Waspie
SMF Supporter
I was looking at the new beetle yesterday and nope, hasn’t the same appeal. Something about the classic Beetle.
Dougs VW Beetle
- Thread starter Waspie
- Start date
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Some progress made today, second coat of primer on main body parts. Front suspension fitted.
Messed about with the tyres, some sanding to roughen up the sidewalls, also scrubbed the tread a wee bit. As it's a road car I only made the side walls look worn, a bit of kerb bumping!!!! (Not that I would now - alloys don't take it like steel wheels did!!). Didn't touch the spare, it's a new tyre innit!!! With that in mind I did have a go at putting a thin blue line around the circumference of the spare. Not very well, but nothing I can do about that now!!
Also did some assembly of the rear seat, gear lever, that's gear shift for the crew across the pond!! Pedals and handbrake!!
Then!! I added more rust effect to the front suspension, floor pan and wheels. That was about as far as I could before SWMBO brought out a cooling drink. (Alcoholic fluids stopped play!!)
Now for the death by piccy bit!!
Primed body shell and back seat plus floor pan and front suspension, rust applied!
Diferent angle and spare wheel with blue ring!!
Floor pan inside.
Front end shot!
Messed about with the tyres, some sanding to roughen up the sidewalls, also scrubbed the tread a wee bit. As it's a road car I only made the side walls look worn, a bit of kerb bumping!!!! (Not that I would now - alloys don't take it like steel wheels did!!). Didn't touch the spare, it's a new tyre innit!!! With that in mind I did have a go at putting a thin blue line around the circumference of the spare. Not very well, but nothing I can do about that now!!
Also did some assembly of the rear seat, gear lever, that's gear shift for the crew across the pond!! Pedals and handbrake!!
Then!! I added more rust effect to the front suspension, floor pan and wheels. That was about as far as I could before SWMBO brought out a cooling drink. (Alcoholic fluids stopped play!!)
Now for the death by piccy bit!!
Primed body shell and back seat plus floor pan and front suspension, rust applied!
Diferent angle and spare wheel with blue ring!!
Floor pan inside.
Front end shot!
Nah Doug!!! No death by piccies here, I'm afraid. It's good to see you are driving on with the bug and it is looking mighty fine. Have you found anything to use for the spark plug wires yet? Poor motor does look a bit nekkid Sir!!! Hope you are enjoying yourself between all the other distractions...
Prost
Allen
Prost
Allen
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Nope, not yet Allen but I have had an idea. I have a few telephone components I spied when I was rooting through the loft today. I know some of the wires in telephone wires are mighty small so will be looking at them.
Have a few busy days ahead of me so will throw myself at it when the works done. Problem I have is I'm not enjoying this kit as much as I thought I would, difficult pushing through the lack of interest.
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Bad weather has had a consolation. Couldn't do a few of my jobs around the home so:
Yeaterday
Grabbed the opportunity to lay a couple of coats of colour to the Beetle. Not a lot else really, a few pics. Which it was intended to post them. But as we now know we suffered some down time on the site.
Pics after second coat applied.
Today, Wednesday.
Again thanks to the weather, managed another coat, (No 3), on the body shell and associated orangy bits.
A few questions.
1. How do you guys deal with blemishes on the paintwork?
2. How many top coats would you guys recommend?
3. Is varnish applied the same as I did with my Challenger. IE, a matt varnish, then weather followed by a gloss varnish?
Any help or comments good/bad gratefully received.
Yeaterday
Grabbed the opportunity to lay a couple of coats of colour to the Beetle. Not a lot else really, a few pics. Which it was intended to post them. But as we now know we suffered some down time on the site.
Pics after second coat applied.
Today, Wednesday.
Again thanks to the weather, managed another coat, (No 3), on the body shell and associated orangy bits.
A few questions.
1. How do you guys deal with blemishes on the paintwork?
2. How many top coats would you guys recommend?
3. Is varnish applied the same as I did with my Challenger. IE, a matt varnish, then weather followed by a gloss varnish?
Any help or comments good/bad gratefully received.
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Not posted for a while. Life is difficult at the moment. Hallway floor being replaced and living in a single story building with every room running off it. Also the fitters asking for the 'only' loo and wash basin be removed!! It's made life different!!
Workplace has become a storage room for everything!!
However, today I did manage to grab an hour and decided to mess up my Beetle!! fitted the rear seats to the chassis and discovered places that needed paint so that was done. Then I got to grips with making a mess of the back seat and dirtying the front seats!!
Back seat prior to attaching to chassis!! Wee bit more weathering needed!
Back seats attached and front seats dry fitted to amuse me!!!
That's it for a while, now the floor fitter has finished - my work now begins, cupboards to paint as well as all the skirting!! Doors to adjust to make for a nice fit!! So any ideas I may have had to get back in my work place has dissolved!!!!!
Workplace has become a storage room for everything!!
However, today I did manage to grab an hour and decided to mess up my Beetle!! fitted the rear seats to the chassis and discovered places that needed paint so that was done. Then I got to grips with making a mess of the back seat and dirtying the front seats!!
Back seat prior to attaching to chassis!! Wee bit more weathering needed!
Back seats attached and front seats dry fitted to amuse me!!!
That's it for a while, now the floor fitter has finished - my work now begins, cupboards to paint as well as all the skirting!! Doors to adjust to make for a nice fit!! So any ideas I may have had to get back in my work place has dissolved!!!!!
Waspie
SMF Supporter
After a long break for one reason or another I actually picked it, (the Beetle), up today. Only 30 minutes but it's a start/re-start!!
Methinks maybe the arrival of my replacement airbrush may be the trigger!!
No pics, unfortunately.
I've given the tyres/tires a bit of a rub down and scrubbed in!! Then fitted the wheels to the hubs and ended by fitting the tyres to the wheels!!
