WIP: 1966 VW Rat Rod

Stumbled across this kit at my LHS yesterday,the box was broken and the instructions were missing but for the price i couldnt pass it up!! Ive been wanting to do a Beetle Rat for a while now and this seemed the perfect time to have a go at one...

this is the body before:
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/origBUG.jpg

after removing the front guards for the exposed wheel "rod look" i desided to chop the roof, but with this... my small project turned into a much bigger deal...
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/choppedBUG.jpg

with the roof chopped, the pillers removed and my the first wave of putty i thought the car looked a lil long..
so i needed to shorten the body..

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/shortyBUG.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/shortBUG.jpg

this was extreamly tricky to hold together as u can probably tell by the mounds of tape.. ive sealed and filled the inside joins and when shes all dry and solid ill remove the tape and seal the outside..

ill get some pics up when ive got it to primer..

feed back and ideas welcome... :icon16:

I am lovin it man. Great job. I've alwaysed love the rat rod look on these old bugs. Great job..............*Ryan*

Looks to be a cool project!! Keep us posted on the progress!!! Welcome to A/F!!

Looks like a good start...
I'm not too sure about 'shorter' but I like it so far.

here's a beetle I built years ago...may give you some ideas...

http://tinypic.com/fka1qo.jpg

http://tinypic.com/fka1w7.jpg

http://tinypic.com/fka1y8.jpg

thanks for the comments guys.. its turning into a bit of a challenge getting the body right but i guess thats all part of the fun!!

Ferrari TR-- yeah iwasnt too excited about shortening the body at first but it definatley looks better now.. and with the shorter body the suicide front end will look better..

time to start on the chasis..

Awsome VW stuff dude!!! Great work so far! Keep it up!

well i started to sand back all the joints today but the light blue body is making it hard to see much detail, i decided to primer it and its brought out alot of imperfections i didnt notice before hand.. the body is still VERY ruff but with it primered i just couldnt resist mocking up the wheels..

so heres the pics...

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/primerVW.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/resizeprimer1.jpg

well im off to spend my friday sanding, sanding and well i think i might have a crack at sanding.. thanks again for checkin out my rat..

miller

This is a cool project!
As a matter of fact I´ve been meaning to build one myself:D
Maybe this will inspire me to start working on mine..

I think shortening the body is a nice trick but I would lose the rear fenders too..

Looks very good so far :thumbsup:
Will keep an eye on this thread :)

Wowww.. are looking very good!!

Looks to be coming along nicely!! Keep up the great work!!!

well after a busy weekend ive come along way on this thing.. the body is still causing me grief with the joins not coming out as clean as i would like.. but its a rat so i guess i can sorta get away with it..

ive got a couple of finishes to do but other than that its nearly done.
you can see in these pics a hint the scratch built chassis in the front wheel well. Ive mounted the headlights off the front, doorhandles, wipers, mirrors and rear bumper.

anyway here she is... i should have this finished soon (im itching to start my retro-rat, but more on that later) :smokin:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/paintRESIZEa.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/paintRESIZE.

thats crazy..so crazy it just might work!....lol very nice work man.."Rusty"

Looks awsome man! I love me some VeeDub!! I would have kept the b pillars tho. I still love it!!! Keep up the great work!

cool job, miller. pretty neat little bug. btw i love that rod in your signature too

Ok well VWRACERSAM has inspired me to finally finish this project. Its been sitting around collecting dust for ages now..

So heres the finished pics.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/vwratresize.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/othymiller/vwratresize2.jpg

thanks miller :thumbsup:

Thats really cool love the attitude.And I'm glad I could help inspire you to finish.

Cool! I love these bugs done up w/o the fenders.
Nathan

nice..i really like what you did. i hope i can finished my chopped vw.
here's a pic. it's been like that for almost a year now.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/dyowelb/DSCF0038.jpg