Just signed up after lurking around occasional over the last couple of years. I am not a typical HAMBer, but I love the style and craftsmanship displayed on many of the projects here. I say not a typical HAMBer because my car poison is VWs and not typical VWs but Type 3 VWs. I am a regular over on Volksrods.com and will eventually build a Beetle based Volksrod. My current driver is a 1966 Type 3 Squareback, mild custom, but not real HAMB material. I also have a current project that I think fits in here a little bit better, but not really. It is a Lead Sled inspired custom that started life as a 1970 VW Type 3 Fastback. I have touched every panel on the car...chopped the top 6 inches, moved the windshield frame forward 4", extended the rear fenders, grafted in a 51 Ford dash, modified 49 Merc rear bumper and 53 Ford front bumper, etc, etc. Still lots of work to do, but here are a couple of pictures of where it is at right now and a couple of sketches of where I want to take it. Here are the sketches that I did. Obviously I haven't decided on a color yet. If you are interested at all you can check out the entire build thread over on Volksrods.com. Here is a link. http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5014 I am also a car artist. I do lots of different automotive art...mostly Photoshop rendered stuff, but also pinstriping. You can check out some of my work on my website in my signature. I will also post up some stuff in the Friday Night Art Show thread. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Hey Tim, You found me fast. Just hope the regulars over here aren't too hard on me for my VW addiction. I won't be posting any VW stuff over on the message board. I have witnessed what happens there....
Well nothing else to say but WOW. Nice job you have done on the V-Dub Welcome to the Hamb. The cars you are playing with may not match the "norm" here but your vision and skill certainly does
welcome in my book craftsmanship is craftsmanship..no matter the canvas. if your building what you love and doing it on a level of safe build practices, and you enjoy it thats all that counts.. Im sure you have something to offer this group..diversity is a good thing. nice looking ride and cool looking project
John if that your type 3 comes out even close to the rendering its gonna be kick ***. I for one don't have a problem with the Vdubs as they are part of car culture of 50's and 60's too. Welcome to the board and hopefully you'll post that thing up for everyone to see. Eric
Welcome to the HAMB from another Michigander. Cool project, I've alway liked old VW's. I have a '61 Beetle that I've been collecting parts for.
Thanks for the welcome everyone. I think I will hang around and post some artwork and let people get to know me a little bit before I post up my project. Don't want to get run out of town right away.
Welcome to the site! I looked your build thread over on volksrod.com and nice work!!! -Gary Flint, MI
Here you go... This is the 49-50 Ford Dash I picked up at the swap meet. Complete with glove box door and ash tray. This is the dash after today's work... Took out about an inch or so to the left of the large main gage bezel in order to get the gage centered on the steering column. Also took out about 4" on either side of the speaker grill to get the width right and save the grill and the clock location. Spent some time out the old... and then a bunch of time t******* and fitting the Ford dash and the body. Got it pretty close to where I want it. Little more to do and then I can get it welded in. Going to have to do a little bit of a steering column drop to get the steering wheel to gage bezel relationship better... I still need to do the body work on it and get the gages and stuff worked out, but I am really happy with the look. Thanks for all the interest in my little OT project.
I spent most of the day out in the garage today. Decided to tackle the one remaining area of the Sled that I have been struggling with....the dreaded C-Pillar to body to Fender joint... Started out making some cardboard templates... Then transfered it to some sheetmetal and cut out a pair of matching pieces... Then I did some fitting of the filler panel and a put a little shape into the panel to fit the body lines better... Marked out the body to match the filler panel... Trimmed away the excess material... and welded the filler panel in place. I really like the new welder. Much nicer welds and almost no burn-thru... Here are a few shots of with the fender in place. I really like the way the body lines flow now... I managed to got the other side fit, shaped and tacked in place before calling it a day... Did I mention how much I like my new welder...
What's the new welder? Or did I miss that in a previous post? P.S. I have a VW addition that I'm almost over... I have owned over 25 VDUBS, but I'm down to just my Euro 57 ragtop oval...
I went from a POS 110v flux core welder with just a high/low switch to a 220V Lincoln SP170T with gas. Huge difference in weld quality and especially cleanliness. I cut and pasted the above post from another forum were the build is being do***ented. Link is in my first post here.
I posted this in the Friday Art Show, but figured I would post it here too... This is one possible color scheme for my Sled. Satin black with green metal flake roof. I am sure I will have others before I actually buy the paint.
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