Something New (and Old) VW Sedan

[modellius]

excellent !

[Second Air Force]

The sedan is virtually finished, so more time to spend on the Kubel. All the primary parts are now in their desert tan color and assembly can start when the paint dries.

[No.1]

Beautiful!

[modellius]

excellent !

[Second Air Force]

Thank you, friends!

Very nice weather this morning so I thought to work on Ingrid for a little while. Here is the paint stripping procedure on the ashtray door. As you see, a prior owner repainted the car from Jupiter grey to white. Luckily for me he didn't sand the interior metal that was resprayed so I disassembled the ashtray and used a high-speed tool with a soft Scotchbrite pad to thin the white. Then I removed all the remaining white with acetone and a soft rag. This part takes a lot of time and patience but leaves the grey intact if you're careful. Then a bit of wax and reassembly, and a Jupiter grey ashtray appears!

[No.1]

For protection, do you consider 2K epoxy primer?

[Second Air Force]

The plan is to fully strip the interior of all white and then evaluate what can be saved and what must be painted. There is one area below the rear window that'll need to be painted for sure. Then preservation and clearcoating can be decided. Here are two photos of what is going on, just above and outboard of the right side of the rear window. First, thin the paint coat carefully with Scotchbrite disc, then remove white enamel with acetone and rags and then bring back the shine with rubbing compound/paint cleaner. Thankfully the painter didn't scuff the interior grey before he sprayed on his thick coat of white--the original grey has few flaws after polishing!

[modellius]

Looks excellent, so good to see the original paint survived

[Second Air Force]

Yes, I am really happy that it looks like we will be able to keep the interior in original paint. The plan is to save the original paint in the trunk, interior, inside the wheelwells and the engine compartment. The exterior will have to be repainted though.

Here is some 1/16th progress, still painting small parts and so forth. Soon I'll start weathering and adding some Tunisian mud.

[No.1]

Nice to see such a restoration as well model build effort

[Second Air Force]

Restoration of Ingrid is going even slower than my modeling..

Here are final photos of the KdF Wagen. Still I am going to add some amount of dust/dirt to the running gear, but it was a sunny afternoon so I took advantage of it for pictures.

This was truly a fun and relaxing build for me that takes me back over twenty years to when we lived in Texas and I first began this project. Much has changed since then, but the model building and satisfaction of completion is still just as fulfilling as it ever was. Back when I started this car I was building almost exclusively automotive subjects and we had a successful resin casting business. Now I'm back to my first subjects--warplanes--but it's still quite a lot of fun to build a car!

[No.1]

 

[modellius]

amazing ! excellent work my friend ! excellent !

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, friends!

I've wanted to finish that car for a long time.

[Second Air Force]

Here are a couple of photos of an earlier VW build that I just photographed for my 1/1 scale VW web forum. I built this little Hasegawa 1/24 car in 1994, right after we moved to Texas. There is no interior or other detail, just painted inside of the windows black. If I recall, we used the term "Slammer" for these types of models at shows and expos. It was the proof-of-concept model for a friend of mine to build his real Beetle but I doubt if he ever finished the project. (Not really related to this thread, but not worth another new thread)