Karmann Ghia: Forgive me Father...it's been two years since my last post.

Hell if I know how it happened...for some reason, it's been two years since the last time I posted to this blog. It's not like I haven't been working on the project. It's also not like I've been working on it a lot. Most of the work I've done has been under the car. I cleaned the floor pan and rust-proofed the underside and wheel wells.

So I can't put it off any longer...I have to tackle the rusted nose. Shortly after I brought the car home and removed the front bumper I discovered the damage to the front clip. It's as if it began to rust away, and someone fiberglassed over the rust-damaged area.

The three larger pictures below are taken from the front of the car, from the top toward the bottom of the nose. It need's a "Nose Job" desperately.

View from the top

View from the middle

View from down low

So I have a few choices, besides the scrap metal yard. I can replace the entire front clip with a one-piece flip-front, I can replace the fenders and nose with 3 separate fiberglass pieces, or I can replace just the nose section with either steel or fiberglass. I'm leaning towards the last choice. I don't want the flip-front because I like the idea of keeping water and road debris off of the back of the dash board. I would replace the fenders and nose with fiberglass, but the shipping is expensive; and there's not too much wrong with the fenders. The new fiberglass nose is a cost-effective way to replace the damaged lower section. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the 'ridge' in the very middle of the nose is a mess; it's mostly body filler. The nose section covers the area between the bumper brackets, all the way up to the trunk. Only the extreme bottom corners would need some attention from rust. It's nothing that can't be corrected with a lot of grinding and rust-proofing.

Below is a picture showing the area to be replaced - Marked in orange.