Making a VW Beetle

Secrets, tips, tools, design considerations, materials, the "science" behind it all, and other topics related to building the cars and semi-trucks.
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Making a VW Beetle

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Anybody have any plans or suggestions on how to build a VW Beetle. My son wants to make a "Herbie". We have never really made anything so curvy.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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Depends on the tools you can use:
Power scroll saw?
Coping saw?
Miter box?
Wood rasp?

Tell the tools, then we can tell a method.

In any case, resolve the axle=body interface before cutting.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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Have power scroll saw, might be able to get access to a bandsaw from a fellow scouts father. Have a miter box but not sure on how good it is. Have coping saw which we did not use well for our first pine car. Have dremel with some basic attachements. The rear end and roof are my main concerns. Need to get some good curves and need to keep it hollow to keep the weight down. Had though about using some small slices of wood, slice the middles out, then glue them together.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:Had though about using some small slices of wood, slice the middles out, then glue them together.
The approach I've used for a number of cars has been to build a hollow box that's roughly the right shape, with extra wood at the corners where I'm going to round it off. The extra wood is key, since that allows you to round off the corners.

Generally, the box is 1/8" thick basswood, with the corner reinforcements anywhere between 1/4" square to 1/2" square, depending on how much I want to round off the corner. I use basswood because it's easier to work with and less fragile than balsa.

But this is a rather time-consuming process. For rounding the hollow body to the right shape, I use sanding sticks (coarse sandpaper glued to scrap wood ) and a Dremel. Lots of sawdust, and you can't do it on auto-pilot or you're likely to go to far and screw up the whole thing.

Another approach I've seen used effectively for realistic designs has been to find a plastic model in the correct scale, and to use its pieces for decoration. Some have essentially built the model around a small wooden frame cut from the original block, but the most impressive ones used the roof and other bits, while shaping the body from the original block.

The big caution here is that plastic is surprisingly heavy, so you'll have to be careful about the 5-oz weight limit.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
TurtlePowered wrote:Had though about using some small slices of wood, slice the middles out, then glue them together.
The approach I've used for a number of cars has been to build a hollow box that's roughly the right shape, with extra wood at the corners where I'm going to round it off. The extra wood is key, since that allows you to round off the corners.

Generally, the box is 1/8" thick basswood, with the corner reinforcements anywhere between 1/4" square to 1/2" square, depending on how much I want to round off the corner. I use basswood because it's easier to work with and less fragile than balsa.

But this is a rather time-consuming process. For rounding the hollow body to the right shape, I use sanding sticks (coarse sandpaper glued to scrap wood ) and a Dremel. Lots of sawdust, and you can't do it on auto-pilot or you're likely to go to far and screw up the whole thing.

Another approach I've seen used effectively for realistic designs has been to find a plastic model in the correct scale, and to use its pieces for decoration. Some have essentially built the model around a small wooden frame cut from the original block, but the most impressive ones used the roof and other bits, while shaping the body from the original block.

The big caution here is that plastic is surprisingly heavy, so you'll have to be careful about the 5-oz weight limit.
So maybe I could make a partial box with the back side of the box cut at a angle to get basic rear shape, then round the left and right sides?
What would you think about getting one of those sanding disks (7" or so)that could be put on a drill for rounding the edges?
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:So maybe I could make a partial box with the back side of the box cut at a angle to get basic rear shape, then round the left and right sides?
Yeah. Although the shape of a VW bug is so rounded, that you might end up using thicker wood for the box, to allow more rounding. But with a 45-degree miter cut, you could make a level roof and a 45-degree back end, and round the corners.

Another approach would be paper-mache or something similar. But getting it smooth enough for an automobile finish is tough, and you have to watch the weight limit.

Actually, anything you do that extends beyond the dimensions of the original block, you have to watch the weight limit.
Last edited by Darin McGrew on Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
TurtlePowered wrote:So maybe I could make a partial box with the back side of the box cut at a angle to get basic rear shape, then round the left and right sides?
Yeah. Although the shape of a VW bug is so rounded, that you might end up using thicker wood for the box, to allow more rounding. But with a 45-degree miter cut, you could make a level roof and a 45-degree back end, and round the corners.

Another approach would be paper-mache or something similar. But getting it smooth enough for an automobile finish is tough, and you have to watch the weight limit.

Actually, anything you do that extends beyond the dimensions of the original block, you have to watch the weight limit.
Sizing is surely a issue. The model we will probably be working off of is 8" long, 4" high. Would like to get more proportion without going so high.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:Sizing is surely a issue. The model we will probably be working off of is 8" long, 4" high. Would like to get more proportion without going so high.
That sounds big to me, but I've just done quick estimates using side-view photos scaled in the browser to a 4.5" wheelbase.

