So what is my history with this Ghia? Well it is a pretty good story: we bought it back in 1998 while we were living down in Las Vegas. I was a stay at home dad at the time with two little kids, my daughter was in kindergarten and my son wasn't in school yet and I needed a car to run around town in.
Now I'm not really the Mr mom type but the reason that I was staying home with the kids was that due to us being Canadians and only my wife could get a visa to work and we really wanted to escape winter for a few years. The agency my wife went through to find work suggested Vegas as it met all of our criteria for a place to live: hot, close to a lake, easy to fly or drive to for family, even though we had no interest in the other things that it is known for.
Now the car that I had been running around with (a lovely Lincoln Town car) decided to die at the 7-11 two blocks from home so I needed something. The good news was we had just gotten a extended cab GMC which we could now use for pulling the boat and big enough to pick up people from the airport as everyone wants a free place to stay when they come to town.
This meant that we could get something a little more fun and I found the Ghia. I knew a little about air cooled VW's since my first car had been Beetle. When I saw it for sale I just had to have it and it wasn't too expensive. The older gentleman that I bought it from had used it as his car to tow behind his motor home
Now I didn't do much to the car at this point, just a little maintenance, put in seat belts in the back seat for the kids, remove the back windows in summer as having a car without air conditioning in Vegas can be a little warm. Good thing we liked the heat.
Now comes the adventure!
So after living in the States for a couple of years we decided we needed to move back to Canada: I needed to go back to work, my wife needed to spend more time with the kids and dealing with work visas and lousy jobs, it was just time to end this little adventure of ours.
So we load up the truck, pack up the kids and I head north up I-15 while my wife stays back for her last couple of weeks of work. Now at about 1:00 am somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Montana the alternator light on the truck comes on, OH CRAP ! I think I just passed a gas station and hotel a few miles back so I backtrack and get a room for the night. The next morning we get up and I give the alternator a wack and it starts charging again so I know that I bought myself some time to get somewhere where I can change it out. I get to Butte, Montana, get a new one and change it out in the parking lot of the Autovalue. After this all is good, and we make it to Saskatoon where I drop off the kids at the grandparents. I pick up the enclosed trailer that my father in law arranged for me to borrow. Now this trailer is a total POS but free is free right? The tires are totally shot, so it's off to the tire shop to get some used tires that will make the return trip. Well I make it back to somewhere in Montana again and I notice one of the wheel bearings is really bad. So what do I do? Well, l grab a piece of chain that I happen to have and I punch a couple of holes through the floor and chain up that corner and just let it run on three wheels, which works fine and i make it back to Vegas with no more issues.
Now I get home but my wife isn't there, which is a little strange, as she knew when I should be getting home. About a half hour she walks up (wearing only a sports bra for a top) with Mexican take out, but without the Ghia. So the clutch cable broke a mile away from home when she ran out to get us supper. OH E36 M3 something else to fix! We go get it and I manage to limp it home. Over supper she explains how she decided to quickly run out to get us supper, and decided a top over the sports bra wasn't necessary, as it was drive through. When she broke down at a light, she decided to "use what you've got", got out of the car and convinced 2 strangers to push the car into the nearest parking lot. (Yes she knows I'm including that part too)
So the next morning after i get some sleep after i don't know how many hours of driving a return trip to Canada and back I go to fix the car thinking its just going to be just replace a broken cable.
Ok course its more than that as the clutch cable pedal shaft is what is broke,as well as now i cannot get the cable out as it is wedged in the tunnel. So i take the pedal assembly to the local VW shop to get them to fix that and i get out a wholesaw and open up the side of the tunnel to get to the clutch cable. Now because of trying to pack up and having to fix up the car i sort of ignore the issue with the wheel bearing which i will find out wasn't my smartest move.
So we manage to get everything all packed up and we hit the road going north late in the afternoon thinking our Vegas adventure was done.
We were so wrong........
end of part one
