1949 VW Hebmuller (working front suspension)

[stitchdup]

Today I have pretty much completed the chassis and engine, with just a couple parts to fit after the body has been fitted. I will also be doing some light weathering using some ak washes but the body will be shiny and clean. I'll start the pics with better pics of the body.
Here is the front suspension. I have drilled through the hubs and glued some elastic through the holes. The elastic is glued to the suspension arms top and bottom, and i have drilled out the arms where they mount to the torsion bars. I then cut them free and used some cut down sewing pins to enable the arms to rotate. So now the parts are back together, I have working front suspension.
The engine is all stock tamiya, just painted in different metal tones to add some interest. I will be going back to touch up the paint during final assembly
And a test fit of the hebmuller engine bay to check it fits. As it turns out there was some trimming needed on the resin part but it wasn't much. I dont have any luck getting the pics to show in order but here goes

 

[stitchdup]

I got most of the body parts in primer this morning. I had to use white primer as I'm going to use the same blue pearl I used on the 68 charger a couple of years ago. I'll be doing the sides in pearl white first. I've also decided to use the stock wheels from the tamiya kit so i can use the chrome hubcaps and one of the pe wheel trim sets. This also means i can save the smoothies from the heb kit for another bug or bus. To make the pe parts pop i did the wheels in dark blue as it wouldn't show up so well with the body colours. The convertible top will be black though i did consider doing it tan to match the interior. There isn't a back seat in a heb, instead it has a luggage area so I am going to cover it with a bit of wood which I'll add some chrome strips to similar to what the stock interior has. I've got a few pe parts to fit to the interior but they'll have to wait until the interior is painted. Since the luggage area was going to be empty I made a suitcase to sit in it. I've covered it with superglue to hopefully give it a slightly battered/aged look

 

[Eric Macleod]

I will certainly be following your progress on this one. Where did you get the transkit?

[Foxer]

Very cool!

I remember seeing one of these in a junkyard when stationed in Germany 50 years ago.

[stitchdup]

1 hour ago, Eric Macleod said:

I will certainly be following your progress on this one. Where did you get the transkit?

Its from bestmodelcarparts on ebay mate, it wasn't listed when i ordered it but they were happy to list one for me, well two cos someone beat me to it when they listed the first one

[stitchdup]

27 minutes ago, Foxer said:

Very cool!

I remember seeing one of these in a junkyard when stationed in Germany 50 years ago.

man, i bet you wish you'd bought it now, these are very strong money now in almost any condition

[stitchdup]

Just the glass and running boards to go now. She should be finished tomorrow. It really needs a set of nice wide whitewalls but with the tamiya tyres being rubber I think they would crack before i got them on the wheels and i'm sure you all know how well tape sticks to rubber. I had some problems getting any paint to stick to the dash and some other small parts so used the stock tamiya parts. If I had been able to paint sooner i would have had time to build a new heb dash as i have a pe set for it. I've lowered the bumpers using a pe set from highlight model studio (all the pe is from them) and added some vintage euro extras to the rear bumpers. I was going to add spot lights to the front but i cane seem to fine them. The steering wheel is also pe, as is the wolfsburg crest on the hood and the trim under the lights. I also used some pe trim on the wheels. The paint is duplicolour cream (was originally pearl white as seen on the engine bay and under the hood but again paint problems forced a change to the plan) with pearl blue over white primer and lots of clear. I decided to use the bumpers and chrome from the donor kit to add some more bling to the car than i would have managed with the resin parts. The suitcases are sratchbuilt and the suspension works front and rear though its better at the front.