Building a Surf Bug

[OldNYJim]

I spotted this Hot Wheels online a while back…

…and thought something similar to it would make a cool 1:25 build, so here goes nothing with the Revell 68 kit…

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a VW expert, and every time I think I know what I’m talking about I call something a ‘der kublevunken’ instead of a ‘das kumbledunken’ or something…I apologize in advance to the VW experts and beg forgiveness.  I already called some BRMs ‘EMPIs’ and embarrassed myself on Instagram

Anyhoo…here’s my ‘yard sale’…I already borrowed the bench seat for a different build but had one from the older Revell kit that I can swap in, and the wheels are (I THINK) from the Polar Lights Beetle kit?

Those wheels have those lips molded in that lock into the tires like some manufacturers like to do…I’m going to swap tires for some from the parts box so first job is to spin them up in the lathe and remove the lips:

Front tires are from the Revell kit, and I added a little rubber rake and width with some rears from the Revell 32 Ford series.

The front end of this Revell kit has the front suspension setup molded in, but I’m going to swap it out for a printed piece that also drops the front end some:

The kit swing arms will work fine, I think…modified the pins to suit the Polar Lights BRM (I think?) wheels…

This car will sit lower than is feasible with a regular ‘static’ drop, so I’ll be adding some air-ride gubbins to justify the stance I want - and something worth doing if you want to gain an extra scale inch of clearance on this kit is removing these little strips inside the front wheel arches:

Those are used to receive the inner wheel wells, but I’ll cross that bridge later on in the build…

And here’s the current stance with the front dropped about where I want it:

Tomorrow’s project will be dropping the back end a little, but just a smidge tho…

Thanks for looking…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Kanada Kustoms]

Cool plan for your build…. Looking forward to more!

Edited November 6 by Kanada Kustoms

[Badge73]

Love the concept. I just purchased the 66' Tamiya Beetle, cannot wait to start my first VW!

[BK9300]

Very interesting build!  Really liked modified Beetles, back in the day.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!  Only a quick post tonight because my wife had plans for me this evening that I forgot (but she didn’t…)

Rear end on this Revell kit is cleverly molded and easy as pie to put together…if you’re going stock height, which I’m not:

What I like to do with these is separate the trailing arms and driveshafts from the assembly (I’m sure that wishbone shaped brace has a particular name in VW-circles…anyone know?) then pin them with brass rod so they rotate like the real thing and then just lock them in place where I’ve got them where I want them.

Here’s a before, with the offset on the wheels fixed so the track width is right:

The separated rear suspension setup:

And the stance adjusted to where I want it:

Not a big project, and easier than the front now I’ve figured it out… more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

Worked on this thing all day and barely had a thing to show for it…a little progress though…

I wanted to backdate the kit bumpers to the older style with the little override bars…found some in my stash and stripped the chrome, cleaned them up and figured out mounting them.

Also, filled the indents for the turn signals while the chrome was stripping, so I can reshape the fenders tomorrow to clean up the look a little:

As you can see, I started roughing-in a roof rack…not done yet but I had some wooden strips from a model railroad store that will work great to make some slats:

And I spent a little time in CAD designing a surf board and cooler, plus I printed a little suitcase…I’ll probably reprint these once I figure out the exact sizes I want but I had the printer running anyway so I made some test pieces…

Surfboard needs to be wider and longer, and the luggage and cooler bigger, but the test prints were successful anyway…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more! 

[Kanada Kustoms]

Roof rack looks great... Bumpers look good on there too!

[OldNYJim]

23 hours ago, Kanada Kustoms said:

Roof rack looks great... Bumpers look good on there too!

Thank you!!!  
 

Had a snow day today, so I got a little bench time….

I have a bunch of these little chrome spotlights from ??? so I modified one of those and got it mounted to the bumper:

Reprinted my beach paraphernalia - I like how it fits the rack a little better now:

 And my main goal today was to figure out steelwork under the (front) hood…this kit has the hood molded as a separate piece, but nothing prototypical to go under it…my version isn’t quite like the 1:1 either, but it’s better than just a hole, and now I have a spot for a compressor for the air ride, a gas tank and an air tank:

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[PatW]

OK Jim you've made me sit up and take notice, but due to my lack of space mine will be a 1/32nd variety!

[Badge73]

Jim, I am starting my Beetle next week! We are both going to have some awesome custom pieces. I cannot wait to start sharing my WIP pics. I am loving your build, nice work on resizing your prints. I have a bunch of different stl files for bits, let me know if you need anything.

[FoMoCo66]

This things lookin great! Maybe you could add a bit of negative camber to the rear end because when you lowered a real bug thats what would happen.

[espo]

Don't forget that the gas tank goes in the front area as well. 

[OldNYJim]

On 11/11/2025 at 9:29 AM, Badge73 said:

Jim, I am starting my Beetle next week! We are both going to have some awesome custom pieces. I cannot wait to start sharing my WIP pics. I am loving your build, nice work on resizing your prints. I have a bunch of different stl files for bits, let me know if you need anything.

Bring it on!  And thanks!

On 11/11/2025 at 9:47 AM, FoMoCo66 said:

This things lookin great! Maybe you could add a bit of negative camber to the rear end because when you lowered a real bug thats what would happen.

