What's happening in FONZY'S GARAGE...

[FONZY]

AAAaaayyy...

I'm Fonzy, and I have been working on VW's off and on since the mid 80's. I have built a few over the years, all beetle sedans. Some pretty nice, some not so hot, but hey we only learn from trying

Here is my old 74. I did a full body-off 'customized' restoration about 15 years ago.



I took 4 semesters of body shop classes at the local community college and was able to do a pretty damn nice job on the build. Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep her and sold it roughly 2 years after the build. I was able to find a nice lady who drove a school bus for a living that just fell in love and still drives it to this day.

Well now that I am an official ****-ner I have the tools, time and interest in another build... This time around I am building an RPU (roadster pick up) on a 65 beetle sedan...
I have seen alot of these as fenderless 'volksrods' but they don;t quite look right to me. Instead I am doing a full fendered version with a one peice removable roof and stepside style bed.

Heres where it sits so far...



I am currently working on fabricating the bed and rear fenders.. heres a close photoshop of what it will look like



Since I started with a 65 sedan, I had to graft in an early vert frame and cowl, and while I was at it, chopped it down 3" and build a custom dashboard that will house a 1951 Nash guage cluster in the center...

















also did a bit of a custom area under the dash for a radio...





and fabricated some inner fender reinforcements in the trunk area...



I used some heavy heavy guage bed frame rails to reinforce the heater channels ...





added in some early vert kickpanel reinforcements

[FONZY]

then it was on to the chassis...

turned this:



into this: (basic stock rebuild, nothign special)



the motor:



and after:





Picked up an old IRS chassis to run since I will be slamming the hell out of this car...





Put in new pans,



and added a 2" square heavy wall tube around the perimeter for reinforcements like on a vert...



converted the late setup for an early stock rebuilt shifter front to back... made a nifty brushed aluminum shift knob from an old cabinet door handle...



built a shortened e-brake handle (since I am not an 80 year old lady I don't need that much leverage)





and since I will be ultimately running a bench seat, I relocated the e-brake to the pass. side floor right next to the tunnel...



and ran some heavy guage steel tubing for the cables to the rear brakes..





then whipped up a 6" narrowed/adjustable ball joint beam, with dropped ball joints,dropped spindles..etc etc, new everything...


(with stock 165's on it



then out back I reversed the trailing arms from left to right to eliminate the camber issue that arrises on IRS when ya lower it really far down.
Afterwards, sitting at stock height, the top of the wheels actually lean outwards, when lowered down they pull in to vertical.

built the rear cab wall...



skinned it





used some old vert door 'tops' to cap the rear wall...



and wrapped around the corners...





left a big square hole in the cab wall so I can place some sub woofers behind the seat later, and use the bed (which will have a cover) as a speaker box...



Built some 'steps' for just in front of the fenders...



Mounted up some bed sides off of a mid 60's chevy pickup... shortened for length and height...





and thats about where I sit right now... got ALOT more to go ...





thanks for looking!

[bigmanlittlebug]

Holy crap man you are not messing around. I really need to learn how to do body work.

[faded glory]

Wow.

Just wow.

This thread shoulda been in Showroom, I think....


The work is....
wow.

[Summerdaze]

fancy pants

[Kirk]

Damn. You are just not screwing around. I love the "whipped up a 6" narrowed beam" part.

Damn.

[mechmark]

Do you only do body work for yourself or do you do it for a living also????

[Superfluous B]

Really nice work!

[gixxer 711]

great job!! cant wait to see the finished product!!

[FONZY]

Do you only do body work for yourself or do you do it for a living also????

just my stuff really... never done it for a living.