PatW

Thanks for the tip Bob. Here's today's efforts, firstly fit the body and ensure the new muffler is out of the way..... Fit the fuel tank and rear 'seats' (they don't look too comfortable)......

Just four more pics, I saw the kit muffler to be a bit small and weedy so I scratchbuilt an new road muffler from alloy and plastic tube and some heat bending................ Ans I fitted the seats and grey carpet (did it come with the kit?) and popped the body on to have a look............... See you soon...........

And three more front shots near the armco or not as the case maybe............... as you can see the front has already had a few scrapes! enjoy...................

Hi dingo5162, after building the Skoda it needs to be tested on a stage so here we are.................. and three more pics........................

TooOld, the distributor is from an ebay guy in the UK, but you should be able to get them easier in the USA, cause they come from Morgan Automotive Detail (madmodeling.com) Westland Michigan. They have all sizes all colours 4, 6 & 8 cylinder and lots more.

Three more pics. I've bought an aftermarket distributor so have wired that in and added the pulleys. the third pic shows the engine canted back so that you can see the colour of the fanshroud................... I've just put the exhaust pipework on so waiting for that to dry. Then I may look at scratchbuilding a muffler or may fit the kit supplied one.

Hi, up at the crack of dawn around 7.30am! Into the cabin and after a drip of thinners off drops the steering box. Re-site fixing correctly to the top beam and the steering arm like so........... If you see any other blindingly obvious mistakes please don't hesitate to tell me. I think the 1 or 2 grey cells I have left are on the blink!

Ah yes! I see what you mean. Your also right that the instructions are not the best either. Cheers Bob, I'll fix it first thing tomorrow. You would have thought I should know how the front end goes together as we had 5 beetles in the family, one of which we stripped right down and rebuilt it lowered, no chrome jet black with centrelines! I have changed enough of those steering shocks to know better!

I've mounted the front axle on the floorpan and put on the gear lever and handbrake, painted the same colour as the seats....... I'm now waiting for the wired distributor to arrive to finish the engine. I tried fitting Porsche 356 disks all round but they are too thick and shaving them down would take away a lot of detail.

Hello again, I've just given the seats another coat, ( I'll have to pick out the seat belts possibly in red)and test fitted the floorpan to the body tub...... The paint and the mouldings give the seats a used look. The test fit...... I'm presently building the front axle so more pics soon!

Well Bob your spot on with the interior colour! I've found some of my small tinned Humbrol military colours I've hardly used and tried a sandy matt colour. After just the first coat it's looking pretty good! I'll try and get some pics after the second coat tomorrow. Thanks for your input.

Hey that is just superb! The build and the colour are amazing, very well done jaymcminn. I have built a race version and the Alitalia rally version. It reminds me of the 70's when I was a volunteer marshall at race circuits and the RAC Rally of Great Britain where the Stratos was a star. Thanks for sharing.

Well TooOld there's no way I can beat that! But this is my Manx build at the start, firstly the gloss black floorpan and front axle plus a gold pearlescent fan shroud! The paint is one of a new range of Humbrol cans called Muti-Effect. So heres the first pic......... Then we have the beginnings of the same Multi-Effect Gold on the body and bonnet... Now my next problem is the colour for the interior seating! I've looked at twenty or thirty pics of real beach buggies and they have all black seating. But looking at TooOld's interior how do you beat that?

Here are the last three pics on this build........... The headlight lenses, wipers, hood pins and towing eye (below the red arrow)...... And the rear of the car with tailgate pins, towing eye and new alloy exhaust tail pipe... And of course the car is shown on it's new rims. And now to get on with my next build, a Meyers Manx!

Here we are again, I've been away due to problems fitting the wheels to too larger metal axles supplied. I scooped out and enlarged the holes in the back of the wheels but left the wheel centres weak. Resulting in finally fitting the wheels and axles to the chassis and having the centres of the two rear wheels pulling out! So I ordered an aftermarket set of white metal rims and tyres with the MIchelin logo already laid up. Although slightly different I don't think they will detract from the build.(well no choice really as the resin wheels are not available) here are the two old wheels.......... And two of the new ones........... So I've mounted both the front and rear light lenses and the door mirrors, with just the exhaust, wipers and tow hooks to go to finish. PS 22.23pm I've just looked at Autosport my weekly motorsport comic and it shows the Skoda's that are due on the IRC Rally of Ireland this weekend and they are using identical wheels to my new aftermarket wheels shown above!

Yup I like that too. How do you paint white walls anyway?

That's my pleasure guys!

Yes Foxer that caught a lot of people out. They wanted to know what a watercooled Golf was doing there..............until they looked a little closer!

Thanks for the great pics, it's always nice to see what's going on over the pond.

Thanks crazyjim, it works!

I went to one of the largest VW shows in Europe on Sunday and as it was such a super day weatherwise I thought I'd take a few pics. http://photobucket.com/PatW1

I have already posted separate pictures on this forum. I'm now wanting to put on here a photobucket folder of pics from a recent VW show in the UK. Each time I try to post (and I have read the process) it tells me the link is incorrect, any help would be appreciated.

Hey TooOld, That's a great looking engine, forget about the minor details because they are! If I could build a VeeDub motor that good I'd be proud! I've help build real ones as we had 5 beetles in the family, but my model engines sometimes lack the necessary detail. I've recently had my Manx kit arrive after having to get one from the US. I've got a new Humbrol Gold Pearl rattle can paint, that has to be over gloss black so undercoat on yesterday, first blow over coat of gloss black today and onwards and upwards. I've bought some resin Fuchs Porsche rims with slicks and wets, that may fit or be just too wide but we'll see. Anyway I'm watching your build with great interest, super job so far.

Yes dingo that would look good but the light pod covers up a lot of the bonnet! But I might do it all the same. Some more pics of todays work, more decalling this time on the windows.... I hope to do some more over the weekend but we have the first of the F1 races in Australia, with the televised practice tomorrow, the qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday all on Sky Sports F1 Channel this year. (with a few on live on the BBC 1 channel Freeview) I suppose my local team Red Bull will be there up front somewhere, I also hope that McLaren make a better go of it this year and my other local team Sahara Force India with Hulkenberg and David Coulthard's cousin Paul DiResta have a fighting chance.

I know I should be fitting those brake discs to the back of the wheels, but as I felt brave today I thought I would put the windows in instead. Well I can tell you now that the way these are to fit into the windscreen surrounds from the outside (like a real car)is the best I've seen in a kit. They come in a thin plastic dome like most screens do but with these you cut them out, around the black surround with a new sharp blade. You then drop them into place using your chosen form of adhesive. I had to fit the rear wing over the rear opening before I could fit the screen from below. Now tomorrow I may well fit the dashboard into the bodyshell and get round the fixing those brake discs into the back of those wheels!