July 4th Parade

Crescent Hill Old Time Forth of July Parade

We met at the Masonic Homes to stage the parade. There were numerous Fire Trucks and a lot of spectators. We then rode down to the Peterson -Duemenil House to park. Carter was my co-pilot. We had the car decked out with American flags playing "I'm Proud to be An American" We met Julie and the boys there for lunch. This is a neat thing, if you ever get the chance to do it.

Happy's Picnic

Happy's picnic was great. The weather was clear, no rain. I met up with friends to drive over-Karmann Bug and 3 Ghias. The drive to and from Corydon was my favorite part. We took the scenic route- Old Corydon Pike.

MY RIDE-
My car is finally a driver. Happy's was my first show. Here's some pictures there and before I left.

Here's some other sweet rides that were at the show. I didn't get pictures of all of them.

GHIA ROW-

That's mine first, Tim's, Walter's and Dave's.

Pretty neat to have so many Ghia's there.

I think I counted 8 there at one time.

That's Tim taking on the Knobs on the way back. It was a great ride, open country roads. Cool switchbacks to take.

Here's some of the cool scenery we saw along the way. I had never seen Polly Freeze, only heard about it. I would like to go on a cruise over there again- maybe try the ice cream next time.

Thanks to my brother Todd Thompson for taking the photos. It would be hard to drive and take pictures at the same time. I think he still has to give ones of the ride over.

Its coming together

Derrick has been cranking on the interior. Its looking really good. However, as he was taking apart the rear seat we noticed that the wood was broken and he will have to rebuild the rear seat backing. He's made a lot of custom pieces- emergency brake and shifter boots, the sun visors, cont. boot, carpet, and carpet trunk liner. Derrick also recovered the kick pad on the bottom of the dash in black vinyl. I couldn't find anyone who said they had a good reproduction. The stereo does crank now, not a powerful system but better than the AM JAM that was in there.

He's fitting the boot for the top. We had to figure out how to fasten it at the back by the rear seats. There are clips to hold the rear seat in place and on the back it has hooks to fasten the boot down. He'll place some grommets to hold the boot in place.

I went with 2-point retractable seat belts for the front. They aren't as safe as 3-point but the originals weren't retractable. I bought them at JBugs. They told me and I had read that the retractable 3-points were too long and would bounce around because they were made to mount higher in the coupes. We also had 2 seat seat belts placed in the back for the kids. However, I don't think there will be much room back there.
SIDE NOTE- I hope you don't have to return anything to JBugs, it takes foreverrrrr.

The seats, door panels, armrests were a kit from Scat-Procar seats. Derrick did a good job matching the rest of the vinyl to these. The kit comes with adapters to place on the original rails, so it could be changed back to the original. The kit was supposed to have a rear seat cover, but it was back ordered several months. I worked with Ron at Scat and he sent me the matching vinyl rather than wait any longer. Ron was great, he had similar set of Procar seats in a Karmann Ghia.

This window cranks look great. They are from Airkewld. They were the only nice alternative I found to replace the cheesy black plastic cranks. There were some modifications with the screws and adjusting to be done to get them right. They weren't cheap, but well worth it to put finishing touches on the interior. The picture shown doesn't have the cap on it yet.


Derrick made custom E-brake and shifter boots. I think they look great. He said the E-brake was a little tricky to make because of the heat controls.

Tan Man!!

The Black and Tan is looking good. Derrick is getting the carpet and vinyl started in the interior. He tacked up the door panels and set the seat in to see how they look. The door panels and armrests were part of the Procar kit from Scat. The kit seems to be good quality. The seats have adapters to bolt them in the original seat rails. I bought some chrome billet window cranks from Airkewld because I hate the look of the cheap original black plastic cranks. I really like the pre-68 chrome original window cranks, however they won't work with my regulators.

He wrapped the hinge covers and kick panels in the tan vinyl. They look great! He also had the idea to inset the speakers and perforate the the vinyl to hide them. I think it looks better than black and red speakers and frames exposed. Great idea Derrick. The stereo is in and sounds great too!

Derrick has the carpet cut and marked for binding. He will start binding it and gluing it down soon. It matches the interior pretty well.

The Roof! The Roof!

We have a top now! Derrick was able to use the top that was on it. It looks pretty good. The top is canvas, it was put on before I bought it about 7 years ago. We bought new cables and springs. Man, is it tight. We don't want any water leaking in on our nice new interior.

The headliner is in place and looks great! I think we will make the top boot out of the tan vinyl to match the interior when the top is down.

Derrick has been working on the hinge covers and kick panels. He will put the stereo speakers in them. He has put in the carpet pad/insulation. He will start to cut and lay the carpet now.

Winter Time Blues

I took my car the the body guy for some touch ups. He ended up repainting a door, rewelded a rocker, and did some paint touch ups. He also placed the side and license trim along with the door rubber. It looks pretty good. Now I need to wax and detail it. I did find out that the heat works while driving the car out to the painter's.

I now have the car at the upholster Derrick Fondern, to replace the top and do the interior work. I have purchased a procar kit from Scat that includes new front seats, back seat cover, door panels with armrests. The interior will be tan. He will make a custom headliner and install the top. I ordered all new cables and a few screws that attach the intermediate bow. My intermediate bow is bent on one side, which we will try to bend back to proper angle. He will install the kit and make custom carpet as well.
Other upgrades include: custom covered sun visors, vinyl shifter and brake boots, sony stereo with speakers installed in the kick panels and top hinge covers. I will add pictures soon.

I'm hoping to have the car done in time to take it to Happy's Picnic in Cordyn, IN May 15th. It's a nice VW event put on by Happy's VW parts store.

Cincy VW Porsche Reunion '09

I went up to check out the VW show in Cincy. Nice show, nice cars, nice people.

It was a little overcast, which kept some cars away no doubt. Here's some pictures of the show.

This Ghia won best daily driver in '08. The owner turned me on to the Stainless steel bumpers on the Samba. Very helpful and knowledgeable guy. I think he is selling this car on Ebay.

I especially like the donut vending bus. Very cool! It had 6,000 miles on it, all original. They made the donuts in the bus.