Thanks Chris, The body work is coming along but I don't know with the time I have if I am going to be able to get the gloss paint done as well as I want so I am leaning more towards the Flat Black

 

I reckon a flat black beetle wont look great. (But then again who knows, and its all in the eye of the beholder anyway.... plus you are the owner/beholder!)
I reckon just silver coat primer it.... then lay on the colour of choice afterwards.

A Bright blue, or cherry black purple would look cool I reckon?

 

I'd recommend going with a flat colour. It looks great. Been practicing with "alaskan blue" with some flake and looks way better than black. There is a guy locally that has an old Nash painted red flat and it make it look like a plastic toy.
Something to consider.
(I'm painting my 67 austin, not my 8)

 

Have been working on the Body fixing what the previous owner did wrong like not welding the trim holes before using body filler.
Also found a good size spot of rust


all better with some new metal


Made a grill to protect the radiator and also make the hood look complete when painted. (zip ties are temporary! no comments needed at this time)


fixed the fiberglass on the rear fender where the previous hacked it up for his exhaust


bought some running boards (just a mock up but you can see that it hides the coolant lines)

 

So for anyone that actually liked the Plasma TV falling out of the engine bay idea seen here


I am sorry to disappoint but I was actually able to fit the apron on with some manipulation and persuasion. I had to modify how the deck lid was mounted and extend the stand off but this will help in cooling as well so its a win win situation as it looks 1000 times better, will stay cooler, and will be more sleeper as from behind you can't notice the large stand off very well. Also cut and formed some metal to weld in to fill the exhaust cut outs.



I still need to modify it so it will fit with the A/C compressor


Got a new set of tail lights that are correct for this body

 

Why did do retain all the air pump BS ? Seems you could free up a loy of space if you ditched it .

 

for the same reason I retained the Cat. plus what am I going to do with the space if it wasn't there?

 

When done, it should look like this...

 

^^ Hope not

 

yeah broken rear axle for the lose! I guess his plasma TV was a 60" and was too heavy!

 

I could not justify doing all of this work and have the car look like S***, so I broke down and bought a replacement rear apron to see how much I would need to modify it and really a little cutting here and there and it went on. As for the hood it needed to be stood off another 1.5" and changed how it was mounted. All in all I am soooooooooooo glad I did it because it looks 1000 times better and will make the project well worth the trouble.

 

It's a pity that there's no space to close the hood properly... with the standoffs and it being always open, it will look a bit strange. But there's really not much else that could be done about that.
The rear apron looks indeed way better than the previous contraption

 

couldn't you mount the cover on little struts so it was "evenly" open all the way around?

 

the stand off will aid in cooling and I am not really a fan of the double stand off

 

could the stand off be at the bottom like the old NSU's and Fiats do?





You're VW is really coming along awesomely btw.

 

Thanks, Today I mounted the new tail lights in the proper location and now it seems I need to fill the holes where the other lights were mounted as they were way to low. I made a cradle for the engine acting as a motor mount so now the motor will have a lot less stress on it when I punch it. I also modified the rear apron so that the A/C Compressor will fit, it just fit so that you wont see any modification to the apron when the deck lid is closed. hopefully tomorrow I will make some good progress and have some pictures to show it.

 

sweet! we are all looking forward to it. I love your efforts so far, its great!

 

I like the stock apron much better. Definitely will add to the stealth factor... if they are deaf!

As for the deck lid being raised at the hinges, that's pretty common on tricked-out air-pumpers. Back when I was getting Hot VWs and VW trends almost every modified V-dub had the lid sticking out in the air. The theory is air coming down the rear window at-speed gets scooped into the engine bay, giving a bit of a ram-air effect to help feed the air cooling system. People will know you've got something under there, but they'll think it's an air-pumper.

 

nice work, one of my fave "rx8's" in the forum

 

filled the gaps from the body to the rear apron today hopefully tomorrow I can start the body work




Finished supporting the backside of the apron where I had to make some cuts

 

Finished the body work, taped off the car and got the first layer of sandable primer on
Just taping it off took me half the day, but I would rather make sure it doesn't get over spray.

 

Half the battle is prep work. Looks like the project is rolling along!

 

this is really coming along man! looking good. Lots of work since I last saw it.

 

I can't wait to see the final results

 

Wicked build, out of all the swaps i seen, this is by far the best i've seen.

my only gripe would be the posable heat soaked air intake, but i see how your going about it, shouldn't be a problem.

Can't wait to see it when its done!!