My Hotrod Beetle project
Discussion
Back in the late 70's I was introduced to Custom Car Magazine by my late friend Andrew. Every since then I have been infatuated by Hotrods and Customs. In the early 80's with no practical experience at all I decided to build a custom car using a Beetle base and some Wizard bits supplied by Chris Boyle, the result after 4 years work was this:
Unlike others that built these, on first rolling it out of the garage I hated it, the roof line was way too tall. So I pushed it back in and decided to roof chop it. This was a daunting task, but with a great deal of planning I pulled it off. In addition I completely reshaped the doors in steel, louvered the bonnet, rear deck and gas cap, widened the rear arches 4 inches and the fronts 2 inches as well as various other custom touches. I then as my first attempt, sprayed it using candies. You can see the two paint jobs I did in the pics above.
The car also appeared in a BBC education programme which you can see here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2qt1eDowr0
Anyway I drove it around for about ten years, attended various shows across Europe and won various awards. Then in 1993 I took it off the road for a refresh.
And there it sat in the back of my garage for the next 27 years. Two years ago a with a bit of time on my hands I decide to do a quick restoration figuring a quick respray would get it back on the road looking pretty much how it used too but just a different colour. And that’s when the problems started. The previous 27 years had taken a massive toll on the car with rust basically everywhere. The wise move would have been to scrape it but I loved that car so a new plan was hatched.
Having grown a little board with the samey ground scraping VW scene I decided to inject my passion for 60's gassers into the car. And this is where I have got too so far.
I have fabricated new door skins, front and rear quarters, new wings, frenched indicators, new sills, new front apron, new dash and over head console, new hinges for the engine cover and countless other bits and bobs. The suspension has been raised in classic gasser fashion and 60’s new 60’s style wheels added. Things to do include a parachute mount and wheelie bars plus a reshape of the rear wings to better fit the new wheels which are a lot larger than the old ones.
I know this car won’t be to everyone’s taste but I like it. The new paint job is going to be wild.
Sorry I dont know how to make the pics bigger
Unlike others that built these, on first rolling it out of the garage I hated it, the roof line was way too tall. So I pushed it back in and decided to roof chop it. This was a daunting task, but with a great deal of planning I pulled it off. In addition I completely reshaped the doors in steel, louvered the bonnet, rear deck and gas cap, widened the rear arches 4 inches and the fronts 2 inches as well as various other custom touches. I then as my first attempt, sprayed it using candies. You can see the two paint jobs I did in the pics above.
The car also appeared in a BBC education programme which you can see here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2qt1eDowr0
Anyway I drove it around for about ten years, attended various shows across Europe and won various awards. Then in 1993 I took it off the road for a refresh.
And there it sat in the back of my garage for the next 27 years. Two years ago a with a bit of time on my hands I decide to do a quick restoration figuring a quick respray would get it back on the road looking pretty much how it used too but just a different colour. And that’s when the problems started. The previous 27 years had taken a massive toll on the car with rust basically everywhere. The wise move would have been to scrape it but I loved that car so a new plan was hatched.
Having grown a little board with the samey ground scraping VW scene I decided to inject my passion for 60's gassers into the car. And this is where I have got too so far.
I have fabricated new door skins, front and rear quarters, new wings, frenched indicators, new sills, new front apron, new dash and over head console, new hinges for the engine cover and countless other bits and bobs. The suspension has been raised in classic gasser fashion and 60’s new 60’s style wheels added. Things to do include a parachute mount and wheelie bars plus a reshape of the rear wings to better fit the new wheels which are a lot larger than the old ones.
I know this car won’t be to everyone’s taste but I like it. The new paint job is going to be wild.
Sorry I dont know how to make the pics bigger
Edited by Streetrod on Friday 20th November 17:24
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