1966 Bug

[dsummone]

This is the next car in my previously owned vehicle quest. 
It’s actually my first car, my brother gave it to me for Christmas ( one of wheel and deal transactions) when I was 15 so that would make it 1979. 
It was all original except for paint. It had been painted a medium/dark green and had kind of an ivory interior as I remember. 
I was allowed to drive it up and down our street (as far as my dad new)         Being a 6 volt system and me wanting an fm radio but not the money to convert the electrical system, I bought a 12 volt battery and put it under the other side of the rear seat and ran wires to the radio. I unceremoniously cut holes in the door cards and mounted some Jensens as I recall. 
I had to wait until the following November to get my license and here is the tragedy of the story. 
One day leaving high school, my friend and I gave a ride to four girls, yes I was so cool, and about halfway home one of the girls in the backseat said, does anyone smell smoke?                                  The battery I put under the back seat was just a plain old group 24, way to tall to properly fit under there and didn’t have the protective cover over the positive terminal that the 6 volt did and my seat load of girls had grounded out the battery, setting the old seat fiber on fire.                                                           We all piled out of there and watched as my new found manhood burned to the ground.                                                          Now as I said, I waited almost a year to drive that little beetle and got my license November 13th of that year and burned it and my dreams 2 weeks before Christmas, I enjoyed not riding the bus for 3 whole weeks.                     Well on to the build. It’s the first Tamiya kit I’ve tried and I have to say that the kit is impressive if not a little intimidating. There is very very little clean up to do on the parts except for the very small injector spots and 2 seam lines that ran from the roof line down the front fenders. At first I thought maybe the roof lines were for the old rag tops, but that didn’t make sense with the seams running down the front fenders. The seams were an easy clean up and so were the injector marks and the body is now drying in primer.             I assembled the engine and transaxle, which were very detailed except for the carb, and added spark plug wires, vacuum hose to distributor and fuel lines.                                                            Any comments or suggestions, as always are welcome. 
Dave

[GoForItPainting]

This is very cool! I bought this kit this week and will start building tomorrow. I was just about to check the forum to see if there is a topic like this already and if not, open one. It's really cool that we are making the same kit in parallel!

Well my problems:
1. The kit is really very nice and I am sorry to cut it! (What I really dislike are the hinges at the front and back.) I wanted to build a hot rod or hot rod truck out of it because I really like it.

2. I am afraid I will also like the Revell Limousine kit.
3. I would love to make a diorama with plants and a lot of rust without rebuilding. Or a Mad Max-style conversion like the one you saw in my introduction topic.

4. I'm looking at other sizes than 1/24 1/25 kits and I'm afraid no way back.

[dsummone]

I’ve been doing a bit of work on the bug while my finger heals and have the interior finished and paint on the body. 
I am going to attempt rubbing out the paint and polishing and have some BMF ordered for the trim… scared to death. 
Thanks for looking. 
Dave. 

[espo]

Great looking interior. I saw the picture of your finger. Hurt just to look at it. Get well. 

[stitchdup]

Nice colour choices. You might be in for a small problem though with the rear firewall. There shouldn't be gap between the two pieces as it is the mount for the hood to the body and is very likelly to stop the body sitting down correctly, If you haven't glued it too solid you might be able to get it in line with a small amount of force and not damage your paint. I would hate to see such a small piece hold back your model when it looks so nice

[WizPorsche944]

These are great kits, nice progress so far.

[cobraman]

Coming along very nicely.

[TransAmMike]

Very nice little Bug Dave, and yep the interior looks great.

[dsummone]

5 hours ago, espo said:

Great looking interior. I saw the picture of your finger. Hurt just to look at it. Get well. 

Thanks, stitches out next week, it sucks trying to do intricate things with a claw. 

[MADmodelDOCTOR]

Looking good. Nothing like 4 girls in the back of a VW !

[dsummone]

10 hours ago, stitchdup said:

Nice colour choices. You might be in for a small problem though with the rear firewall. There shouldn't be gap between the two pieces as it is the mount for the hood to the body and is very likelly to stop the body sitting down correctly, If you haven't glued it too solid you might be able to get it in line with a small amount of force and not damage your paint. I would hate to see such a small piece hold back your model when it looks so 

Edited June 11, 2022 by dsummone

[dsummone]

2 minutes ago, dsummone said:

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by dsummone

[dsummone]

10 hours ago, stitchdup said:

Nice colour choices. You might be in for a small problem though with the rear firewall. There shouldn't be gap between the two pieces as it is the mount for the hood to the body and is very likelly to stop the body sitting down correctly, If you haven't glued it too solid you might be able to get it in line with a small amount of force and not damage your paint. I would hate to see such a small piece hold back your model when it looks so nice

Man I hope not

[slusher]

Really nice clean work and great shade of green!

[ewetwo]

Coming along nicely.

[dsummone]

The finger is better and the Bug is painted. Now back to the Dart for a bit. 
Dave. 

[espo]

Great looking paint job. 

[GoForItPainting]

Hi Dave,

First of all, I wish you all the best! That green colour looks great! The paint on the seats is a bit grainy, but a little sanding might help. I just started the rebuild today because I've done the Plymouth so far. More on my YouTube channel all the time...

[Tom Geiger]

On 6/10/2022 at 9:41 PM, MADmodelDOCTOR said:

Looking good. Nothing like 4 girls in the back of a VW !

Back when I was young my friend and I were like Richie and Potsie from Happy Days. We were 17 and seniors and I had a car.  Two Junior girls, who were trouble, asked us if we wanted to go to a party with them.. uh, yes!

So we drove them several towns away. One of them had a fake ID so we pulled up out front of a liquor store and gave them money.  They went in and we waited.. and waited.. finally took a look and found they weren’t there. Liquor store has a back door!  We were ditched and scammed! 

[dsummone]

Well, this finishes up my first car. Paint is pretty darn close to what I remember and the white interior turned out better than I had hoped for. 
The Tamiya kit was a jewel, everything fit as it should and the only mods I made were wiring and fuel lines on the engine. 
This makes my third model since coming back to the hobby after a long long time and I’m really pleased with the result. My paint work on the bodies still needs some work and an investment in an air brush, but for out of a rattle can it’s okay. I’d like to try color sanding but I was too afraid of ruining what I had so I think I’ll try painting spoons etc… to try and learn on. 
The BMF is coming along… now that I have the right kind. 
Anyway, I appreciate the views and always the comments. 
Dave

Now to finish that pesky Dart. 

[Wolf]

Neat little Bug!

I bet those taillights were fun to mask and paint.

I had a ‘69 in Savanah Beige with brown interior. Seeing your model brings back a lot of fond memories.

Well done Dave.

Cheers,     
Wolf

 

[David G.]

Nice looking Bug, good color choice.

David G.

[Mike C.]

Nice! I can almost smell that distinctive Volkswagen interior smell. 

[dsummone]

Does anyone know how I move this to the under glass section?

[iamsuperdan]

Ask, and ye shall receive.

 

 

Bug looks great!