Courtney and I picked this Ghia up back in January. I feel I dodged a bullet, she gave me the choice...find her a 65 Mustang or a Ghia Vert. Well the Ghia won out. All things considered it is a solid car, it has the typical nose damage, and a couple of crappy patches, but the channels and most problem areas are rust free.
Here are pictures the day we picked it up. It came with a ton of extra parts, including a complete extra convertible top and a set of early doors that are in awesome shape. They will be up for sale sometime during the build.







And these are pictures the day we brought it home after a quick wipe down of the dust from storage.








One of the cool things about this build is that the pan is ready to go. Of course I will check everything, but it already has new pans, beam, front disc brakes, rear drums ect. The pan was also powder coated.
In this picture you can see the pan head after I wiped some dust off.

Here is a look at the channels and package tray, pretty solid absolutly no rust through, slight surface rust here and there but that's about it.

So far I have only found three major issues that will be addressed

It has a poorly installed battery tray area


They do not repop this section for a 64 so I searched and found a replacement on the samba a couple of months back.




It has a little surface rust and slight pitting, but it will have to do unless I can find a better one before it is time to install.

The passenger quarter also has a bad patch installed, a PO lap welded the new panel on. I am currently looking for a replacement panel for this section and have an ad on the samba. This area was probably replaced when they did the battery tray. More than likely it was battery acid that did a number on it. You can kinda see the lapped piece where I have the quarter in this picture.
I am pointing at the line where they cut the old piece out.




and the last major issue is the nose. no telling what happened here, I know the picture is blurry but you can still make out all the hammer marks.



A minor issue that will be dealt with is the radio hole has been hacked

When we first got the ghia, I thought that it was a good candidate to just throw some make up on a pig and make it look pretty on the outside and let her drive it. Since getting it I have read and read everything I could and the more knowledge I gained the more respect for the car I got, I did not know that they had made so few of the early convertibles (only 5200 were made in 64) . A few month back I happened to run across a thread on one of the forums. The guy was doing metal work on a ghia.
Here are some pictures from the ghia he was working on:











I was really impressed with his metal working abilities. And since I knew my metal working skills really suck, I contacted him to see if he would fix the nose and a couple of other issues. His shop is called W.A.R. Will's Auto Restoration.
Well we struck up a deal and Courtney and I towed the car to his shop yesterday.


and this is where it sits waiting on a nose job


He is working it in among several other builds, so progress will probably not be fast, but I still have my car to finish so there is no rush. I will post pictures as I get them from him though.

Fun!!

I would love to have a Vert Ghia. Thats a solid start!

Nice!

Looking good!!

The ghia came with a "rebuilt" 40H. I could tell that the case had definitely been split. I went ahead and split it again just to check things out. Glad I did someone really liked silicone...






It did have new valves and what looks to be 2 new pistons. I think I will still have David's Machine shop go through the heads.










Distributor gear wasn't lined up correctly. It chewed a little at it




check out the ton of silicone used....





That squeeze through could have caused problems down the road.






Miguel walnut blasted the case for me, so it is nice and clean and free of all the silicone.







I also found an issue with two of the rod bearings, I'll get that sorted out as well.
click on the picture for video...


My plan is to build a complete stock motor for Courtney. I may put a big bore kit in it like Billy did but other than that I will keep it simple.
I do have the factory air cleaner and fan shroud so that helps out a bit.

Dig it.. I bought my wife a 67 ghia coupe last year and have done nothing to it. Ill have to put up a thread on it.