Air-Cooled GB: '66 Beetle

I figured I would start on this right away since it's probably going to take me a while to finish it. I'm starting with the Tamiya 1966 Beetle 1300.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1984/box1ei5.jpg

From there I might go a couple different routes. Right now it is set up for a out-of-box build. However, i am either going to rat it out or swap in a 930 Turbo motor. Luckily that motor is also air cooled and no-one said that the motor had to be factory. :grinyes: So right now I'm building it as if it were OOB but am not going to make any chassis/suspension assembly until I make a decision on how to build it. Luckily my roommate owned a 50's oval window Beetle with a Porsche 1800 motor swapped in so he will be able to help out on a lot of decisions and potential problems.

Now enough with all the text, it's probably boring you anyways and I could be saying pretty much anything and you wouldn't know cause you are just looking at the pretty pictures. Aren't you? Yeah you are, cause I do it too.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4889/sprue1xh3.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/439/sprue2vi9.jpg
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8321/sprue3ne3.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5198/parts1dg7.jpg
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4493/parts2zf3.jpg
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/821/parts3fr8.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/4173/parts4ce2.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5840/engine1ze5.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/3441/engine2yy5.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5458/driveaxle1jr4.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5043/airbox1xi0.jpg

The transmission, air boxes, and axles was painted with a mixture that was something like 12 parts Chrome Silver and 2 parts Black. It gives it a really nice used, old look to it. Once the engine is put together I will weather it a little bit to make it look more rustic, maybe some "rust" too.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3976/body1mt9.jpg

Haven't decided on a color for the body either. Once again it depends on how I'm going to build it up.

Some more engine work done.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/2600/parts5iy9.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4599/engine5xv3.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7894/engine3bv5.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/236/engine4hh9.jpg

nice work on the engine bits - are you brush painting?

Yeah. I don't have all of my paints here so I hand brush most of the stuff. Tamiya paints seem to thin out as they dry giving a fairly consistent finish. As for the silvers, they are a little dried out.

nice start.
I 'm gonna see if hobbylobby has this kit on my way home. like i really need another kit. lol

Cool, I hadn't seen that anyone had already started on the group build!

Nice work on the engine- if that's hand-painted metallic, I'm amazed! This really is a great kit, and the engine is terrific. Classic old style Tamiya, on a classic car.

Ferrari TR, if you haven't picked this kit up you must. Al the Tamiya kits I've had are really nice, but this raises their bar even higher. I never expected this much detail within this kit.

Thanks MPWR. That means a lot coming from you.

I'm going to lower it without a doubt, but I don't know how to do it with this kit since the suspension set up is really weird. If it was just shocks and springs I could do it, but it has these weird control arm/leaf spring things that I don't know how to describe. If anybody can give me any insight on how to lower it I would appreciate it very much.

Some more progress done to the engine.
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/524/engine6xq7.jpg
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5971/engine7sf0.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7089/engine8yv2.jpg
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9727/engine9dz2.jpg

Nice progress.
A 40% off coupon and a couple of nearby hobbylobby's can be hard on the old wallet. I picked up one, i just need to decide how to build it now...

A 40% off coupon and a couple of nearby hobbylobby's can be hard on the old wallet.

I can imagine. :lol:

I'm going to lower it without a doubt, but I don't know how to do it with this kit since the suspension set up is really weird. If anybody can give me any insight on how to lower it I would appreciate it very much.

It's certainly not the easiest kit to lower, but it does look possible. Unfortunately to lower the rear, you may need to undue some of what you've already done on the engine.

For the front, don't mess at all with the trailing arms (C10)- if you cut this part up, you're going to have serious strength issues with the front suspension. Instead, you can modify the uprights a bit (C42 and C45). Grind some height off of the top pivot points, and replace that amount by building it up with sheet styrene on the bottom pivots. A set of digital/dial calipers would help alot with this kind of modification, to make sure you've removed and rebuilt the same amount on each. It may not drop the front end much, but you should be able to get at least a scale inch, maybe two. Maybe more? -depends on your skill.

For the rear, obviously the trailing arms (C15 and C8) need to be sprung upwards. The problem is that the kit uses the drive shafts (C9) for structural support of the trailing arms. C9 already has a nice bend to it- if it were to be mounted in the transmission halves upside down (and C15 and C8 were to be mounted to it as such), it would probably drop the rear end a fair bit. The alignment lug on C9 would have to be removed. The points where C15 and C8 attach to C11 would have to be modified slightly to allow the arms to be mounted in a deflected position- and then these points should be solidly glued with epoxy or CA for strength. I'm not absolutely certain that there would be no fit conflict with other parts (that's for you to find out), but it looks like it should work. Also, 180deg reversed might not be the perfect position for C9, but a bit of test fitting should tell you what would work best.

