SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 9:30 a.m.
Ok, so I'm pretty sure this image is AI, but I still like it
The front end is obviously Karmann Ghia, but I can't think of anything that could create that back end. The shape of the roof, the shape of the glass, the size and shape of the B pillar.
Full custom? Impossible?
I'm not convinced it could be built. There is something about the curve of the roof and the intersection of the B pillar.
Could it be built? How would you do it?
j_tso
Dork
8/8/24 9:40 a.m.
I don't how affordable, but I think someone with sheet metal skills can make that. Finding the glass may be the hard part, or just make it to a glass shape available.
Kind of like how Zagato or Touring made shooting brakes for high end car makers.
That looks like an enormous amount of custom body work and glass. So...
Might have started with an air-cooled VW Wagon.
I might be crazy, but the rear kinda looks MGish to me
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 9:49 a.m.
In reply to Toyman! :
Wagons are much more square, and the C pillars are much larger
The rear glass looks sort of 49 Mercury to me.
SV reX said:
In reply to Toyman! :
Wagons are much more square, and the B pillars are much larger
I was thinking of the front more than the rear. The rear looks completely custom. The front is reminiscent of a Type 3.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 9:53 a.m.
In reply to Toyman! :
Huh. I'm seeing Ghia.
This is a '65:
I would ask AI how to build it.
Trent
UltimaDork
8/8/24 10:13 a.m.
To me it looks kind of like they grafted a mini with the seams shaved onto a ghia
Were I to pick nits.
I don't care for the "wobble" where the two disparate roof lines meet. But to fix that would require reshaping both the door glass and ghia quarter windows to square them off.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 10:18 a.m.
In reply to Trent :
I agree about the "wobble"
Mr_Asa
MegaDork
8/8/24 10:23 a.m.
I dont like how AI is going.
Lugnuts, no reflection, flag, etc
https://www.facebook.com/reel/333469346106709/
Mndsm
MegaDork
8/8/24 10:27 a.m.
Front is a Ghia. Obv.
rear immediately calls AC cobra with different tails
greenhouse calls last gen ford taurus wagon with a chrome trim ring.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 10:29 a.m.
In reply to Mndsm :
Interesting. If only there was a Cobra shooting brake...
Could that rear glass be another Ghia windshield? Maybe graft two roof and windshield sections together to for the wagon roof and then figure out the sides.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 10:57 a.m.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Interesting...
Pretty sure the rear glass look could be achieved with... Karman Ghia rear glass.
The side windows could likely be just custom shapped flat glass which is not particularly $$.
The I would probably build a structure and make that fiberglass but someone could form it.
I would do something different with the rear side windows. Try to maintain the shape of the OEM C pillar a little more with the front of the side window and maybe make the front upper corner a little sharper like the bottom rear of the OEM side glass.
Then functionally grafting in the back insides of a Type 3 Square back wagon would take care of your engine/trans covers and get you a real rear seat.
It doesn't flow as well as it could at the rear of the doors.
In real life, the trick would be to find the car with the front you like, and a wagon in similar proportions with a rear you like, then weld them together.
It's really hard to match the flow front to rear. The holes for the glass won't be symmetrical in most cases, and that ruins it for me. The Taurus wagon pictured doesn't even get it right, to my eye.
I agree it looks like a windshield in back and flat glass on the sides. Looks slightly weird but cool.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 12:37 p.m.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Right, but I don't think there was a wagon with similar dimensions to the Ghia. The Ghia is a very small 2 seater sports car with a very round roof (like an Audi TT).
Matching a long roofline to that curve is not easy in the real world.
SV reX
MegaDork
8/8/24 12:43 p.m.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
I agree. It's definitely flirting with the line between weird and cool
Thats why I like it. 🤪
As others have said, it won't be cheap or easy, but with some seriously deep pockets, it absolutely could be built. There's no new technology needing to be discovered, or anything. If Jeff Bezos wanted it done for a gf's 21st birthday or whatever, some craftsmen in the world would step up and say "yeah, we can do the bodywork and we have a source for custom glass work" etc. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That's how I'd do it. Step 1: become a hundred billionaire.
I think the outside would be a lot easier to make right than the inside. Not that either one would be easy.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
Could that rear glass be another Ghia windshield? Maybe graft two roof and windshield sections together to for the wagon roof and then figure out the sides.
I agree with Woody, that it looks like they used another Ghia windshield for the rear window.
Someone need to go old school and print out the image, then you can cut it out and fold over to see if the front and rear pillars really mirror each other.