I’m actually trying to have this one NOT have the camber: with the 1:1s I guess that’s a LOT easier with the independent rear suspension setup (which this kit doesn’t have - it has trailing arms).  Solution on the 1:1s is some kind of adjustment plates on the suspension, plus an adjustment to the transmission mounting location to correct it further.  I’ll probably end up with a LITTLE, but not the crazy amount you see on some cars…more like the bottom car of the three you posted.  Thanks for the comment!

On 11/11/2025 at 12:48 PM, espo said:

Don't forget that the gas tank goes in the front area as well. 

Yup!  Battery is under the rear seat, so that’s one less thing I have to figure out, at least 😂

 

Speaking of front-trunk stuff, that was today’s project…whittled a gas tank out of some prototyping block, plus made an air-ride air-tank with some printed fittings:

If I hadn’t printed, like, 500 of the fittings a while back I wouldn’t have cheated and would’ve made them too, but I’m not LOOKING for extra work here…

Here it is in place (ish)

Still got room for a spare tire…or maybe an inflatable rubber ring…some kinda pool floatie maybe?

And I figured if it’s a warm enough day to take this thing to Coney Island or Rockaway for surfing, you’d probably need a swamp cooler for some cool air:

Spun up some brass and aluminum on the lathe…I’ll paint the brass body to match everything else probably, but I like how it looks in bare metal anyway:

I’m ALMOST at the point where I can start thinking about paint…need to get the rear seat and luggage shelf figured out (because I borrowed the kit parts from this particular kit for a different build…) but it’s getting closer to final mockup and then tear-down - excited to put color on this one!!  

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Badge73]

Jim, buddy, I am totally on board with the swamp cooler. Anytime I can get some add on's like that, I am full steam ahead. Keep at it, love this WIP. Excited to see what color choice you go with.

[espo]

15 hours ago, OldNYJim said:

Bring it on!  And thanks!

I’m actually trying to have this one NOT have the camber: with the 1:1s I guess that’s a LOT easier with the independent rear suspension setup (which this kit doesn’t have - it has trailing arms).  Solution on the 1:1s is some kind of adjustment plates on the suspension, plus an adjustment to the transmission mounting location to correct it further.  I’ll probably end up with a LITTLE, but not the crazy amount you see on some cars…more like the bottom car of the three you posted.  Thanks for the comment!

Yup!  Battery is under the rear seat, so that’s one less thing I have to figure out, at least 😂

 

Speaking of front-trunk stuff, that was today’s project…whittled a gas tank out of some prototyping block, plus made an air-ride air-tank with some printed fittings:

If I hadn’t printed, like, 500 of the fittings a while back I wouldn’t have cheated and would’ve made them too, but I’m not LOOKING for extra work here…

Here it is in place (ish)

Still got room for a spare tire…or maybe an inflatable rubber ring…some kinda pool floatie maybe?

And I figured if it’s a warm enough day to take this thing to Coney Island or Rockaway for surfing, you’d probably need a swamp cooler for some cool air:

Spun up some brass and aluminum on the lathe…I’ll paint the brass body to match everything else probably, but I like how it looks in bare metal anyway:

I’m ALMOST at the point where I can start thinking about paint…need to get the rear seat and luggage shelf figured out (because I borrowed the kit parts from this particular kit for a different build…) but it’s getting closer to final mockup and then tear-down - excited to put color on this one!!  

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Like all of your added details and how you're doing all that. As for the battery, unless you're going to have the rear seat up for some reason, I wouldn't worry about that. Maybe a battery cable from the starter motor disappearing into the floor in the rear at most. 

[OldNYJim]

On 11/13/2025 at 9:32 AM, Badge73 said:

Jim, buddy, I am totally on board with the swamp cooler. Anytime I can get some add on's like that, I am full steam ahead. Keep at it, love this WIP. Excited to see what color choice you go with.

Thank you!!  I’m thinking blue like the Hot Wheels that served as inspiration, but not EXACTLY that…

On 11/13/2025 at 2:44 PM, espo said:

Like all of your added details and how you're doing all that. As for the battery, unless you're going to have the rear seat up for some reason, I wouldn't worry about that. Maybe a battery cable from the starter motor disappearing into the floor in the rear at most. 

Thank you sir!

I got a little hung-up on the front-trunk stuff the last couple of days…I was trying to keep it loosely stock-looking, but with the lowered and narrowed axle I needed to put some reliefs in the inner tinwork…and it just didn’t look as clean as I wanted.  Not an IMPORTANT part of the build, especially, but I wanted to clean it up some.  

What I decided on was doing a kinda ‘tubbing’ - like you might in the back of a car to accommodate wider tires.  

Fired up the period-correct vac former:

Vac formed some new inner wheel arches:

And remade the front inner structure, but with extra space in the wheel wells.  This necessitated narrowing the gas tank, but that’s not impossible…still needs cleaning up and finish work but it fits nicely and I dont need to add any lumps and bumps to clear the axle:

Little thing up front on this sub assembly is the compressor for the air tank, gas tank in the center and the air tank at the back.  

In other news, just making a start on the interior - I needed to make a parcel shelf, which meant fitting the different-kit seat, and although the seats THIS kit comes with have the same pattern I decided I’ll use the whole set from the old Skip’s Diner kit so they REALLY match nicely:

More on that when I get to it…but with all this stuff done I’m basically ready to start getting some parts into primer ready for paint…exciting!

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!