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M-02L VW Beetle resurrection (rally conversion)

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It's been a while since I did anything RC related. Found my old M-02L Beetle and decided to fix it up. Checked around the web for a scheme and decided to go with the one below:

 

 

realbeetle.jpg

realbeetle2.jpg

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The body was pretty beat up and painted silver inside so I had to paint the body on the outside for the build.

I had to modify the rear light cover(?) since the difference between the one in the kit and the finish I'm going for is very different. I started out by filling the inside with epoxy resin.

beetle01.jpg

Used a Dremel to grind it down.

beetle02.jpg

...until flat...or almost flat.

beetle03.jpg

Not perfect but it will do.

beetle04.jpg

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On to the wheels and tires. I found the diameter of the stock wheels and tires too small so I bought bigger tires and rims from ebay. However, I wanted to preserve the look of the stock rims.beetle08.jpg

Below was the quick and dirty way I used to get larger diameter wheels and preserve some of stock rims looks. I narrowed the stock wheels and hallowed out the new rims. I then inserted the cut stock rims into the hallowed out wheels.beetle09.jpg

beetle10.jpg

Painted them in matte black. Still deciding whether I should insert the narrowed rims all the way in or slightly out. Not inserting them all the way in will keep the wheels inside the fenders just like the real Beetle.

beetle11.jpg

beetle12.jpg

beetle13.jpg

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Beautiful job!! I'm looking forward to see the final results. How did you managed to get the "inner rim" perfectly concentricl with the "outer rim"??

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Beautiful job!! I'm looking forward to see the final results. How did you managed to get the "inner rim" perfectly concentricl with the "outer rim"??

Thanks. Got lucky that the stock rims are a perfect tight fit inside the outer rims. Furthermore, the edges of both the inner and outer rims are "flared" (couldn't think of a word) so they center by themselves when you put them together. Had they not been, I was ready to put the outer rims in my mill to to enlarge the holes and keep them centered.

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Still deciding whether I should insert the narrowed rims all the way in or slightly out. Not inserting them all the way in will keep the wheels inside the fenders just like the real Beetle.

beetle12.jpg

beetle13.jpg

Hmm. A difficult choice. I think they look better all the way in, but I also get your point about wanting to keep within the wheel arches.

Maybe set them all the way in the rims, and shave a few mm off the track by running really narrow hexes?

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It's hard to make a 67 look like a 62, but it's looking good.

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Have you got some pics of the chassis at all?

Don't really see many M-02s about. Project is looking great by the way, keep it up!

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Looks great so far!

What do you use to print those decals? I've always been keen on a solution of printing white ink onto clear but it's always been prohibitively expensive. It's hard even to find a UK-based company who will print white onto clear.

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Looks great so far!

What do you use to print those decals? I've always been keen on a solution of printing white ink onto clear but it's always been prohibitively expensive. It's hard even to find a UK-based company who will print white onto clear.

Thanks!

I have an old Alps MD1000 printer that can print white.

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It's been a long time and I'm back to working on this. Finally got a 3d printer and tried making a proper wheel. I'm also going to try to make tires using TPE filament.

3dVWWheel.jpg

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Is your new wheel narrower than the original Tamiya one?  It looks great, especially the way it pulls the stock tyre around to give a curved tread.

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15 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Is your new wheel narrower than the original Tamiya one?  It looks great, especially the way it pulls the stock tyre around to give a curved tread.

Yes, I made it narrower as I find the stock wheels too small in diameter and too wide in thickness.

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Below is a test print of a tire using flexible filament (NinjaFlex) and wheels using ABS. I'm happy with how the wheels are inside the fenders like the real Beetle.

 

VWTire.jpg

 

 

beetletirever2.jpg

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Great work :) For me, the Tamiya tyres on your printed rims looks the best ;) just more realistic imo, I understand your going for scale, but atheistic licence :) 

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After putting this off for half a year, I printed some updated parts -- headlights, headlight protectors, rear number plate light cover, door handles, horn.

newparts1.jpg

light1.jpg

light2.jpg

light3.jpg

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I am really liking this build and where it is going!

How do your printed tires (which look fantastic, by the way) compare with factory tires in terms of stiffness/suppleness? I would imagine that if the printed types are harder, it would result in a more realistic ride and/or longer-lasting tires. I am just curious, really.

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7 hours ago, Grastens said:

I am really liking this build and where it is going!

How do your printed tires (which look fantastic, by the way) compare with factory tires in terms of stiffness/suppleness? I would imagine that if the printed types are harder, it would result in a more realistic ride and/or longer-lasting tires. I am just curious, really.

Thanks. 

The printed tires are about twice as stiff compared to the stock tires. They were printed on an FDM 3d printer so I could only do so much in terms of getting the tire walls as thin as possible without the print failing. I recently got an SLA printer so hopefully the next version of the tires will be much softer and with better detail.

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