Last week, I finally got back to working on my 1970 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia project. It’s been sitting at the farm for a while. This car’s been a labor of love (and sometimes frustration) for a couple of years now. And I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.
I bought this Karmann Ghia in pretty rough shape. I stripped it down completely. The body came off and I had it sandblasted to see what I was dealing with. Turns out, it was worse than I thought. The rust was extensive, especially in the rocker panels and several other key areas. I’ve replaced those and a bunch of other sections with new metal. To protect it while I work, I covered the whole thing in epoxy primer.
One of the biggest challenges has been getting the curves right. The Karmann Ghia is all about those smooth lines, and the previous owner had slapped on a ton of body filler to fake it. I’ve been slowly working on reshaping things properly, but it’s taking a while. There are still major problem areas I haven’t touched yet – the entire bottom half of the rear end needs replacing, and I’ve been putting it off because I’m not sure where to start.
This time around, I focused on the front end. The bottom edge was pretty much toast, with holes you could see daylight through. I cut out the bad sections and started fitting new panels. It’s slow going, especially since I’m still figuring things out as I go. I made some mistakes, like fully welding one section before tacking everything else in place. That was a bad idea. It warped things and made the other pieces fit poorly.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how “done” this car needs to be. Some parts, like the big curved panels, need to look great or the whole car will suffer. But do I need to make the welds perfect on a part that’ll be hidden under carpet? Probably not. I want to enjoy this car and be proud of it, but I also want to actually finish the dang thing someday.
There are a lot of sayings about perfection being the enemy of progress, and I think they’re onto something. I’m learning to let myself off the hook a little bit. Do my best, sure, but also be willing to call something “good enough” and move on. It’s a tough balance to strike, especially when you’re putting so much time and effort into something. But I think it’s important if I ever want to see this Karmann Ghia on the road again.
At the end of the day, this project is for me. Maybe my kids will want it someday. Either way, I’m trying to find that balance between doing good work and actually getting it done. How about you? What projects are you working on, and how do you decide when “good enough” is good enough? Thanks for following along with me. Now go make awesome stuff!