wisdonm

I use this stuff . Like he says it's more realistic than Radio Shack wire and it comes in black.

EH225M, is your's made by Jada or Polar Lights? I'm guessing Polar Lights, which would be this cartoon model. MrO, sorry, I didn't know about the E button.

What was I going to use for lighting? I had purchased some LED X-mas replacement lights last x-mas season, but hadn't looked at them since. That was the first time that I saw replacement Xmas LED bulbs for sale. I found them at Menards, a home improvement center owned by NASCAR driver Paul Menard's billionaire father. They come in 3-packs. All white, all red, all blue, and a green/orange/and yellow combo. They are about 5mm across. Best of all they are only $1.19 per 3-pack. They are rated 2V for red and 3.4 V for white. All the colors say "0.02 amps max". If you are interested in using these lights for a project, I would suggest buying them this week. Menards, and I would assume others, do not stock x-mas lights all year long. So I hauled out my bag of lights and 30 gauge wrapping wire (spark plug wire) and a 9 volt battery. LEDs need a minimum voltage to work, however too much and they will blow without using a resistor. I lucked out. I added up the voltages of the lights I wanted to use and found out I didn't need a resistor at all. 1 red bulb @ 2volts + 1 blue bulb @ 3.4 volts + 1 white bulb @ 3.4 volts = 8.8 total volts. The bulbs do have a resistor already mounted to them. I just ignored them. LEDs are uni-directional. Electricity will only flow through them in one direction. I just made sure that they were mounted in series. Therefore the wire connected to the resistor on one light, goes to the wire without the resistor on the next light. If the lights do not work when you connect them to the battery, reverse the wires at the battery. If an individual light doesn't work, reverse the wires to that light. This is fun. Just out of curiosity I tried three 3.4 bulbs = 10.2 volts. It shouldn't have worked. But it did. That's good. I can use that.

You need to study Mr. Lombardo's fabulous original scratch builds.

Several members recently asked me to post this project. I bought this kit several years ago because it was a clearance sale and very inexpensive. I probably thought I would give it away. I don't really like the Mach 5, however this one does not seem correct (turns out it is the movie version) and therefore is much more appealing. For one thing, it does not have those weird Lamborghini style wheel openings. Yes it started out as a snap kit, but I took all the snap out of it by drilling all mounting points. These points are originally hexagonal in shape so that there is an interference fit to hold the model together. I manually drilled them out so that I can take it apart in order to fit the electrical system. Once drilled I had to taper a few mounting posts for a true and complete fit. There would have been some body panel gaps if I had left it a snap kit. I removed the over-sized rear view mirrors. I will not be installing the rear fins, so I used two-part Bondo to fill in the various holes.

I'll be watching this. I bought a spare 599, just in case I could work up the nerve to do this conversion. Good luck my friend. Looks good so far.

I'm loving the chop and the exhaust outlet.

PE. Either drawn free hand or photographs. Here's one way. There are easier ways. Contact me if you're really interested.

No. That's a Mopar slant 6 tower of power. You did a good job Lizzard. Love to see the uncommon.

What kit is it?

Das Bug features a flipped front axle, 4" chop, and a custom exhaust. Painted in Hot Rod black and red primer. You can see the WIP here.

I think she's finished. Presenting Das Bug.

I don't use an ir brush, so I can't comment on that. Most tints pull away fron the edges of windows. The dipped parts did not show this as much as the brushed windshield. I can assure it's not bank dye.

With the chassis done, I moved on to the windows. I thought, because of the top chop, that I would have to make all new windows. Boy was I wrong! Since the roof is 100% stock, I knew that the original back window would work. Imagine my surprise, in spite of the four inch chop, when the side windows fit also. The only kit window that had to be modified was the front windshield. It needed about 3/16" trimmed from the bottom. I also cut and removed the front half of the left side windows so that it will look like the driver's window is rolled down. I wanted to do a dark tint to the windows. I have heard about all kinds of horror stories about what doesn't work. I remember seeing black food coloring in the wedding section of Walmart's craft department. It cost $1.50, so I figured I'd try it. It is thicker than acrylic paints. I emptied the contents of the one ounce Wilton black icing color into a plastic dixi cup and filled the rest with Future floor polish. I stirred this witch's brew until it was not lumpy anymore. Be very careful. This stuff stains. Look at the pix of my hand if you don't believe me. (Yes. I am wearing Nomex.That's another story. I wanted a lighter tint for the windshield, so I only painted the inside. The side and rear glass gets the Limo tint, by dipping the whole part and getting dye on both sides. Check out the piece held by the tweezers. I had inserted it in the dye at an angle. The light color is where only one side is tinted. The dark section has dye on both sides. After dipping, I placed the parts on Popsicle sticks. This gives the parts a place to dry that will wick away excess dye, but not pick up lint from paper or cloth. You can see, the windshield is mildly tinted, the driver's window is open, and the rest are limo like. I put the left over dye in a sealed glass jar for another day.

