Der Beetle Bus XL-Pressing Forward-01/05

[Stikpusher]

Why the Beetle Bus of course...

[mustang1989]

Why the Beetle Bus of course...

Oh you wanna go eh? LOL. I'll have more on this one starting Friday. After 9 hours of sanding last week I don't care if I ever see another piece of sanding paper or sanding stick.

[mustang1989]

I spoke with Rick Dobbertin today on the phone ( the owner of the J2000) and he's going to send me some engine detail photos on the engine so I can get all the hose and harness routing correct so I'll be looking forward to that.

[Stikpusher]

Nice to have a good reference contact like that!

[mustang1989]

He's helped me a little bit with a couple unpublished photos and he's working on a few more plus a spare Revell J2000 kit to send my way. I just ordered a Pro Stock Camaro with the wheels that I want that are a 5 bolt pattern instead of a 4 bolt pattern Weld Draglites. This Camaro kit's got a bunch of other "goodies" in it that I'll use as well. The aluminum wheels I've been mocking everything up with are a "special treat" for my Street Stock 1990 Mustang LX I'll be tackling in the future.

Here's the kit:



and a picture of what the wheels will look like outside of an artists box top art representation ( Say......... I like that "Chevrolet Power" decal on the side of that hood scoop! That'll be going on the VW somewhere alright) :

[mustang1989]

The first thing that I had to do to get the engine / transmission to fit was to get rid of the Lenco 4 speed transmission and replace it with a Turbo TH350 automatic transmission. I went to work by cutting the Lenco from the engine assy.



After some sanding and dry fitting to make sure everything would line up flush , I mated the two together:



This morning has been nothing but planning and fitting to make sure all these mods are gonna jive with each other. I cut the flooring out another 1/2" at the front to allow the engine/ transmission to fit in nicely. I think this'll be ok:



I've got a lot of work ahead of me to include rear chassis framework fabrication, engine and transmission mounting and figuring out where I want the radiator to wind up as well as figuring out how I want to do the seating arrangement because the OOB stuff is now shot all to Hell.

[Paul]

Might as well get another case of beer and brats, boys. This is gonna be a while....

[Duke Maddog]

Might as well get another case of beer and brats, boys. This is gonna be a while....

Don't worry, I'm in for the long haul. This one will be well worth watching!

[mustang1989]

Thanks Paul and Mark. Made some more progress in the way of the roof. I ended up knocking one of my splices for the window framing out while washing the whole thing with soap and water so I could prime it. I ended up splicing a new section in and getting through the primer stage. I've got so much planning involved in this build now that it's all layered like a friggin' sandwich. I've just gotta be careful about the order in which I do stuff so I don't have to go back and redo anything. I'll get a little further along before I post any more pictures which'll probably be on Friday.

[tempestjohnny]

I remember reading the article about the J2000 in the 80's. What a car