Gatto's VW Beetle... Extremely slow W.I.P.

[_fly_]

Looking so good I had to fire up IE to make a reply. I am still reading and following.
Good looking roof line and dash.

[Yonnee]

Thanks Pete.

[Yonnee]

Things are going passed the point of no return... gluing the firewall and the rear "engine block" to the side panels. I buggered up a little here and have glued in the wrong order. Having the roof on first meant that inserting the engine block and firewall into a neat fit, and the trick was not having the glue wipe off as I went. But I got it in and glued.

VW Beetle w.i.p 084.jpg

Another fiddly detail... I decided to add the door jam line to the inside as well.
VW Beetle w.i.p 085.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 086.jpg

But now she's got structural integrity, I don't have to be as gentle.
VW Beetle w.i.p 087.jpg

Before I glued it in. I drilled some pilot holes for the exhaust outlets and the bumper mounts. I'm not convinced about the use of dowel for the bumper mounts though... but I can't think of an alternative at this point, so I've only drilled a 2mm hole at this stage as a location point. Again, I didn't like the way the exhaust dowel just glued straight into the back of the engine block, so I drilled a shallow 6mm hole as a clearance, then a deeper 4mm hole for the exhaust dowel. I'm hoping it will look a little closer to the real thing... particularly when I round off the rear end and take some of the bottom off.
VW Beetle w.i.p 088.jpg 69 beetle - rear view.jpg
This pic also shows a bit more rounding of the roof...

Next was the vent section under the back window. Cut, curved and the forward edge angled to match the rear edge of the window piece. All that's left is to cut the vent lines before gluing into place.
VW Beetle w.i.p 089.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 090.jpg
You can see there's a little more sanding to be done of the roof, but I'm starting to see a little reward for the effort of the roof modifications.

Now that it's a little more structurally sound, there's a step in the plans that quite out place and easily missed if you get too far ahead in your gluing. The inside edge of the rear guards are tapered, and for the outer face to sit square, the side panel needs to be tapered to match. Quite easy with the disc sander... if you're careful.
VW Beetle w.i.p 092.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 091.jpg

[Acco]

Coming along nicely Yonnee

[Yonnee]

Thanks DJ.

[_fly_]

Ya made me fire up IE again....

I've got some 2mm copper wire if thats any use to ya.

Nice and stiff and will give nice gold bits where you could use toothpicks.

could use that for bumper mounts.

Peter

[Dalboy]

Looking goooooood Yonnee Starting to take shape now

[colbra]

Hi Yonnee
Been watching and reading your WIP on VW Beetle for a while Yonnee its coming along great.
I read that’s it’s a gatto’s plan I was wondering if you had to enlarge the plan to work from it. All the other plans I have seen from gatto are only on A4 Paper I think that was the size anyway! with small print and graphics. Is this plan the same. You may have already spoken about this and I have missed it. They are certainly a lot more detailed than the T&J plans and I think a lot harder to build……. Well it would be for me any how!
Colbra

[TKO]

Facinating to watch ,

Edddie.

[Yonnee]

Ya made me fire up IE again....

I've got some 2mm copper wire if thats any use to ya.

Nice and stiff and will give nice gold bits where you could use toothpicks.

could use that for bumper mounts.

Peter

Thanks Pete, I'll keep the copper in mind. The original bumper mounts are thin flat bar, and at this stage
I'm trying to figure out a way of doing these without them being dowel, too chunky or too flimsy. But I'm a little way off them yet, so I'll keep thinking... but if I have to go dowel eventually, so be it.

Facinating to watch

Thanks Eddie.

Hi Yonnee
Been watching and reading your WIP on VW Beetle for a while Yonnee its coming along great.
I read that’s it’s a gatto’s plan I was wondering if you had to enlarge the plan to work from it. All the other plans I have seen from gatto are only on A4 Paper I think that was the size anyway! with small print and graphics. Is this plan the same. You may have already spoken about this and I have missed it. They are certainly a lot more detailed than the T&J plans and I think a lot harder to build……. Well it would be for me any how!

Thanks Col.
I'm not sure about their other plans, but the templates for cutting the parts are on two large sheets and are quite readable, but they're not quite A3 size (so they're difficult so photocopy) and there's several step-by-step instruction sheets that are a little wider than A4. I made copies so I could scribble on them and managed to reduce those down to A4. If your eyesight's shot, then you might want to enlarge the instruction sheets to make them easier to read. I also made multiple copies of the templates onto A4 so I wasn't cutting up the original plans, mainly so I can do this one for Dad and still be able to make one for myself down the track. From what I've seen of other's projects from Gatto, this one is a fairly simple build although I've made the roof modifications a little more complicated, but nothing too difficult. It's probably a good entry level model for those wanting to step up from a basic pine block toy.

[Yonnee]

Haven't done much this week... still in shock after an unexpected death in the family.
But life must go on...

The next fiddly bit... was creating the vents for the engine that go below the rear window. Again, knife, time & patience.
VW Beetle w.i.p 093.jpg

Then it was glued in place. And while I was at it, I made the rear taillights. These too were modified to be closer to the original.
VW Beetle w.i.p 097.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 098.jpg

Next was the engine hood. Cut to shape, then roughly sanded and curved. The holes are for the toothpick dowel to locate the hood to the body and allow me to clamp it without it sliding out of place, as well as locate the numberplate lamp assembly, and the hood latch.
VW Beetle w.i.p 099.jpg

Here it is being trial fitted. I need to finish shaping the rear of the body more before I attach this one.
VW Beetle w.i.p 095.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 094.jpg

I think it's profile is looking more like a beetle...
VW Beetle w.i.p 096.jpg

Last thing for now is the numberplate lamp assembly itself, which wasn't that clear on the plans, so I printed a couple of A4 sized pics of VW Beetle images I found, and winged it from there.
VW Beetle w.i.p 100.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 101.jpg VW Beetle w.i.p 102.jpg

[Dalboy]

Sorry to hear of the family loss Yonnee.


The beetle is coming along great the back end is really looking the part. look forward to the next part as and when you feel up to it

[Yonnee]

Thanks Digg, appreciate it.

[Yonnee]

I'm curious as to the different methods of cutting pieces with a pattern on two sides. But I might start another thread on this, rather than clag up this one with any answers and/or opinions...

[Yonnee]

The VW has claimed a victim. An 11 hour day on Friday after a very draining day at my Great Aunt's funeral the day before, I probably shouldn't have gone out to the shed let alone be playing with a knife...
...but I did, and I wasn't concentrating...
VW Beetle w.i.p 103.jpg