Hello Everybody!
It's been over two years now since I'm working for VW in Poland. To have something nice to put on my desk at work I started building a Volkswagen T1.
At first I started to build it for "The 2015 /16 Red Hot and Rollin Automotive Group Build" - but I updated the build so seldom, that it's just a nightmare to try to keep track of it there - so I'm posting it in parallel here.
Of course I can't build OOB any more - I have lost that somewhere underway... I got this kit:
I thought since it has this cool paint scheme, it would just be wrong to let it sit on that prehistoric stock suspension and wheels. So I planed to drop the suspension here - put in the suspension and wheels from a BMW like this:
I got this kit (BMW) on a yard sale, years ago - there were actually ona and half kits and have cost me 2$ - so now I've found out what to do with the leftover parts :-)
Here's a photo for a good start:
I've been working on the chassis of that Bus - did some cleanup, filled some gaps and I cut up the front wheel wells to meke some room for the drop:
You can also see some parts of the sport Beemer front suspension that will work in my bus - after some mods.
I have deepened the wheel wells and drilled the holes for the shock columns. I also scratchbuilt the engine deck in the rear - it's missing from the van kit, although it's there in Hasegawa's bus kit. The floor now looks like this:
This is how the test fit of the front suspension and the engine looked like:
As you can see I've got the front suspension almost done, with only the track bar to be narrowed some 4mm and springs replaced with copper wire. A prominent feature missing from the Tamiya model was the hot air pipe running from around the engine exhaust to the front of the vehicle for heating. On air-cooled vehicle this was a way to provide heat for the cab and in theory it's a very cool concept - gives you hot air just seconds after starting the engine - if it would only be operable.
I'm also trying to give the enigine some volume by building side walls to it, because Tamiya only gives you the underside, and after looking slightly from the side you notice there's nothing there!
I decided against putting the BMW rear suspension in this one and went for something more VW - I have built a T2 style rear suspension here. In order to do that I had to do some eengineering - check out this drawing of mine:
According to this drawing I've built the rear suspension:
Also note the completed hot air tubing. To give you an idea how I simulated the "depth" of the engine, here's a shot from the side that will later not be visible:
And this is what I got done in 2015 - scattered over 20 pages of 50 page Group build thread. In the time I have built that, people were turning out 4-5 beautiful car models!
Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it - have a nice day
Paweł