1971 VW “Superbug Gasser” Shorty Beetle

[StanGlover]

Here’s my AMT 1971 Coca-Cola Shorty Beetle! I have several Coke kits in the stash that will likely not get Coke livery, so I figured I should do at least one with Coke graphics. It was fun picking out which decals to use from this kit’s huge selection of wild “Unity Collection” decals. 

I love how you can make the body removable so you can see the dune buggy chassis. The red is Krylon’s Apple Red. The kit includes a stock-ish VW dashboard, but the instructions don’t mention where it goes (I think you’re supposed to glue it into the body, but I don’t know how you’d align the steering shaft properly). I cut it down and glued it to the tubular dash structure to give the interior more detail. I could not get those fragile individual exhaust tubes to align properly so I gave up and left them off. The Coke crate comes from the Dodge D-50 Coke kit. 

The body is painted Testors Extreme Lacquer “Bronze” with the inserts done in Tamiya TS75 “Champagne Gold”. Part fit up is not great. The fragile roll bars are a nightmare to align, the chassis/front suspension ended up warped and the engine cover won’t close. I cut the generator belt/pulleys off and shaved their mounts down to pull it closer to the engine. Both hoods are glued shut. Overall this was a fun kit to build despite its foibles, with lots of customization opportunities. I picked up another one cheap from Ollies that will get a whole different look (eventually). 

[ozmodeler]

Great looking build Stan. And the comparison with the "new" bug. I still like the older ones better.

[Yeah Nah]

Love it! Love it!

Despite the usual AMT fit and build issues (which to me are something I'm quite prepared to put up with) you've ended up with a little gem Zack.

[ChrisR]

COOL!!

[espo]

Great looking body colors and decal trim. Like the Dune Buggy chassis underneath. 

[slusher]

Very Sharp!

[ewetwo]

That came out fantastic. 

[atomicholiday]

That looks terrific Zack!  Great workmanship.  I'm really digging the color scheme and decal choices. 

I'm working on the same kit and I'm having all kinds of issues with the front suspension currently.  Could I ask you to take a close up shot of that area on your build?  I'd like to see how you handled it.  There's no positive locating point anything.

[thatz4u]

nice, the Cokes won't stay cold next to the engine...LOL

[StanGlover]

@atomicholiday Here’s a close up. The front suspension piece on mine isn’t sitting right, because I glued the steering rack to the suspension first before glueing the suspension to the frame. The steering rack kept the suspension from sitting square/level so now the front right wheel doesn’t quite touch the ground. Hope this helps!

[atomicholiday]

Man, thank you so much!  That’s really helpful.  And it confirms some of my suspicions.

Again, great job on this one.  Hope mine turns out half as nice.? 

[StanGlover]

Good luck! Can’t wait to see it!

[ewetwo]

That looks fantastic. Nice build.