A special thanks to Zach for his generosity in once again letting me drive his 914. It was great fun to drive, and having it at the swap meet, and the flare party to demonstrate what we were trying to accomplish made things easier. Zach could not make it to the flare party, but his car, and a few of his tools did.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

I wondered where Zach Yeager was....he is a great guy who AX's a mean 914. He also restores vintage buses (maybe Korijo should have got one of those)

Thanks Zach

Geoff

Glad that all worked out. I will do my best to make it to the next flare party.

How far did you guys get on it?

--zach

Hi Zach,

We made a lot of progress, which is say, about 3/4" more room under each fender so far.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

John... when will it be:

www.914specialties.com ??

You keep driving them.. your going to want one.


B

That would be a nice change but there is probably LESS money in 914's unless he does race cars. God, 914 guys are soo cheap! I could have sold 25 of those front fiberglass bumpers for $25. I bought it to the swap meet cause somebody wanted it for $200, but of course he didn't show. Everybody wanted it but didn't want to pay shit for it.


Geoff

Hi Brad, Yes, that is the danger. 914specialties...hmmm, has a nice ring to it.

Geoff, Volks folks are not known for their profligate spending habits either. If I was in it for the money, I would not be doing either 914s or Ghias.

John www.g9h1ia4specialties.com

Who are all those guys then spending 6-8K on a Raby motor to put in a bug!

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

You got me there. There are a few folks who spend heavily on VWs, just not enough to drive out the cheap garbage that is for sale in the magazines. Cheap garbage tends to drive out quality over time. I have more work than I want in my little niche, but it has taken years, and some luck.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Did you notice that the quality of the parts for sale is much better at Porsche swap meet (except for Kevin stuff). I have gone to several local VW swap meets and the parts are mostly total unuseable crap. Maybe I have gone to the wrong meets.

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

I always try to get rid of my unusable crap at the swaps (kidding). If you want Ghia parts, I have literally tons. The problem as I see it, I'm the only person that brings a lot of Ghia parts to the local meets, and the money is pretty poor considering all the effort it takes. We did two shows in one weekend and came away with $900 which is not bad, unless you consider that one guy bought $550 worth of old parts, another $110, so if those two guys hadn't come, it would have been quite the bust... I know ebay is the way to make funds, but I hate packaging little parts, so some of this stuff will stay with me until it gets more rare.

The quality of John's Porsche swap meet was high...lots of wheels, just ask Zach...he bought 8.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Yeah, too bad Bradhole didn't make or rather good thing as he would've snapped up ALL THE GOOD PARTS!. Especially when Chris D was pulling out the NOS stuff out of those plastic buckets and going "How much is this worth?"

Monique wants a Ghia of all things.

Geoff

the $750 seats. "the shell is carbon fibre". bfd. they carried them out. a number of fellows that would have been my dads age spent alot of time looking at my stuff. to a man they all said selling their 914's was a big mistake, and that they wish they still had them.

kevin

Us guys that spend $6K on a T4 into a Bug are selling the Bug and buying 914's... LOL

Later,
Tom

Now that is a smart move!
Geoff

Hehehe, the swap begins this weekend! The 2270 is coming out of the Bug and onto the bench for conversion back to pancake cooling.

It should give a nice wakeup call to the 901...

Later,
Tom

How good is that tranny??? If the motor is out, refresh the seals and check the intermediate shaft bearings, and synchos. Pretty easy to do and will keep you with all the power from toasting the tranny.
Won't you have to install a Pilot bearing in the crank? The 901 shaft needs a pilot bearing to support it.

Geoff

Hey John,

Since you're a Ghia-guru... what does a good clean Ghia go for these days?

Do they have special quirky-rust problems or other items to watch out for?

-Rusty

Ohhh, thanks for reminding me. I need to get a new pilot bearing to put into the crank. Right now, it's just hanging off the flywheel.

The tranny is good, there are no problems with it. I am worried about the mounts. I might get some new mounts just 'cause.

Later,
Tom

lawrence, go to wwwthesamba.com for an idea what they go for. rust issues? like you wouldn't believe. wait, your handle was "rusty". geoff explained that one to me. the 69's were the best year in my book. nice dash, irs, before the turn signals got out of control. and tom, thats the smart move on the mounts.

kevin

I agree. 1969 Ghia is my favorite Ghia.

..but my '73 KG will have to do for now.

Hi Lawrence,

Kevin has it right, go to the samba for pricing on Ghias. They rust like crazy down low everywhere and over the headlights and grilles, floorpans etc. You will be money ahead getting a good rust free car from Arizona or some place like that rather than trying to fix up a rusty one. I'm not a Ghia guru, just a Ghia customizer. Everything I know about Ghias is incidental to my desire to torture them to suit my needs. I only buy unrestorable Ghias most of the time which makes me far from an expert on pricing for a nice one. There are two active Ghia mailing lists, one on yahoo ....www.groups.yahoo.com perform search, and one that can be reached at: www.karmannghia.org Good luck!

John www.ghiaspecialties.com