39 replies to this topic

[Percymon]

The title is deliberate as i cannot possibly call this a restoration - this is never going to be a pristine shelf queen.

So this is the start point , bought from eBay back in the autumn



It has seen better days; the body battered and bruised,the windscreen cracked and the chassis in need of a strip, clean and general fettling. The shell is not pretty by any means,although its maybe not that badly damaged that it can't be saved - buying a new Blitzer shell would be the easy option but why not try to repair this original white plastic one? The front face where the nose cone attaches is largely missing, the bonnet (hood) cracked right up to the body mount hole and the front wings (fenders) have their front halves missing too

During the winter i bought a few used spare parts so I could pick n choose the better parts during the rebuild.

This won't be going back to Boxart - i have some non Tamiya, but quite appropriate, decals on route, along with Scorcher clear glass. The colour scheme will however be in line with the chassis colours, mainly because the chassis components, whilst not prisitine , are too good to rub down and spray.

[pizzachaude]

Doesnt look that bad from here! I bought enough parts to restore mine to shelfqueen to make another runner, but with a very beat up USA-1 body. It aint the prettiest thing but it sure takes a beating and never breaks (well, almost...)

[Percymon]

Been away at the weekend so not a huge amount of progress

body stripped of old paint revealing all the crakcs in the bonnet are up to and around the body mount hole (the usual !! )
'seams' removed from rear wheel arches, rear quarters and sides of bonnet (fuel flap area)
front end of shell now sporting some plasticard and awaiting filler etc
started to make some plasticard front wheelarch repairs

Waiting on body parts now  

[pizzachaude]

Here's one I just picked up today in a local ad. Quite the opposite of yours: Excellent original body with undamaged nose cone (thats a first for me!). Even the gutters are perfect! No cracks anywhere, but no idea why its painted primer gray. Chassis is pretty rough, rusty, and no shocks. The owner gave these aluminum ones but they'll never fit a Monster Beetle. Rims are excellent though, but only 3 tires, and 4 baldies. Cant complain for 40$, I think I could sell the nose cone and lights for that amount.

What do you use to strip the body, brake fluid? Will it work on primer? And what is plasticard?

[Percymon]

Wow that looks a good buy for $40 ! The wheel rims and lights are worth that

Plasticard = styrene sheet, available in different thickness from hobby shops.

[mongoose1983]

Here's one I just picked up today in a local ad. Quite the opposite of yours: Excellent original body with undamaged nose cone (thats a first for me!). Even the gutters are perfect! No cracks anywhere, but no idea why its painted primer gray. Chassis is pretty rough, rusty, and no shocks. The owner gave these aluminum ones but they'll never fit a Monster Beetle. Rims are excellent though, but only 3 tires, and 4 baldies. Cant complain for 40$, I think I could sell the nose cone and lights for that amount.

What do you use to strip the body, brake fluid? Will it work on primer? And what is plasticard?

That's one GREAT purchase. I'm sure if you sell the shocks you'll get enough to cover both, the purchase the Monster Beetle itself and some original shocks, too. Brake fluid will take off all the stuff. Just cover the body with some using a brush for a couple of nights and then it all will start coming off. Whatever you hear, don't dip it, because not only the brake fluid is expensive and you'll need a lot to do that, but also because sometimes it does affect small hairline cracks and such, making the body less resistant to impacts.
Then again congrats on finding such a nice MB!!

[Percymon]

I stripped the unknown brand old yellow paint off with oven cleaner, the pour into a bag variety. Left for four hours with hourly rotation of the shell in the fluid. It's worked every time on various hard shells for me, tried brake fluid twice with zero success

Still waiting on parts

[pizzachaude]

Well I started taking mine apart and that chassis is really beaten! MSC is shot, motor also shot and full of rust inside, every single screw and nut is rusted, both rear suspension arms damaged. I put another motor on it and the diff gears are shot too. Still a good deal though, I will use some parts and the body to complete my shelfqueen, and some other parts to repair my runner.

Thanks for the tips, I have no experience with hard plastic bodies, my collection is all Lexan. I'll have to try oven cleaner and brake fluid and see what goes best I guess. I also have another beaten Beetle shell with cracks, I will start with that one first. Percymon, I would love to see how you make out with that Plasticard repair, can you post some pics of your progress so I can see how it's done? I'll quit hijacking your thread now

[Percymon]

OK quick update..

• shell stripped with over cleaner
• front bonnet splits realigned and glued with plastik magic cement - needs further reinforcement yet
• front face of the shell was largely missing, so styrene card placed at the rear and small sections of styene card added to the front face to rebuild the original area
• my mock up front wings weren't half bad, so i've glued these on with plastik magic
• some bumps in the roof sanded back - perhaps from previous roll-overs ?
• crack on the right A pillar trim repaired again with plastik magic

right wing repair in progress..


left wing repair in progress..


front body mount repair in progress..


front face repair in progress..


and the backside..


The wings need a lot more work, skimming over with filler and sanding back, the front mount needs reinforcement and front face needs filling and sanding back smooth. Some flexible 1:1 auto plastic repair/filler arrived yesterday - undecided whether to use this or mix my own with using CA glue and talc.

I've also got to decide whether to use the Blitzer Beetle or Sand Scorcher nose cone - will depend on whether i bother with LED light set (Scorcher cone has the indicator mounts).


I'm happy with where i've got so far - its only a runner shell after all, but still lots of work to do

[kontemax]

Blitzer nosecone is really ugly on the Monster Beetle. Use Sand Scorcher ones and fill the indicator holes.

