Thread: 1964 VW Beetle - WIP

Originally Posted by crowie

G'day Steve,
You're certain putting in the effort with this one.
The side profile looks great.
On the front view, I think my eyes are playing tricks with me as something don't look right; looks like a hollow across the centre from 1/4 way in from each side.
Apologies if I'm up a wrong gum tree..
Cheers, crowie

You're up the right tree Pete.
The way I tapered it on the disc sander, it looks hollow, but that's only because there's so much material still to be removed. It'll come down to roughly the line in this pic, maybe a little higher.:

bv. Roof front shaping line.JPG


Edit: I just started gluing on the bits of the roof. First part's done.

Thank you Steve, so I'm not going potty...... thank goodness!!

Originally Posted by crowie

Thank you Steve, so I'm not going potty...... thank goodness!!

Ha. Not as far as I'm aware.

Well, tonight was one of those nights when I just couldn't stop. Got a fair bit of the shaping done. I've almost finished the top, just need to make it a little more round.
Then some blending around the sides and bottom of the rear window and vent panel, and the main shaping is pretty well done. (The gaps toward the lower edges of the rear window panel will disappear by the time I get the blending done.)

Getting there.

bw. Mid body shaping 1.JPG bx. Mid body shaping 2.JPG

Not a bad night's work, I reckon. It's a snack & bed for me. I'm exhausted.
I'll glue the engine cover and vent panel on tomorrow.

Edit: Just looking at the pics, I'd better clean up the edges of the side window openings, too. A bit on the ragged side.

Blimey you are certainly getting a lick on with this model, It seems like every time I log on you have done some more. Shape is looking great and after looking at your original this is much better

Watching your excellent WIP photos makes me want to try building this again. I made one last year but wasn't real happy with the results. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas.

Originally Posted by Hermit

Ha. Not as far as I'm aware.

Well, tonight was one of those nights when I just couldn't stop. Got a fair bit of the shaping done. I've almost finished the top, just need to make it a little more round.
Then some blending around the sides and bottom of the rear window and vent panel, and the main shaping is pretty well done. (The gaps toward the lower edges of the rear window panel will disappear by the time I get the blending done.)

Getting there.

bw. Mid body shaping 1.JPG bx. Mid body shaping 2.JPG

Not a bad night's work, I reckon. It's a snack & bed for me. I'm exhausted.
I'll glue the engine cover and vent panel on tomorrow.

Edit: Just looking at the pics, I'd better clean up the edges of the side window openings, too. A bit on the ragged side.

Steve, You were burning the midnight candle with this one BUT WOW, the result looks superb, the real deal..... VERY WELL DONE, INDEED!!! crowie

Thanks fellas. It's not hard to put in long hours when you're enjoying yourself, and I'm having a ball making this.

Just found the perfect tool chest for under the bonnet, too. About the right size.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/to...4/#post1696634

Robin, if you do decide to build another one, you're welcome to a copy of my drawings for the roof/rear windscreen panels etc. A bit scruffy, but they show the main angles and dimensions. Some bits are just in my head, but the important parts are on paper.

Thank you Hermit. I took the liberty of saving the photo of your drawing that you posted earlier in the thread. The roof line on your VW is perfect and that's the part that I wasn't happy with on mine. (see photos) Thank you again and keep the excellent ideas coming.

Originally Posted by Robin53

Thank you Hermit. I took the liberty of saving the photo of your drawing that you posted earlier in the thread. The roof line on your VW is perfect and that's the part that I wasn't happy with on mine. (see photos) Thank you again and keep the excellent ideas coming.

That looks pretty good Robin. Nice work.

A little progress. The vent panel is glued and blended and the rear guards are 3/4 shaped. I'll do the last bit of shaping at the rear after they're glued on, along with the final rear body shaping. Also drilled the ends of the axles, ready for fitting.

I've worked out the best order for doing things, I think.

Next I'll make the seats, then fit them and glue on the rear axle and the base plate.

After that, I'll glue the rear guards on and do the final shaping in that area, with a pencil line marking where the engine cover will be fitted, as a 'keep out' area, so it stays flat. I don't want to make the actual wheels yet, (no lathe), so I'll make a 2" disc as a dummy wheel to check that the guards are centred while gluing them in place. There's only a very small gap between wheel and guard, so any error would stand out.

Once that's all done, I'll glue on the engine cover, then move on to the front.

by. Rear guards rough-shaped.JPG

I prepped some 1/2" Silver Ash for the seats. It should look good against the other timbers, I hope. I'll use some for the bumpers, too, I think.

bz. Silver Ash seat stock.jpg

Not much done, but at least the seats are finished and attached to the floor pan:

ca. Floor pan with seats.JPG

Things are moving a bit slowly at the moment because my dust collector died a couple of days ago, (runs more like an arc welder than a dust collector), so the machinery's getting a break until it's fixed. The brushes are worn out and arcing badly, but I couldn't find suitably sized replacements, so had to order a new motor from H&F. It will be here tomorrow, hopefully. $60 delivered. Not too bad - effectively a new motor means a new dust collector, since there are no other moving parts.
I'll get moving a bit more quickly again once it arrives.

It must be about time for an update. The new DC motor arrived on cue, so I'm back in business. Just had to take care of some mowing, hedge-trimming and other boring junk for a couple of days.

I've glued on the rear guards and made taillights, rear number plate light and engine cover handle. (That bit was fiddly, but worked well.) Did the final shaping of the rear end, too. I haven't glued on the taillights etc yet, or the engine cover itself. They're all just sitting there. I'll leave that until the last minute, for some final sanding before gluing.

cb. Taillight etc test fit 1.JPG cc. Taillight etc test fit2.jpg


This afternoon I cut out all of the parts for the front, except the front guards, so I can get stuck into that tomorrow.

cd. Body front parts.JPG

The two-tone piece at the bottom is the centre strip, (Silver Ash top, Tas Oak bottom), to simulate a chrome strip down the centre of the bonnet. The chrome strip has to end about in the middle of the headlights, then there'll be a small grab handle just below the end. (I hope.)

I got the front parts tapered today, and the centre strip and side fillers glued up. Tricky little bugger to clamp. The alligator-style clamp kept wanting to slide, but I found that a couple of short pieces of masking tape on the timber gave it a grip, (unseen in pic). I couldn't get a clamp to grip the top edge, so sat there for 10 minutes clamping it with my fingers. Hopefully there won't be a gap.

ce. Front centre glue-up.jpg


For anyone interested, I took a snap while making the taillights, too. I laminated the two timbers as strips, (Merbau for the taillight body and Australian Red Cedar for the lens), shaped the profile with the disc sander for tapers on the body and lens, then cut off individual taillights and hand-sanded to a (more or less) oval shape. I'm hoping that when it has a finish on it the ARC looks sort of red against the chocolate-coloured Merbau.

cf. Taillight blanks.JPG cg. Taillights.JPG

Steve,

Looks Great!

You should consider a VW bus for your next build. Heard today that they are going out of production at the end of the year. The only place they were still made is Brazil and since there are new laws requiring air bags the bus is being discontinued.

Cheers,

Jim