Did a bit of masking to try and get some spraying done sometime before I can fit the body to the chassis.
Question?
I want to re-coat the body shell what do you guys recommend? A wash in a mild detergent solution then a rinse off. Or give it a wipe with IPA or something?
It has sat for a couple of months and whilst it has been covered the garage isn't the cleanest of areas due to it being a garage.
Methinks maybe the arrival of my replacement airbrush may be the trigger!!
No pics, unfortunately.
I've given the tyres/tires a bit of a rub down and scrubbed in!! Then fitted the wheels to the hubs and ended by fitting the tyres to the wheels!!
Did a bit of masking to try and get some spraying done sometime before I can fit the body to the chassis.
Question?
I want to re-coat the body shell what do you guys recommend? A wash in a mild detergent solution then a rinse off. Or give it a wipe with IPA or something?
It has sat for a couple of months and whilst it has been covered the garage isn't the cleanest of areas due to it being a garage.
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Methinks the Beetle isn't destined to be a completed kit. I'm thinking test bed for anything right now.
The morning started off well. I removed the front axle assembly to allow access to spray some body colour on the front of the chassis.
That came off easy enough, masked the area to be sprayed, no issues. I even managed a prime and top coat. Hurrah!!!!
Pic of the masked off section.
Then it all went wrong!!! ( Link ). Painted the body shell and disaster!! So unless I can recover the {expletive} mess - then it's destined for a messy future!!
It'll be useful to have a test kit to experiment with!!!
And then - just when I thought it couldn't get worse!! I snapped the gear lever/shift!!
Head droops!!
The morning started off well. I removed the front axle assembly to allow access to spray some body colour on the front of the chassis.
That came off easy enough, masked the area to be sprayed, no issues. I even managed a prime and top coat. Hurrah!!!!
Pic of the masked off section.
Then it all went wrong!!! ( Link ). Painted the body shell and disaster!! So unless I can recover the {expletive} mess - then it's destined for a messy future!!
It'll be useful to have a test kit to experiment with!!!
And then - just when I thought it couldn't get worse!! I snapped the gear lever/shift!!
Head droops!!
Drill a hole in the bottom of the gear knob and add a bit of stretched sprue or wire. Gear shifter fixed.
The paint problem..... Depends how bad it is:
Just a bit; sand it back with wet and dry, rinse and repeat. Respray
Real bad; strip it back and respray.
Beyond all hope... Rust and grime. ?
The paint problem..... Depends how bad it is:
Just a bit; sand it back with wet and dry, rinse and repeat. Respray
Real bad; strip it back and respray.
Beyond all hope... Rust and grime. ?
Great to see this back on the bench Doug!!! Don't give up hope as Ian has given you some great tips to keep on going with it. Take your time (if you get any) and enjoy that new hissy stick Buddy!!!...
Prost
Allen
Prost
Allen
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Thanks for that Allen.
Grabbed a bit of time this morning luckily!!
I went for the Meths treatment initially and found I didn't need anything else. Pics below tell all.
Pic 1. 30 seconds into a Meth Dip!!! Results are positive already.
Brought memories of stripping a Wasp helicopter of all of its paint prior to a full respray!!! Messy and very 'high'. Although not 'high' this time!!
Pic 2
This was where I was at after about 5 minutes of gentle application with a 1" paint brush. (Old toothbrush waiting in the wings).
When all the paint/undercoat appeared to be removed, I washed - rinsed, washed and rinsed again.
Back into a fresh solution to remove and residual paint still lurking in corners.
Resulting in a another wash and rinse session before emerging;
I'm happy with the end result. Now to allow to dry and I'm back to undercoat and topcoat again.
What a palaver!!!
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Thanks Rick, a couple of days ago I would have gladly allowed it to become a test piece for anything I wanted to practice. However, now it's come back from beyond the grave - it's back on the front burner again. All weather dependant now.Better than feeding it to the "Plastic Worms"!
And a big thanks to Ian, Mike, Tim, Andy T, Geoff, Steve & Pete for your input on my Mayday thread. Without your guidance and advice I dare say the Beetle would have ended up - well!! Not as Tamiya intended!!!!! Thank you all!
Happy that it worked out with the meths.
Going for the orange again. It looked good. What was it?
Going for the orange again. It looked good. What was it?
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Thank you Ian. Yes, I'm going for the same shade of orange. It's Vallejo Bright Orange (70.851). It's the closest I could eyeball that reflected my old Beetle 1/1. It's not the true VW orange but neither was my 1st Beetle. Which was not standard by any stretch of the imagination.
Jim R
SMF Supporter
Glad the paint strip worked. We've all been there, had a problem that needed sorting out. Solving difficulties is often a fun, and very satisfying, part of the hobby.
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Agree Jim, it was quite therapeutic removing the paint detritus and taking it back to bare plastic.
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Just reread the thread looking for something.I'll follow your build Doug. That Beetle was my first car or, to be more precise, I owned 50% of her, the other half was paid by Dad on behalf of my sister who was still at the University.
She was black and tried to take off at speeds exceeding 110 Kph (68 mph) which happened only on the Aosta - Torino motorway on the long long long downslope near Ivrea.... Driving on snow was real fun too!
I forgot to reply fully to your post in regard to the speed. You mention trying to take off at certain speeds. I added a front air dam and added 22kg of lead shot under the spare wheel. That kept the front end down and the air dam helped with stability at the higher speeds. Which I achieved when I installed engine 3, a 1600cc flat four from a donar Beetle I was given after a front end smash!! It was kept in the establishments car club. That was a beast of an engine. Only pain was having to change the clutch and bearings at each engine replacement. Still - fun car in its day. I don't think the new VW Beetle has half the following the older version had.