I have been building my Type 34 Karmann Ghia for the past 12 or 13 years (it's been so long I've forgotten when I actually bought it).

So far the restoration has been documented on my personal website www.t-34.co.uk or over at the Type 34 Registry (ww.type34.org) where I help manage the site.

The current status is that the engine and gearbox are built and ready to fit, the car has been repainted, the suspension and brakes have mostly been finished and the interior is currently at the trim shop being recovered.

The only major works left to do are to get the engine and box back in the car, which requires finishing off the rear suspension and plumb the engine in

The engine is based around a Type 4 Unit and runs at 2.7 litres on a set of LN Engineering nickies. This is fueled by a turbo / EFI setup runnning from a DTA EFI unit. The engine drives a Porsche 915 5-Speed through a 944 rear suspension setup and has 996 / 944 turbo brakes all round.

Well I managed to find someone to supply the Porsche parts that I need, so far I've picked up the wheels from him (a set of 16" Fuchs with a space saver spare), and hopefully this week I should be able to pick up the suspension and brake parts. The swing-axle rear end has been removed, and sold. The IRS axle has been trial fitted to allow me to measure for the positions of the engine and gearbox mounts, but I think I'll wait until the 944 'A' arms have been fitted before I get the welder out.

I managed to source a pair of headlights with trim rings and bowls, they're not original parts, but the difference is only slight, the complete cost was only £30. The headlights are exactly the same as the ones I fitted to Karens Ghia after it was imported, those cost £80 for the lights alone.

I've also bought myself a larger compressor so that I can blast and paint the underneath of the pan, there's a lot of prep work to be done under there, taking off all of the old paint, and blasting all of the surface rust away.

Once the rear end is sorted out, and the suspension is in place with the engine and gearbox mounts welded up I think I'll turn my attention to the roof. There's a lot of prep work to be done carefully removing the roof skin from the roof frame. I have already trial fitted a sunroof motor that I bought from the scrap yard, but the motor seemed to run too fast, it was way too awkward without the roof on the car, so it may be best to sort this out after the roof is fitted. I'm going to try to get as much prep work done as possible before the car is sent off to the boys at Paintbox as this will make their life easier, and possibly be a bit easier on the pocket as well.