possible. The car was a rolling shell and I hauled it down to a local body shop to fix all dings, dents and to have the dash filled in since the original pad and plastic wood face was in bad shape and I couldn’t see using the replacement parts available today. I also elected to replace the original red color and paint the car blue; which happens to be my favorite color. The painter couldn’t match a Volkswagen paint code for Bernina Blue to his paint product and none of the swatches he had caught my eye. I went looking for a paint color and found myself at a Dodge dealership and fell in love with the Pacific Blue pearl color, which happened to be a full size truck color. My body guy thought I was crazy and told me it wouldn’t look right, but agreed to go ahead with it nevertheless. As it turned out the color fit the car very well and I have received numerous compliments on the color when I get around town in the car or show it at car shows.
The first idea about changing the color came while following a restoration on a 1959 Ghia convertible, done by West Coast Classic Restoration in southern California. As I explained I couldn’t get the Bernina Blue, but I did buy the #107 blue square weave wool carpeting from Lenny and installed it myself. I liked the idea of blue interior but with small kids I couldn’t see going with the level of interior found in the ’59 convertible. So I purchased a TMI kit with matching blue/white door panels and off white perforated headliner. I had the front seat covers and headliner professionally installed and could not be happier with the results.
I did the teardown on the car and I have done all the reassembly work as well. I have had the bumpers and chrome on the car re-chromed. I sent the fasteners, bolts, washers and such off to be re-plated. I have done the seat frames and countless other parts in powder coat finishes, including the engine tin and fan shroud. I have completely rewired the car. The exhaust was ceramic coated; it is an S&S header and single pack muffler that sounds great too. The engine was rebuilt in 1994 and still running strong. It is a 1641cc with hydraulic lifters, dual 34 ict Weber carbs. Otherwise pretty stock. I have enjoyed the car and writing this has bought back many great memories I spent on the car and at car shows I have taken it to with my family. It saddens me to part with it, but I am returning to school to begin a new career and I need the money to finance this next step in my life. I hope that the car will go to another loving home and begin again another chapter in its life, just as it did when I purchased it.
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