1956 Volksrod

[mikelo]

Looking great so far. I was working on one based on a Steve Stanford drawing, but I only had the pink version of that kit. Ever work with that pink plastic?! its like working with glass. Needless to say, you have way passed me. can't wait to see it shape up.

Mike

[wisdonm]

I don't use an ir brush, so I can't comment on that. Most tints pull away fron the edges of windows. The dipped parts did not show this as much as the brushed windshield.

I can assure it's not bank dye.

[wisdonm]

I think she's finished. Presenting Das Bug.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by wisdonm

[Draggon]

That's pretty cool! I love those pipes.

[Danno]

Gotta say ... it's kewl!

[gray07]

I love this bug, and those pipes look like the ones i had on my vw trike, very well done

[wisdonm]

I was reading VW Daves thread about narrowing a VW front axle. I check to see how I did it. I then noticed that I left out a whole section about how I lowered Das Bug. This is what I omitted...

 

 

Been working on the suspension. All Beetles sit too high, so lowering is always necessary. When you turn the front axle around you create several problems. The one most people never fix is caster. Castor is the front to back inclination of the king pin. This is important because it is what makes a car steer straight, when you take your hands off the steering wheel. Without proper caster, a car will dart uncontrollably.

 

One way to both lower a VW and give it a proper caster angle is to make a V cut at the axle head (where the axle bolts on). I did it a little differently. I made the cut back by the front bulkhead. The section to the right of the cut is bent upward to close the cut and then re welded, I mean glued.

 

 

Now on to the rear suspension. The suspension and the engine are all one piece in this kit. Originally I had removed the engine and engine supports. These were reattached in their original position. Then I separated all the suspension parts with a saw. Those parts that look like sticks with triangle flags on them are supposed to be the rear trailing arms. The triangles are supposed to be the shocks and shock mounts. I fixed the front ones, but I'm leaving these. New axles were made. On a real car, the trailing arms were swapped side to side to cure bad camber. Then the trailing arms were raised two outside teeth on the torsion bar mounts to lower the ride height.

 

 

Here is the first mock up of the chassis and suspension.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by wisdonm

[southpier]

is there a way to access posts prior to 2012? and the photos missing in this thread?

thanks

[Tom Geiger]

is there a way to access posts prior to 2012? and the photos missing in this thread?

That's the problem with this board. Although articles get archived, many of them are missing the pictures since people uploaded them to the board and later deleted them for space to upload more photos. That is lessened when folks use photo storage websites. I say lessened since some of them have revamped servers over time so ancient web addresses for individual photos changed.

[southpier]

harumph!

[wisdonm]

I'm trying to replace the photos in this thread, so check back from time to time.

[mod3l Lover]

   That's mighty nice of you Don!!  I love VW's,

and Volksrod is even better.  I look at every

kit of a VW beetle just to see if any were made

with fenders separate from the body.

  Nice build, . . . . from years ago!!

      David S.