AMT Der Beetle Bus-OOB Version Completed

Ooooo!. Yeah, that's going to be purdy! I'm behind you on that one.  :)

Thanks Steve! Hopefully I can pull all this off. I'll be a loooooong while on the engine build for this one, that's for dang sure.

I appreciate your comments as well Mike. As far as color goes I think I'll be going with MM's De Ja Blue for this one. I was wanting something like Duplicolors Electron Blue and this is really close to it.

Wow. Okay this is going to be extreme.

What colors do you imagine this thing in? I'm seeing it in a two-tone white over baby blue - surfer style. With white or baby blue matching rims. Or both lol.

However this turns out, its going to be epic, I'm sure of that.

Soo besides bein' cool as H.... amburgers ....

Now your gonna have a Volk-Chev-Tiac  Vroom vroom

YaHoo! burnin' rubber now!!!

I'm going to try something out here. I was brain storming for a different look than the vehicle being "jacked up" in the back. I want more of a lowered looking stance so I've got this spare '54 Chevy Panel Wagon body and decided to check something out. What if I cut the rear wheel opening out like so,

and then trimmed the bottom up so that it evened out at the body line on both sides of the wheel opening. I think I might be able to flatten this out a bit to get away from the body curvature and graph this in because l like the way this is lookin' so far.

Steve: I dunno bout those antennas. lol

T.B.: True I'm going to put more than I first thought into this build but what's also true is that I've learned alot since my 56 F-100 build on just how crazy and how much cash I want to put into any given build.

AHA !

 Caught you in a fib LOL ! I also knew you wouldn't settle for second best . Now that says you're gonna put in as much as you do in other builds . Nice choice , by the way . Watching You !  T.B.

JOE

OK I finally found your new build-(OK I was out of town and have just got back-geesh)

Any way as I see your OOB idea is shot to dbl hockey sticks, the progress so far is looking real good.

Hope you are going to install the antennas; I have a soft spot for bugs with bug ears. In my misspent youth I worked for a pest control company and we had antenna on the service trucks and after I moved into inspections I drove a VW bug with mouse ears, nose and tail.  Cut quite a fine figure if I say so myself (you do eventually get used to the stares and the good looking girls smile at you- so not too bad)

 and

HUMMM Wonder if this had any effect on my development????---Naw

NICE!!! Very nice indeed.

SNAGGED IT!!! $22.00 off of ebay!! Looks like we're movin' forward with that engine build!!!!

.

It won't be for this build but a twin turbo slant 6 does sound like an interesting project. I'm getting to where engine builds are my most favorite part of the build. The more wild I can get and the more detail the better.

Dual  turbo slant 6, cool. 

Joe : I'll just bet you are. lol

Lee: If I were to do that it would end up with a dual turbo set up on that for sure. lol

Today I cut the roof to the desired length. Here's the two bodies side by side to show the length added and the difference:

Test fitted into place on the body:

and a couple of overall mock up shots:

If I were you Joe, I'd put a slant 6 in it.

mustang1989

I don't think there's laugh emoticon drastic enough for that comment Joe. All I've gotta say is............................you were right. lol

 

I don't think there's laugh emoticon drastic enough for that comment Joe. All I've gotta say is............................you were right. lol

mustang1989

You know.......................................somehow I just knew you were the first one that was gonna respond to that. lol.  Thanks Joe.

 

LOL!! With two blowers, two turbo's and nitrous plummed into it it's practically two big blocks plus!!

SBC?????  Man this thing is just crying for a nitro blown big block to put some sting to go with the antennas and make them stand up straight.

You know.......................................somehow I just knew you were the first one that was gonna respond to that. lol.  Thanks Joe.

Holy Crap Joe! OK, for someone who claims that they are NOT going to go all out on this, well..this seems to me to be along the lines of not only an epic conversion but, also an epic level of engine detailing. I'm just simply making an observation my ambitious little friend.

Ok. That extra long rectangular opening in the floor is gonna mandate an engine that'll fill it. Don't think I haven't "been there" in thought. I'll be using Rick Dobbertin's blown, turbo'd and nitrous fed small block 350 for this using the Revell Pro Street J2000 kit:

The engine looks somthing like this:

Thanks Nick.

Started on the chassis this morning. Here's what we had to work with OOB:



A couple of cuts and some trimming later yielded the correction:



Again, clean up will happen soon but I've gotta make sure this all works before any cosmetic work gets done. I did, however, get rid of those bumps for foot pedals. I think I can come up with something better than that.

This is going to be cool . 

mississippi: Yeah I know. I'm fairly worried about all those extra mods that come with the first one.

Pawel: Now that you mention it I do remember. Say, the Red Hot and Rollin' GB has been extended if you want to build it in there.

Hello Joe!

Funny thing - now we're both working on a Beetle bus - remember? Now mine isn't as cut up as yours, but it still isn't done. It's getting there, I think I'm going to post that build in a separate thread (not in the group build).

Now I think you and i we lost the ability to build OOB and do quick and easy projects... It happens, so to say...

Funny thing about that bus, though... Currently I'm working for VW in Poland, but many times I have been inside the old German VW works - Wolfsburg, where they developed the Bug bus out of a motorized platform used to carry parts around the plant (it's really big - bigger than the town of Wolfsburg itself) - and Hannover where they have built over a million of them busses.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Wow!! Now that's alot of VW's!!!

Just so you know. The sectioning out and joining the halves only took about one hour and that's including sanding to fine tune the fit and to true everything up.

Glad I could give you a chuckle today my friend. I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed in the fact that your choosing not to detail it out because, as you well know, I have what is likely one of the greatest sources of reference to be found.

If I'm not mistaken, we're down to about 250 VW's left.

Thanks fellas!

Eric: We'll see where this all goes.

Greg: No rest....lol

Joe: Man that has got to be one of the most hilarious replies I've ever read!! lol. I dunno about detailing it all out "to the nines" though. Money and another project are dictating that doesn't happen. I'll pull something out of the hat for you though. lol