A few years ago, on a Sunday, when we were getting ready for church, Joe said, "I have some bad news. I accidentally bought a car on eBay last night." Let's note that he has successfully bought a car on eBay several times so he knows how to use eBay. Nevertheless, he won the bid for a yellow Karmann Ghia. We brought it to the ranch, and after several discussions, Ellie decided that it would be her car and she would help Joe to restore it. They had over a year before Ellie would turn 16, so they felt like they had plenty of time. Since there were some ongoing problems with Adam's Mustang, they decided to do the restoration the right way on this car, and strip it down to the basics, get it repainted, add a new wiring harness, a new header and new upholstery. They worked really really hard. And they were both super busy so they had a hard time finding time to do it together. Finally, many months after she turned 16, it was ready to go.
The car when it first arrived at the ranch.
The car after its paint job.
Installing the wiring.
Installing the header.
Working on the engine.
Its finally ready!!
It was a fun car. Everyone noticed Ellie when she was driving, and she liked having people know it was her. As with all classic cars, there were constant problems. Something would cause the car to die randomly and then a new fuse would have to be put in, or it wouldn't run. The wipers worked, but if it was a huge downpour, it was hard to see out the windows. There were several nights really late when Ellie was coming home close to curfew time when she would call us because the car was broken or she didn't think she would be able to safely drive it home. We ultimately decided that it wasn't a good idea to have our teenage driver out on the road in an unreliable car, especially late at night, and we got her another car. She did have a great experience with Joe restoring the car and learning how engines work!
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