Vessel has left Los Angeles Port !!

Finally..... the vessel with my Ghia on it has left the Los Angeles Port !

Update 28-8-2014: Vessel parked at 'Puerto San José'....... another port to pick up more containers ! Waiting, waiting, waiting..........

19-9-2014: And there it is, on dutch soil, finally. Now just a few more days before it gets here. Pictures will follow a.s.a.p.

Test Drive another Fiat Ghia 1500 GT

Last week I was fortunate enough to meet up with another Fiat 1500 Ghia-Owner in the Netherlands.

So for the very first time ever, I saw the Ghia in real life. And what a pretty car she is !!

The owner was even kind enough to let me drive his car for a while and I'm super-thrilled about it. Having a similar car, pretty close, could come in handy during my restoration and I'm very happy the owner agreed to have me sneak in once in a while.

(Thanks a lot, Gé)

Which part from which car?

Ghia built this beautiful sportscar on a modified 'Fiat 1500 Berlina' chassis. The engine was moved to the back (40 cm) and therefore the drivetrain was shortened. This resulted in a more or less 50/50 weight distribution on front and rear axles.

Of course the body was handmade by Ghia-workers. Most of the bolt-on parts however come from other cars, mostly the Fiat 1500 Berlina of course.

 

I will try to make a list of 'which part from which car' in this post and continuously update it. If anyone has any information on this,  please comment. (Also, if I write faulty information, please comment. In the end, I'm only human.......)

 

Sill chrome side strips - Fiat 1500 Spider
Door handles /chrome bars inside - Fiat Dino?
Head light rings - Fiat 1500 Ghia specific
Rear lights -
Front lights - Fiat 1500 (I assume)

The Purchase

After restoring a few more 'obvious' oldtimers, I am confident taking on a new, real challenge. For this, I purchased a Fiat 1500 Ghia GT. I fell in love with this car, while roaming the internet for a restorable Italian sportscar.

I purchased this car from Beverly Hills Car Club, and now I'm patiently waiting for it to arrive in the Rotterdam Port. Estimated arrival is sep 19th, 2014. Can't wait!

In the meantime I'm already looking for the parts I will need anyway. I already purchased a fuel tank and a trunk lid, because my trunk lid looks terrible in the pictures......
The fuel tank is 'new old stock' and the trunklid, I bought in Germany. Only two trunklids on sale on Ebay-worldwide and one of them is for sale 40 km from my house. What are the odds??

Having said the original trunklid looks terrible.....So does the rest of the car bytheway. :-)

Somehow I still feel optimistic......

The reason I bought this one, is that it looks pretty much complete in the pictures. Parts may be bad, but at least they are present. I feel this is better than scorching for parts all over the world.