The Acquisition

I purchased my first Volkswagen a day after my 27th birthday. I had been searching for a Karmann Ghia for quite some time and had done a lot of research about the vehicle. Our family was in need of a second car and I needed something that could be reliable, have good gas mileage, and fit my personality. I wanted a small car that could get me to work, something cheap. I had been looking at some of the diesel powered Volkswagens because of their great gas mileage and somehow stumbled upon the old Karmann Ghia. I had a friend that had been looking at these awhile back and had shown them to me. I didn't know anything about cars, but knew that it was a nice looking car.

I remember when I showed a picture of one to my wife, she looked at it and said, "Ooooo! What's that, it's cute!". That sort of settled the deal for me, it would be something we could both be really proud to own. Like I said, I looked for awhile and settled on getting an orange one, something made in the early 70s as this was when many of the advances in automotive technology were added to the car. I soon fell in love with a '72 convertible, but the seller was asking almost $9,000 and I had some serious questions about the car itself. It seemed to be in nice shape, but wasn't worth the firm asking price so I had to move on. It was durring this time that I had asked my old friend for some advice and he pointed me to The Samba, a website and forum dedicated to old aircooled VWs. I firmly believe that this site is responsible for me ultimately choosing my car and being satisfied with buying a car I could work on. It's a great source of information for anyone thinking of owning an older Volkswagen.

After deciding that I would just save up for a real solid Ghia, I tried to put the car out of my head. Impossible. I thought about it all the time and found myself researching the car more and more. It's history, personal stories of owners, solutions to typical problems, and restoration stories all became of great interest to me. I found that I would browse craigslist or ebay motors almost everyday, not because I was seriously shopping, but because I would hate if I passed up a great deal.

I found a 1972 Ghia, orange, seemingly to be in good shape, and not very far from my house. I had to go see it, like that same day. I called the guy about it and arranged a meeting. I went at night (always go in daylight) and had brought a flashlight. I was able to check all of the problem areas for rust or typical problems. The body had new paint and it was in fine shape overall. I had fallen in love with one of these cars all over again, only this time the asking price was only $5000. I went back again durring the day and after talking him down to $4000 I made the purchase. I got a small car loan to cover it and am very happy with the deal that I had made.

I spent the next four weeks trying to iron out the details of registering the car. Because the previous owner (PO) had skipped title on me, it cost me an extra $200 to get it titled and registered. I talked to the PO about this and he agreed to give me the cash to cover the mistake. That brought the final purchase price to $3800. Not bad for a classic in pretty good shape.

I know she isn't perfect, but the previous restore job looks solid as they replaced a lot of the sheet metal that had rusted out. The floor pans are in ok shape, with only a small rust-through spot on the passenger side. The engine ran great, minus a small idle issue and I was very happy with myself overall. After getting the registration stuff taken care of I was ready to start fixing some stuff up and get her on the road.

This is where her story really starts.