I think the rolling chassis is finished. This kit is unusual in that only the seats, shift lever, pedals, and hand brake are the only interior parts attached to the chassis. All the other interior parts are attached to the body shell. The front seats have been lowered 4 inches. Handling is improved by lowering the center of gravity of 200-400 pounds. I sit as low as possible in all of my race and street cars, for this reason. The shift lever has been raised, but it still has a short shift kit.

Thanks RW/S. I don't think anyone else is watching. I made an exhaust system today. It has four 50" equal length header pipes caped with four motorcycle mufflers. Let's just say the sound is sure intensive.

I use gift cards. Stores and even McDonalds give them to you for free. Some of the hanging ones, like i tunes, are almost twice the size of others.

I was very impressed with this car and wanted one. I did not know you had offered them for sale. If someone backs out, I would love to buy one.

Yes, this is on my bucket list.

I can't decide whether to remove the chrome side molding or not. I will remove the molding on the nose, but not sure about the sides? I have worked on the dash. I added a turn signal lever, multi-guage, and a column mounted tach. I clipped the steering wheel because I could. The speedometer is a kit decal. The other two are just printed on plain paper and glued in place with white glue. The dash gauges have benzels made from thin slices of aluminum tube. They are held in place and filled with white glue for lenses. The tach is a tapered end piece of chrome sprue. Once again a gauge face, printed on plain paper, was glued on and then covered with white glue, to simulate a lens.

If you are working with LEDs you should use a 4060 chip. They cost less than 30 cents.

Here are the first pixs of the body in primer. Needs more sanding and some panel lines scribed.. The front wheel opening covers were harder to make than in 1:1. I first glued the 0.015" sheet covers with liquid glue, then reinforced the inner joint with plumbers epoxy putty.

Great details, but I really love that body. If your ever making copies, let me know.

I am going to turn around the front axle so that it has leading, instead of trailing, arms. This stretches the wheelbase about 14", and just looks cool. I have done this three times in 1:1, and it was easier and took less time than in 1:25. On the left side of the front suspension you will see someone's cruel joke of a suspension. Square shocks??? On the right side you can see the modified top shock mount, scratched the missing bottom shock mount, and a scratched round shock absorber. At the cut line you can see that I added a piece of styrene to both replace the material that was lost from sawing and to slightly widen the front track.

Zukiholic, no OT. Yes it's the one in my gallery, Terror. I think it's written somewhere, that all custom Beetles must have a top chop. Cool. Except that a Beetle is one of the hardest chops to do. You have to add sections to the top both horizontally and laterally. This gives the top an ungainly look. It usually looks too wide and too long. I tried a different way. It can only be done on fender-less cars. I wanted a four inch chop. So I got out my 1/8" blue tape. If you cut on the outside of the tape, it is pretty close to a four inch chop. Since the tape doesn't stick too well to the many contours, I give it a light coat of paint. Then I remove the tape and cut at the paint lines, which don't slip or fall off. I removed four inches from the windshield and door pillars. I also cut on a line from the bottom edge of the rear window to a tangent of the rear fender opening. To make this work, I also had to do a cut in the lower corner of the front windshield pillars so that the windshield pillars could be bent inward. This way no material is added to the roof. The door pillars are also bent inward to meet the top. This gives you a four inch chop and a totally stock roof. The whole roof is moved forward three inches. All of it is behind the rear seats and is not noticeable. As long as the car is fender-less. Although the wheelbase stays the same, the car is three inches shorter. All of it is taken from the very rearmost of the engine compartment sheet metal.