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Karman Ghias

To: PilotRob@webtv.net
Subject: Karman Ghias
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 09:16:05 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: Spridgets Digest <spridgets-digest@autox.team.net>
I owned a '68 Karman Ghia that I purchased from a friend. This was the first 
car I purchased on my own that was not a family hand me down. Car was bright 
resale red with a black vinyl top. Really looked sharp but handled quite 
differently from the '63 Bug I was used to driving. I attributed that to being 
a different body style from the '63 Bug. Several months later I ran into the 
Body Shop guy who had painted it resale red. And I quote, "...Oh I see you 
bought my old Karman Ghia. I repainted that car and added the vinyl roof...I 
had to add the vinyl roof because after I rolled the car I never could get the 
roof to look quite straight...." I kept the car several years but mechanically 
car was always a problem. Slight rough idle revealed no compression in #3 due 
to a hole burnt clear through the exhaust valve. Rebuild # 1. 10K miles later, 
early morning, leave the apartment where I was living, enter the expressway 
ramp, approaching 60 mph, hand grenade exploded in the engine and a rod
 went through the side of the block. OF course this happened one week before 
the delivery of my new '74 Mustang II. Rebuild #2. Now we don't even want to 
start talking about build quality of a Mustang II.
 
Karman Ghia, yeah fond memories of a really fun car and the first real car that 
had my name on the title. I remember steaming up the windows at the drive in 
but no matter how willing the participants were, there was no room to fool 
around in that car. 


Jim Gruber
Bugsy '68 Sprite (future Bugeye in disguise)
Cincinnati, OH
                
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