A Short History Of The VW Karmann Ghia (cont.)

That very pretty body was undoubtedly the biggest factor in the Ghia’s appeal, after all the running gear was more or less that of the comparable Beetle of the era, so performance wasn’t what you’d refer to as electrifying.

However it wasn’t going to make life easy for Karmann, whose small factory couldn’t even provide enough storage for the amount of cars required for the press launch, leading to the launch having to be brought forward a few months. The car was massively complex to build in comparison to the Beetle, with the entire nose sections being hand shaped, and each panel meticulously butt welded together with over 140 inches of weld on the outer skin alone, then painstakingly lead filled using English Pewter as opposed to the Beetles simple bolt together body shell, every single piece of glass on the car was curved.

The paint process was only embarked upon after the entire body had been checked for any imperfections, whereupon the body was dipped in a tank of zinc phosphate primer, before being wet sanded, then the first coat of paint was laid down, followed by more colour sanding, this process was repeated 4 times. Karmann was one of the first coach builders to employ an anti dust system within their paint booths using a water curtain to trap dust. The Ghia was still a true hand-built car in the most traditional sense of the phrase.