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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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
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.
So you end up making a "Stan Pope-mobile" type frame to attach the design to? Where do you end up mounting weight? Glue lead strips to the side struts? Doesn't sound like there is much of a bottom to work with.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
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?
Oh, I was thinking of building a bottomless box just for the rear/roof section of the car and just doing a angle cut of the pine block for the front section. I see that I will need to make any fenders out of the basswood to instead of some scrap wood I was thinking about using.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:So you end up making a "Stan Pope-mobile" type frame to attach the design to? Where do you end up mounting weight? Glue lead strips to the side struts? Doesn't sound like there is much of a bottom to work with.
I usually don't go that extreme with the frame, unless I'm really pushing the weight limit. It's usually just a slab, with nothing hollowed out, although it's usually shortened.

The weight usually gets mounted on top of the frame, where it's hidden by the hollow body.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:
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.
How close to the axels can you come and still have enough strength? I will want to mount the wheels once before cutting down the block so there should't be too much preasure on the axel slots. Maybe 1/8" above the top of the slot? We need to use the slots for our races.

Is basswood somewhere between balsa and pine in consistency?
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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Basswood sands like Pine but when your cutting it is a little different. Basswood is the prefered wood for wood carvers since it is easy to work with. I have combined Basswood and pine on several cars with good results. It is also a very flexible and strong wood so you can cut it pretty thin.

Balsa is very light and very soft. I used Balsa of the top of a couple of cars.

Just a note: When I put the two pieces of wood together to form my cars with fenders or a roof the pieces were already hollowed out. The weight problem was not a factor as the body was between 1.4 and 1.8oz.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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TurtlePowered wrote:How close to the axels can you come and still have enough strength? I will want to mount the wheels once before cutting down the block so there should't be too much preasure on the axel slots. Maybe 1/8" above the top of the slot? We need to use the slots for our races.
If you prestress the wood by inserting axles with a drill press before you cut the block, then you could probably get to within 1/8" of the top of the slot safely. I wouldn't get any closer than that, though.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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threader wrote:Basswood sands like Pine but when your cutting it is a little different. Basswood is the prefered wood for wood carvers since it is easy to work with. I have combined Basswood and pine on several cars with good results. It is also a very flexible and strong wood so you can cut it pretty thin.

Balsa is very light and very soft. I used Balsa of the top of a couple of cars.

Just a note: When I put the two pieces of wood together to form my cars with fenders or a roof the pieces were already hollowed out. The weight problem was not a factor as the body was between 1.4 and 1.8oz.
Glad to hear it sands like Pine, I hate working with Balsa. I cringe when space derby time comes up. Raingutter Reggata boats only need a little sanding which we can handle.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:If you prestress the wood by inserting axles with a drill press before you cut the block, then you could probably get to within 1/8" of the top of the slot safely. I wouldn't get any closer than that, though.
This is the first time I've heard about inserting axles with a drill press. Exactly how does that work? Doesn't the head of the axle cause a problem? Do you turn the drill press on? ( Don't think so? ) How is this done? Are you talking drilling the axle slots?
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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I made one last year based on the "New Design" which is more rounded. I used pictures from the VW web site scaled to fit a Pinewood body and then made a template for this in cad. I have this template I could send you as an Acrobat file. I also saw a template in Acrobat for the old style Beetle, if I could find this I could send you that too. I aso could take digital pictures of last years car and send thoes along if you like.

The car I made used one full block hollowed out as much as possible, part of a block for the rounded top and fenders/running boards glued to the side. When finished I only had to add the smallest split shot I had to make the 5 oz weight.

I have not checked in here very often in the off season but let me know if any of this will be of help to you.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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darin_mcgrew wrote:If you prestress the wood by inserting axles with a drill press before you cut the block, then you could probably get to within 1/8" of the top of the slot safely. I wouldn't get any closer than that, though.
threader wrote:This is the first time I've heard about inserting axles with a drill press. Exactly how does that work? Doesn't the head of the axle cause a problem? Do you turn the drill press on? ( Don't think so? ) How is this done? Are you talking drilling the axle slots?
We cut the head off an extra axle (each box of ten kits comes with a few extras, and we don't use them all) and stick the axle in the drill press. You don't have to turn the drill press on, but it helps avoid bending the axle if you do. The end result is nice straight axle holes (since you do this when the block is still nice and square), and the hole isn't too big, and still grips the axle nicely when you're done.

It's basically the same idea as drilling axle holes at the same location as the original axle slots, except you aren't really drilling anything. You're just pushing an axle in, and doing so in a way that assures a straight hole. And instead of a hard-to-find odd-size bit, you're just using an axle.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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DMWOOD wrote:I made one last year based on the "New Design" which is more rounded. I used pictures from the VW web site scaled to fit a Pinewood body and then made a template for this in cad. I have this template I could send you as an Acrobat file. I also saw a template in Acrobat for the old style Beetle, if I could find this I could send you that too. I aso could take digital pictures of last years car and send thoes along if you like.

The car I made used one full block hollowed out as much as possible, part of a block for the rounded top and fenders/running boards glued to the side. When finished I only had to add the smallest split shot I had to make the 5 oz weight.

I have not checked in here very often in the off season but let me know if any of this will be of help to you.
I would love to get a template for the old style VW, 1964 vintage or so. I have Visio if you can export as a Visio 2000. It says it can import a Autocad DWG file so we could try that too.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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I am thinking probably make one box for the back, one box for the front, then glue them together when we become confident we won't ruin it.
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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I did a search and found the link to the "Old Style" Beetle and listed it below. I only made a template of the "New Style" Beetle in Cad but if you still want that then I can try to convert that and send it to you.

http://www.inetworld.net/bosworth/Templ ... cut_13.pdf
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Re: Making a VW Beetle

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DMWOOD wrote:I did a search and found the link to the "Old Style" Beetle and listed it below. I only made a template of the "New Style" Beetle in Cad but if you still want that then I can try to convert that and send it to you.

http://www.inetworld.net/bosworth/Templ ... cut_13.pdf
That's a pretty good pdf diagram. It has non-slot axels but should be able to adjust it a bit. I am thinking of trimming the normal front of the block down to close to the rear axel slot to end of block.
I wouldn't mind looking at the new style but certainly wouldn't want you to do much work or time doing it. I am thinking the front and back are fairly different from the older 1964 or so vintage but not exactly sure. If it is easy private message me and I will give you my email address. I had forgotton about Bosworth site having car templates.
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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.
Am I making this harder than it really is, but it looks to me if I try to make a hollow box there is going to be a lot of pieces to try to hold together and it it going to be a real bear to try to fit right? I was even thinking about taking a basic VW template, and cut the pattern out of 1/4" and 1/2" wide basswood. This way I could leave hollow the inside slices (pretending the vw body was cut in vertical slices), glue the slices together. Only the outside 2 slices would have need much body and I could leave around 1/4" avaiable around the basic frame for sanding, perhaps a little more toward the front. Do you think that approach might be easier?

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Picture I drew looks like when editing but not for regular viewing.

Also, if I use 1/2" for main outside supports would it make sence to use 1/2" wide, 1/4" high stuts to attach to main car body?
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