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Der Beetle Bus XL-426 Hemi Build Up Complete-12/23


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Thanks Jeremy , Ray and Anthony. More sanding on the body this morning after yesterdays priming stage. Just didn't like how the R/H side turned out and I had to dump the front fender flares (thanks for the suggestion Dave)  as they didn't coincide with the flareless rear wheel openings so I got rid of them. No pics today but made what I feel like was alot of progress in the way of body work. I'm feeling pretty good about it so far. Next weekends push will be on the roof to smooth that all out. Till then.............it's back to the Arado............

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Thanks Carl for the encouragement. I'm a long way from being done buddy. lol

I just ordered a Pro Stock Camaro with the wheels that I want that are a 5 bolt pattern instead of a 4 bolt pattern Weld Draglites as well as having a nice chrome finish. I don't trust my Alclad outcomes just yet and am putting way too much into this build for me to ruin it with some "so-so" looking wheels.  This Camaro kit's got a bunch of other "goodies" in it that I'll use as well. The aluminum wheels I've been mocking everything up with are a "special treat" for my Street Stock 1990 Mustang LX I'll be tackling in the future.

Here's the kit:

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and a picture of what the wheels will look like outside of an artists box top art representation ( Say......... :hmm: I like that "Chevrolet Power" decal on the side of that hood scoop! That'll be going on the VW somewhere alright) :

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The first thing that I had to do to get the engine / transmission to fit was to get rid of the Lenco 4 speed transmission and replace it with a Turbo TH350 automatic transmission. I went to work by cutting the Lenco from the engine assy.

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After some sanding and dry fitting to make sure everything would line up flush , I mated the two together:

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This morning has been nothing but planning and fitting to make sure all these mods are gonna jive with each other. I cut the flooring out another 1/2" at the front to allow the engine/ transmission to fit in nicely. I think this'll be ok:

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I've got a lot of work ahead of me to include rear chassis framework fabrication, engine and transmission mounting and figuring out where I want the radiator to wind up as well as figuring out how I want to do the seating arrangement because the OOB stuff is now shot all to Hell. :hmm:

Edited by mustang1989
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Ray: I hear ya on that. I'm really having some good fun with this build but it's coming with a bit of a challenge as well.

James: I've got an idea for the OOB seat pedestal but the radiator's gonna have to be placed elsewhere. By the time I get the turbos and the carburetor installed there won't be any room in the front of the engine for the radiator.

Here's the latest so far with the body work on the main body complete and the roofline about 80% complete. Still gotta work out the roof to body fit a little but it's pretty clean other than that and I'm feeling really good about the way that it turned out. Got the Camaro kit in so here's the wheels from that kit. I have another set coming from Revell though. A few blems on these but you get the picture of the shiny rims. Just couldn't risk screwing the resin ones up with my limited Alclad experience and besides, I need a break on at least one portion of this build. :wink:

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Thanks fellas.

Anyways I've got where I want the radiator to go planned out. First I robbed the radiator out of my Pro Stock Thunderbird kit and then robbed the cooling fans from the Pontiac J2000 kit. I sanded the back of the cooling fan assy to where I could cut the area between the fan blades out to give them more of a realistic look. I'll be cutting the floor of the chassis on the drivers side to allow me to install the radiator and cooling fan assy there. I'll also be drilling holes in the cooling fan "platform" in which to run the supply and return cooling system hoses through into the radiator underneath.
Here's the parts:
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and here's where they're going to wind up when installed:

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More cutting on the way......................

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I'm so immersed in theory and planning right now I don't know when this thing'll ever start to progress. I'm hanging in there and taking it one day at a time and sooner or later I'll end up making a bus out of it one way or another.

 

Here we are right now with the engine/ transmission with the cylinder heads installed, seating and center cluster pod test fit into place so I've got an idea of how this is all going to turn out and what I still need to do to get things to "behave". As you can see, there's a lot of work and "repositioning" left to do concerning the seating arrangement :

 

 

This is about where the transmission tail housing is going to wind up. Hopefully I can scoot it all to the rear another 1-2mm but this is a good spot for now.

and I'm currently working on relocating the steering column over towards the drivers door to line it up with the drivers seat.

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If I may offer a suggestion, I would personally chop some of the reinforcement on the forward side of the fenders (where the trans is hitting) a little, and reinforce between the fenders with some styrene rod. Then scoot the motor/trans assy back a little to clear the seats. That's how I would go about it, anyway.

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Thanks Carl.

Dieselhead: Man I really appreciate the suggestion. I may be able to trim a little bit but it's pretty much going to be a direct connection between the tranny and the differential so there's no place to go there. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve though. I'll say this, that engine is a lot further back than it would have been with that Lenco transmission behind it. lol

 I went out today to pick one of these up from Hobby Lobby because I wanted to one to build OOB (yes.....it's going to happen) just to display my modified one next to an OOB version when finished and got that 1 in 12 that's supposed to be green. Cool color is all I've gotta say. I'm happier than a pig in slop!

 

Edited by mustang1989
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Awe Man, you scored! This will make an Awesome oob build! What I want to do is take a yellow one and kit bash it with a green one using the green body etc... and paint the inside of the green body gold or maybe one shot lacquer lime ice for more metallic then clear coat the outside. Use the rest of the "Cat" on the yellow body. Build it to where the body flips back to reveil the clear floor and stuff. The decals from the Dirty Donnie Vantasy kit may be an interesting concept on the clear green body. Just an Idea I had rolling around the ole think tank...lol!

amt_0691_decals.jpg

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Well..............not quite as big as the rest of it. lol

I received my fuel cell yesterday for the XL version that I'm building. This is gonna work out nicely is all I've gotta say....

 

aaaaand I got the inside of the OOB body shot with gold this morning and that's gonna work out well also!

 

I've got some work to do on the top though. There's those to optional cut out impressions for adding....................antennas????????????    I've got some sanding to do to get not only those to look right but the ejector pin marks all over the inside of the roof as well. No problem.....................we'll get there.    

 

Edited by mustang1989
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I had this crazy thought. What if you bought another one of the green ones (I'm pretty sure someone in the wanted section is selling one here) and got it painted up in the gold and then extended the roof and used it on the extended bus to add some flavor to it? I know it's crazy but it could look really cool.

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