The dimensions that are pretty much fixed are the car's track (the distance between the left wheels and the right wheels) and the size of the wheels, and for some, the wheelbase. For some designs, it helps to adjust the wheelbase if you can, but the stock wheelbase seems to be a good fit for a VW bug (either classic or the modern bug).

Then scale everything else to match. I would think a VW bug would end up being just under 7" long, and just under 3" tall.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
TurtlePowered wrote:Sizing is surely a issue. The model we will probably be working off of is 8" long, 4" high. Would like to get more proportion without going so high.
That sounds big to me, but I've just done quick estimates using side-view photos scaled in the browser to a 4.5" wheelbase.

The dimensions that are pretty much fixed are the car's track (the distance between the left wheels and the right wheels) and the size of the wheels, and for some, the wheelbase. For some designs, it helps to adjust the wheelbase if you can, but the stock wheelbase seems to be a good fit for a VW bug (either classic or the modern bug).

Then scale everything else to match. I would think a VW bug would end up being just under 7" long, and just under 3" tall.

We have to run stock axels so that should be fine. I was measuring from floor to roof but will re-check tonight. 3" is plenty high enough I think to try to deal with weight and aerodynamics (if a classic bug is aerodynamic at all).
I have 3/8" tall tungsten cylinders for weights. I was thinking about cutting block down to 1/2" tall, bore the weight holes into "frame piece" then add the rear "box" to it.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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I would take one block and 1 scrap piece of pine on top of it for the roof. I would draw the profile with a pencil then cut the rough parts out on the friends bandsaw.

The cut two 1/2" or thinner pieces for fenders, what's a VW without fenders? Use your scroll saw to cut the final wheel cutouts and rough fender shapes.

Hollow out the roof with a Dremel tool or drill press with a 1/8" router bit.

If you hit this thing with a 7" sanding disk BE CAFEFUL or you won't have any wood left!

Good Luck
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
TurtlePowered wrote:So maybe I could make a partial box with the back side of the box cut at a angle to get basic rear shape, then round the left and right sides?
Yeah. Although the shape of a VW bug is so rounded, that you might end up using thicker wood for the box, to allow more rounding. But with a 45-degree miter cut, you could make a level roof and a 45-degree back end, and round the corners.

Another approach would be paper-mache or something similar. But getting it smooth enough for an automobile finish is tough, and you have to watch the weight limit.

Actually, anything you do that extends beyond the dimensions of the original block, you have to watch the weight limit.
Would you try to make the box, get the box looking like the roof/truck, then screw or glue the box on a slim pinewood frame that has the axels on it?
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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threader wrote:I would take one block and 1 scrap piece of pine on top of it for the roof.
Be very careful if you go this route. Most of the cars I've seen that have started this way have ended up very overweight (requiring a lot of work to hollow out the inside to meet the weight limit), or have used balsa. The problem with gluing a block of balsa to the stock pine block is that it is much softer than the pine, and it's very hard to get the transition smooth without over-sanding and removing too much balsa.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
threader wrote:I would take one block and 1 scrap piece of pine on top of it for the roof.
Be very careful if you go this route. Most of the cars I've seen that have started this way have ended up very overweight (requiring a lot of work to hollow out the inside to meet the weight limit), or have used balsa. The problem with gluing a block of balsa to the stock pine block is that it is much softer than the pine, and it's very hard to get the transition smooth without over-sanding and removing too much balsa.
But it would be fine making a basswood box to attach to pine frame that includes the wheels and axels?
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:Would you try to make the box, get the box looking like the roof/truck, then screw or glue the box on a slim pinewood frame that has the axels on it?
When I've built designs like this, I've cut a thin frame from the bottom of the original block, I've built a hollow car body with two solid struts running side-to-side at the bottom (one in the front and one in the back), and I've attached the body to the frame with two screws running from the bottom of the car, through the frame, and into the struts.

This technique works pretty well, and it's easy to demonstrate that the entire body is just "decoration" attached securely to the "car" made from the original block. It also allows you to finish the body decoration (including fenders and other bits that might get in the way of mounting the wheels), then mount the wheels, adjust the weight as needed, and finally screw the body to the frame.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

Post by Darin McGrew »

darin_mcgrew wrote:Be very careful if you go this route. Most of the cars I've seen that have started this way have ended up very overweight (requiring a lot of work to hollow out the inside to meet the weight limit), or have used balsa. The problem with gluing a block of balsa to the stock pine block is that it is much softer than the pine, and it's very hard to get the transition smooth without over-sanding and removing too much balsa.
TurtlePowered wrote:But it would be fine making a basswood box to attach to pine frame that includes the wheels and axels?
I'm not sure I understand your question.

If you attach a basswood box to the pine block so that part of the body is basswood and part is pine, then they will have similar characteristics (well, more similar than balsa and pine anyway) when you sand and shape the finished body. If you attach a hollow basswod body to a thin pine frame (the way I usually do), then the frame can be basically hidden and the entire visible body is basswood.

Does that address your concern?
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