Hybrid Hot Rod 2.0 - The Pria Ghia

[freebeard]

Hence the need for totaled Prii.

The pan carries the VIN.

[Piotrsko]

Iirc, the tunnel has the vin at both ends, one under the rear seat, the other at the end near the access hole so you can verify without taking out the seat. Had a buddy do a pan swap and got caught by the CHP

[jojogunn]

One thing done in the late '60s was "hidden" vins. It might have been the same time the vin plates appeared in the lower portion of the windshield. The numbers were pretty easy to find, plus word-of-mouth got around. Nice to know about the beetles having it too. The rear stamp seemed to get butchered a lot on dune buggies.

[mannydantyla]

I'm wondering how the Karmann Ghia body shell will hold up without a frame. VW did not design it to be a unibody car. Technology has advanced quite a bit and today's cars use special steel and structure techniques to get away without a frame underneath the body. The door pillars, roof, and even the windshield are all major parts of the unibody. I do not know if that is true for a Prius, maybe it is special or something. You did successful drive it around a parking lot without the top of the unibody.

What do you think?

[rmay635703]

Generally speaking most of a moder cars structure is still on the bottom,
If anything the Ghia body is more supported in this configuration than stock

[mannydantyla]

Hoopie I think you will find this infomration helpful if you haven't seen it already: https://jalopnik.com/this-1968-volks...ata-1825036646

Apparently, putting air-cooled VWs on Miata chassis is kinda a thing.

[freebeard]

Must be nice to have a two post lift in the back yard.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by mannydantyla

I'm wondering how the Karmann Ghia body shell will hold up without a frame. VW did not design it to be a unibody car.

Much of the structural integrity on the body of an old-school Volkswagen doesn't actually depend on the floorpan.

[jray3]

Indeed, most of a Ghia's strength is in the body. The VW pan is a floppy thing, with only the central spine providing some structure. A Ghia Cabriolet flexes tremendously over undulating terrain, but a coupe is pretty stiff, as it forms a full box once bolted to the pan. Here's some photos of my pan-off project, where I beefed up the pressed sheet metal with a square tube outer rail and boxed in the rear quarter pans to carry batteries.
https://karmanneclectric.blogspot.co...beginning.html

[Piotrsko]

Not sure I agree. All the dune buggies with plastic bodies says the pan should be fairly rigid since the body doesn't add much strength off road.