Max

[Percymon]

Well i have both nose cones available - Other than the indicator recesses of the Scorcher one I'm unsure of any other differences -
time to put them side by side to compare.

Editted - having looked at MB,BB and SS manuals its obvious the blitzer cone has more depth so the headlights are further forward and perhaps slightly lower than the MB/SS cones. Will be using the SS cone now !

[bromvw]

Dave dont use the 1/1 car body filler . It always cracks out as i found on the first Funco attempt . Its better to use styrene powder and CA . Sand some styrene down with a power sander in a poly bag to make your own styrene 'dust' and use that

[Percymon]

Thanks Arron.

I've used a combination of flexible filler (to skim the roof/sunroof area) and CA/styrene for the wheel arch repairs. The arches will be strengthened with very thin stryene sheet on the underside since the joint area to the exisitng wing and bonnet are very small.

Offered up the Scorcher and Blitzer nose cones - confirmed the Blitzer is plain ugly in comparison  

[bromvw]

Thanks Arron.

I've used a combination of flexible filler (to skim the roof/sunroof area) and CA/styrene for the wheel arch repairs. The arches will be strengthened with very thin stryene sheet on the underside since the joint area to the exisitng wing and bonnet are very small.

Offered up the Scorcher and Blitzer nose cones - confirmed the Blitzer is plain ugly in comparison  

Yup its like a big Snotter on a pretty woman - it ruins it lol

[Percymon]

Yup its like a big Snotter on a pretty woman - it ruins it lol

but strangely in bright orange it looks fine on the Blitzer !

[matman]

Not a bad job . Comming along nicely .

[Percymon]

Found some suitbale front springs in the spares box over the weekend, so the chassis will be 95% complete when they go on tonight. I'm on hols for two weeks starting Saturday, so i've no chance of finishing before then.

[pizzachaude]

Sorry for the noob question, but what CA glue do you use? The only CA glue I know is Krazy glue, and it dries so fast you wouldn't have enough time to mix anything into it before it turns solid as a rock.

Percymon, I admire your perseverance, there is no way I could ever have as much free time and patience to rebuild anything that badly damaged, cant wait to see the final results, thanks for the great pics.

About automotive body filler, if it cracks is it possible its because of the type/brand you are using?

[Percymon]

Well here is another update, as it stands this morning; its probably not going to progress an awful lot from this position for three weeks now as I'm away on holiday in a few days time.

Chassis is 95% complete - i found the correct front springs in one of my spares boxes. Only items left to do chassis wise are..
1. install the Tamiya Hi Torque servo saver that arrived from Japan last week
2. add the Acoms vintage RX
3. adjust the rear body mounts forwards 4mm so that the front body post lines up correctly
4. I will probably buy a new front bumper to replace the slightly scuffed one that resides presently as the project nears its end.



Sunroof bonded in, roof skimmed with flexible auto body filler and sanded back (not too much distortion in the roof given its previous abuse)..



Front wings were repaired with 1mm styrene sheet/plasticard and bonded with plastik magic solvent glue and skimmed with auto flexible filler. When sanding back one of the repairs failed so both were removed and rebonded with solvent glue and CA adhesive. I then 'laminated' the underside of the entire wheelarch with the thinnest plasticard sheet i had (0.25mm), bonded on with solvent glue again - i cut the inner edge slightly wider so I could wrap the laminated section onto the underside of the bonnet. The clamps I used were a bit too strong so have imprinted the thin styrene sheet (I can live with such minor marks on the underside though). I'll let the pictures speak..





Scorcher nose cone attached - needs some minor work with filler to fill and smooth the join area..


 So much still to be done - finalise the shape of the leading edge of the front wings, blend in the nose cone and then lots of wet ne dry to prep the surface for paint.

[Percymon]

Found 30 minutes spare time tonight so the servo saver and rx are now installed and some filler added to joint of nose cone.

[IBIFTKH]

Nice work on the body repairs.

[Percymon]

Nice work on the body repairs.

Thanks - They are far from shelf queen quality but as an occassional careful runner they will do, and I'm not one to spend days with wet n dry for that perfect paint finish  

[Percymon]

Quick update - having been away for 2 weeks, and then a further week of family staying with me, there's not been a huge amount of RC time of late. I have however managed to get the shell painted.

Went in the end with TS-15 yellow for the lower half (which i thought would match the yellow CVAs but is in fact a bit too light) and Italian red TS-8 for the upper half. I sprayed grey primer first, then the yellow (no masking) so when it came to spray the red area there was a mixture of grey primer and yellow. I decided to even up the base first to ensure a consistent red colour, but with no primer left i delved into the paint box and found some gunmetal. Added two coats of this to cover the primer and yellow, then added 5 coats of the Italian red TS-8, which despite 5 coats, came out a lot darker than planned - its more a burgundy colour, which i actually like as a contrast to the yellow but the plan of matching the shell to the chassis and CVA colours went well awry

I'm now waiting on some TS-13 clear to arrive so i can finish the body and move onto the decals. New driver figure is painted and ready to go

I've bought a R2hobbies lighting set with indicators etc but given the lack of space to install them in the rear wing/wheel arch I think i'll just go for headlights only now - i'd prefer a simple, neat installation than a load of unsightly wiring showing

Pics coming soon

[tozrovr]

Love to see all the care you've put into the concourse level restoration! Big thumbs up!!

[Percymon]

Thanks for the kind words - its a reasonable restoration, but there's much better restoration talent on this forum than me. I consider it a reasonable effort, with no bodges as such, but it'll never be concours to my mind.