66 beetle

[empinut]

I had previously painted the tamiya 66 beetle a metallic red.

With the TeeVee winding down, it was time to get this beetle on the move.

narrowed the front beam:

To lower the front end, I also removed the trailing arms and rotated them up plus remounted the front beam up a bit. To lower and narrow the rear, I moved the spring plates in slightly and rotated them up a hair.

In order for the new lowered beam to fit, i bit of the trunk interior needs to be reworked. One side is hogged out. I'll fab up new panels to close up the gap.

I decided to remove the rear seat in order to get to the rear inner panels and to make painting the seat/rear engine compartment tin easier:

little detail paint on the engine, plus I will use a dog house cooler/fan shroud. Fuel pump will be relocated and pushrood tubes added using the locator dots allready molded on the case.

Bare metail foil on the valve covers next, plus painting the fan shroud & cylinder tin.

Taking pics as I go along is new to me.

I'll watch the hits and replies and if there are just a few, I'll just post the finished model so as not to take up space.

thanks

[Randy Kern]

Well Bill, you have my attention, as I finally just snagged one of these great kits. What will the style or look be that you're going for? That's a nice shade of red, also. Tamiya Mica Red?

[Marc @ MPC Motorsports]

I see the "Bug Man" is at it again!!!

With those narrowed axles, what kind of rolling stock are you going with? Engine mods too I hope.

[Tonioseven]

You've caught my attention with this build! I look forward to seeing more progress pictures.

[empinut]

Thanks for the interest guys.

I've never documented a whole build, so this will be fun.

Yes, the paint is the Tamiya mica red over their light silver base. Hard to mess up that combo.

I will be going for a traditional resto cal-look, sort of a DKP club car (even though their cars in the 70's were rarely metallic.

Front will be lowered about 4 inches and the rear about 2.

The rims will be porsche fuchs...crableg 4.5 inches up front with period skinnies (135ish) and 6" fuchs in the back with street slicks. I will show them next week.

I will not super detail the chassis...just paint....but will slap together another 48ida monster engine with lots of photoetch/braided line detail like the last tamiya beetle i made.

thanks

[empinut]

Update.

Hit a roadblock with life stuff...but started up again.

Changed my mind on the generator set up....will add an altenator as you can see i removed the generator from the stand in the kit.

Pistons, cylinders, engine mounted. also reworked the front trunk to accept the lowered front beam. Inside tin is primed & drying.

sSomewhat boring update, but moving forward!

Thanks and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[dub]

Looks good! I will have to buy one of those when I happen across one again.

[Marc @ MPC Motorsports]

Don't you hate it when like gets in the way of such important things LOL?

Glad you're back at it. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[Marc @ MPC Motorsports]

By the way, Bill, is the green one Tamiya Metallic Green and if so, over what base?

[empinut]

By the way, Bill, is the green one Tamiya Metallic Green and if so, over what base?

Thanks guys.

This tamiya kit can actually be built pretty quick if you stick to a few basic colors....Black chassis, black engine, single body color, single interior color. My only complaint is that the interior is a little amt-ish for a $29 msrp kit with molded in handles on the door panels, a molded in rear seat and a dash that has only molded in detail with no decals.

hey Marc,

Both Bug bodies in the first picture were primed with tamiya white primer than undercoated with ts17 aluminum silver and then painted with the tamiya color...metallic red or metallic green.

thanks and more to come.

[MrObsessive]

Nice! I like what I see so far!

The green one with the open sunroof I especially like!

[empinut]

Nice! I like what I see so far!

The green one with the open sunroof I especially like!

thanks Bill!

I still need to add the rollback sunroof, but here is a link to some pics of the finished green beetle.

pics of vw models...

[Randy Kern]

Egads Bill, you really are a nut! Well, Beetle nut that is . That metallic green one is perfect. I also just finished a Lotus Europa in that shade. All of your other builds look great, too. Love the wheel choices also. I'm going to go with the rolling stock from the Speedwagon kit on mine, big 'n little Torque Thrusts, and the body as low as possible. Keep them Bugs coming!