Make sense?

Looking between what you wrote and the instructions it makes sense. I'm sure if I heated up C9 carefully I would be able to bend it as needed after I change the rear suspension. The flipping of C15 and C8 might work. Looking at the pieces however it seems that what would originally be the top mounting point of the shock would become the bottom. I foresee this being too low too the ground and causing problems. So I might have to adjust the shock angle or make some shorter shocks.

The front doesn't look too hard, just a lot of measuring, grinding, measuring, sanding, measuring, building up, measuring, drilling holes as needed, measuring, sanding, measuring, test fitting, measuring. Maybe a bit more measuring just in case. Thanks again MPWR.

Picked out the wheels I'm going to use for this kit. I don't know where they came from, but they look awesome under the car. Only problem is the bolt pattern and number of lug nuts.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8109/wheels1tx2.jpg

I've also ordered the Fujimi Porsche 911R 1967 model so I can take it's engine and maybe some suspension parts for this build.

One WIP to watch for me. Got the kit twice, one started by a friend (and partially f****d up) and a brand new one.

Keep it up

Got my 67 911R model in today, so it's time to get back to work on this thing.

Oh jolly can't wait :)

That little Volkswagon motor wasn't producing enough power for me, so I had to bump up to something a little more...aggressive. That's where the 911R motor engine come into play. The rear suspension has also been taken from the 911R as will the front set-up. The rear seat is still functional and the transmission case fits fine.

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/6401/15200973na9.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4025/55739668ko1.jpg

What I had to do in order to fit the engine into the car was remove the stock rear suspension. I also had to cut off the rear support bar where the seat bottom would attach. I will rig up something so that it isn't just floating there.

In order for the rear suspension from the Porsche to be attached, I had to fab up some mounting brackets. I took the idea from Rockabilly's set-up to make mine. I added in a bit more styrene for support and to hold the bar in place correctly. These are still currently drying, but are about ready to be shaped and redrilled so the suspension can be mounted to the car.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9642/96647672vm8.jpg

With the rear suspension mocked up, I did a little fitting of the engine, rear seat and the body. I came to find that the engine will sit in the just fine and that the rear hatch will actually close fully now. Which doesn't usually happen with a swap like this. So from the exterior, it will just look like a Beetle with nothing special done except for lowering it. The velocity stacks will also fit onto the carburetors without a problem.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5457/58309523bc6.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5087/28231731lf7.jpg
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4994/86371486ta8.jpg
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3356/29784781sb3.jpg
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/5020/87664720gq4.jpg

As for the paint job, I've decided the basics of how it is going to be. I will start off with a Tamiya's Gray Primer. After that I will lay down Tamiya Matt Black. At this point, you're thinking, "Alright, a rat rod, cool." Which is precisely what is going to happen. HOWEVER, it doesn't stop with the matt black. After that, I will paint it with Tamiya's Dull Red. Again, you're probably thinking, "Sweet, that is going to look awesome!" BUT, it's not done yet. After that, it's going to be sanded down in spots, through the red and into the black, maybe even the gray. There is a possibility of some of the parts being different colors as if they were pulled from a different car. All the exterior chrome pieces will be faded, dull, and maybe dented. The wheels are going to be the Porsche wheels from the 911R, but they also will be ratted out. The polish will be faded, parts will be rusting and they will be really dirty.

As for the interior, well that's going to be pretty nice. Going to swap in the Porsche front seats, one of the four steering wheels that was included in the kit, and other bits and pieces. I will also need to fab up a roll cage due to all of the power that this little beast is going to be putting down.

Very nice!

Seems to fit good :)
Good idea as well! :D

Great swap, so far...
kutgw!

Cool! I've always wanted to do one of these myself but never got around to building one!

Scott

Filled in the door handle holes and laid down some primer. Took these pictures with my new super wide angle lens, so that's why the body looks distorted.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/4717/98842040ci4.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7954/63384293qm9.jpg

Laid down some Matt Black today.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/827/55113221eo4.jpg
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8859/21402384bg1.jpg

Awesome start!

I love the 911R engine on an old school Beetle.

Your description of the planned exterior color reminds me of rats in my hometown in Asia. They are as big as cats and have patchy spots because of God knows what :D:D:D:D:D

I am tuned to this one.

i like where this is going...nice job...what are you planning on using for the orange peel its getting...i don't know if i like scratch x or 3m rubbing compound more.

Wow, Necrothread. ^^^ Newb bump ftw though. Did this ever get finished? There's nothing in the completed thread.

For the wheel/lugnut issue...just claim that you swapped out the ball-joint front end from a 68+, and did a serious swap to go to the IRS rear tranny from a '69+.

Then they'd be 4-lug, small circle ;-)

-Dave