Background on the find...
So, I'm a week and a few days into this paint prep job. It truly is a lot of work to smooth a 47 year old car with hardly any flat surfaces. All of these cars go thru their fair share of door dings, fender benders, and negligence creating the need to feather out the body in such a way that you'd never think anything ever happened, after the paint it applied. It is a masterful magician act to be able to pull this off. I did this on the rear quarter panel of Happy, and was so excited to see the fruits of patient body work that I'm applying what I learned through trial and error once again on this little charmer.
This car was listed in the summer of 2015 in Oakland. The woman was being sent to a home and her kids were cleaning out her large 3 story house in the city of Oakland, just over the Bay bridge from my Aunt and Uncle's house. I was breaking my 10 day water fast and drove the little 61 VW Bug (Cloudy) over to her place, being the first to the scene and able to give her the $1000 she wanted. The Ghia had a white film on the paint, a flat driver side front tire, hadn't been started in a long time, and was basically left for dead in the middle of this upper middle class neighborhood. I already had the possessions in my bug to do any required work to get the Ghia running, which is exactly what I did. As soon as I was able to start the Ghia with a new battery, some fuel, and a cleaned up set of points, the family was very excited, like an old friend had come to visit. I drove the Ghia with the lousy semi-locked up brakes back to my Aunt and Uncle's, where I parked it while setting out in Cloudy to purchase all the parts required to restore the brake system from a small shop in southern Oakland. I made it to Samantha's house, perched on a hillside in Felton, just outside Santa Cruz, and left Cloudy at my Aunt's. In Santa Cruz, I was able to source a used fuel tank off c-list since I was smelling fumes, and the fuel filter showed signs of rust in the line. I swapped out the fuel tanks and made my way to San Diego on highway 1, rolling over the cliff lined roads of Big Sur in this diamond in the rough. At one point in the Big Sur area the car had trouble. I pulled over and realized the fuel filter was clogged with rusty bits, so I poured them out and was back on the road. I made the rest of the journey with no problems. I ended up flying to SF and getting Cloudy about a week or so later. It was truly an adventure, and an amazing part of my life traveling in both Cloudy, and finding the Ghia in Oakland. Part of the allure of restoring these vehicles is the story behind each one. The owner of this Ghia stays in touch on email and writes me from her care home. She sent a few parts down she found after cleaning out the house and going through her files. She is very happy that the many memories she experienced in this little Ghia will be had once again after Sky Blue is restored and resold.
I couldn't locate the photos of when I bought this ghia, nor the photos of the magical journey thru Big Sur, but will post them when they appear.
This car was listed in the summer of 2015 in Oakland. The woman was being sent to a home and her kids were cleaning out her large 3 story house in the city of Oakland, just over the Bay bridge from my Aunt and Uncle's house. I was breaking my 10 day water fast and drove the little 61 VW Bug (Cloudy) over to her place, being the first to the scene and able to give her the $1000 she wanted. The Ghia had a white film on the paint, a flat driver side front tire, hadn't been started in a long time, and was basically left for dead in the middle of this upper middle class neighborhood. I already had the possessions in my bug to do any required work to get the Ghia running, which is exactly what I did. As soon as I was able to start the Ghia with a new battery, some fuel, and a cleaned up set of points, the family was very excited, like an old friend had come to visit. I drove the Ghia with the lousy semi-locked up brakes back to my Aunt and Uncle's, where I parked it while setting out in Cloudy to purchase all the parts required to restore the brake system from a small shop in southern Oakland. I made it to Samantha's house, perched on a hillside in Felton, just outside Santa Cruz, and left Cloudy at my Aunt's. In Santa Cruz, I was able to source a used fuel tank off c-list since I was smelling fumes, and the fuel filter showed signs of rust in the line. I swapped out the fuel tanks and made my way to San Diego on highway 1, rolling over the cliff lined roads of Big Sur in this diamond in the rough. At one point in the Big Sur area the car had trouble. I pulled over and realized the fuel filter was clogged with rusty bits, so I poured them out and was back on the road. I made the rest of the journey with no problems. I ended up flying to SF and getting Cloudy about a week or so later. It was truly an adventure, and an amazing part of my life traveling in both Cloudy, and finding the Ghia in Oakland. Part of the allure of restoring these vehicles is the story behind each one. The owner of this Ghia stays in touch on email and writes me from her care home. She sent a few parts down she found after cleaning out the house and going through her files. She is very happy that the many memories she experienced in this little Ghia will be had once again after Sky Blue is restored and resold.
I couldn't locate the photos of when I bought this ghia, nor the photos of the magical journey thru Big Sur, but will post them when they appear.
posted by Jaime at 10:09 AM
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