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!

[Badge73]

This is coming together, really liking the moves your making in the front. I am doing a parcel shelf as well, excited to see what you come up with. Keep going!

[OldNYJim]

12 hours ago, Badge73 said:

This is coming together, really liking the moves your making in the front. I am doing a parcel shelf as well, excited to see what you come up with. Keep going!

Thank you!!

Finally made it thru all the mock-ups and got to paint day!  Here’s all the blues I could quickly and easily find…

I’m actually doing a candy base color, but I’ll use some of the non-candy colors for shading and whatnot…

Base coat - I like this extreme lacquer because it’s a nice bright silver, lays down smooth and dries fast:

Mixed up some Createx candy blue and just started building up the layers.  Have to be really patient, and you can’t get sloppy with your airbrush technique and allow any dust or spits or runs, or you’ll be back to square one pretty easily…

Something I like to do with candies sometimes, although it goes against the technique of how you’re SUPPOSED to do them, is kinda follow the body lines and get extra depth of color in the recesses and lower spots and let it build up less on the high spots - you can kind of see this in practice around the wheel arches on the pic above, for example…

Then, ten or twelve coats later…

Mostly made it through without any major disasters or dust or cat hair…but the area in between the doors will be getting a second color so there’s plenty of time to ruin it still…

Oh, and while I had the airbrush fired up, shot the frame, inner tinwork and a bunch of other color-matching parts too:

I have some detail painting to do on most of these bits, but it’s nice to get a bunch of stuff in color all at once…and this was a TOTALLY different technique to the one I was playing with yesterday:

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

Edited Tuesday at 04:34 AM by OldNYJim

[Kanada Kustoms]

Color looks great!

[Badge73]

Wait a gosh darn minute! That last picture of the Rapid Pink automobile, that is slick! What model is that? Off topic, sorry. I love the color choice on the Bug, no runs, impressive work. Still time to ruin (my motto) I don't think you can ruin this, nice progress.

[stavanzer]

Wow, this is a Great Cali-style VW. I've seen them at So-Cal Bug-Ins. Yours would fit right in.

I love he Colour! Great Scratch building too.

[espo]

Both thumbs up on the VW paint finish and color. The Rapid Pink whatever made me laugh in a good way. 

[OldNYJim]

Haha, the pink and white car is one of these:

They oval race them in Europe - they’re a little fibreglass 3 wheeled car named a ‘Reliant’.  Just a little side-project that I wanted to put on my shelf, based on an image I found of this particular white and pink checked car I saw online…

Thanks for the comments on the Bug too!  I need to shoot some lacquer clear as an intercoat on the body before the next step with the paint, but I can still smell it a little (these candies have a particular smell to them) so I’m giving it ample chance to gas out…

Meanwhile though, I was prepping the last interior piece for primer, the headliner for the roof, and then my dumb brain said “you should open one of the sun visors!” so here I am turning a 10 minute job into two (casual) evenings…

Filled the recess on the reverse side so I can smooth it out, with the new ‘open’ visor made from styrene sheet:

Filled in with some sprue goo and ready for clean-up and primer:

I’m going pearl white interior on this one, so my other job this evening was prepping for that - I want to force some extra depth and (hopefully) realism to the look of the tub when it’s in the car so I’m doing a paint trick that figure painters use by shooting a darker base, then misting white from above to imitate shadows where the paint (and light) can’t get.  It’s pretty subtle, but I used light gray and then pure white over the temporarily assembled tub:

You can see that, for instance, the tops of the headrests got plenty of white, but the area where they kick inwards a little didn’t…it won’t be a crazy in-your-face effect, but hopefully the difference will be noticeable when I spray the (fairly translucent) white over top…

Just a small update…but thanks for looking!  More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[sidcharles]

nice job. the back-dating & clean ups are well worth the energy.

if you need one more rabbit-hole in your modeling life . . . .      https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/

[Badge73]

That's what I'm talking about. Jim, I am a figure painter and I always do "Zenithal" highlighting on objects. It's an exceptional way to bring out detail and helps assist with pre-shading. Nice work on the visor. We seem to be similar in the way that we let our own brain get in our way, there is always another detail we can add lol. This Bug coming along!