VW Type 181 "Thing"
 

What can I say, I had some foam left over from the Galion project :lol:

MG,are you going for that WWII look? Just for some reason that's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw it.

Do you know what a VW Type 181 (Thing) is?

VW Thing.:shock:

That's a cool name for this project!"thumbsup"

Must be powered by a VW, right?;-)

must be a 74, it's got the scoops on the side. ;-)

No not really

Well there is a rough aproximation of one in the pictures up there...

Search "Volkswagen Thing" on google. "thumbsup"

There's a whole gallery on TheSamba:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb....php?cat_id=30

"thumbsup"

Hey.... is that a Digger body in the background?

I googled it. Pretty interesting little VW thing

Its not a beetle, its a Thing.

there was a nice restored one just up the road from the house i grew up in. they drove it alot too.

I should have called this thread "It's a VW Thing, you wouldn't understand" :lol:

Yep, that's an old Digger body back there.

And for what it's worth, the 181 is a distant relative of the Kubelwagen.

Now that's something I never thought I would see here, nice job as always.

Nice job so far and unique too but man they are ugly.

So this is what boredom has come to, huh?:lol:
Looks good.

Some of you guys must be young. Those "Things" were common in the '70's.

If you're familiar with air-cooled VW's, the mechanical layout is pretty similar.

It was basically Germany's Jeep in WWII.

Volkswagen's factory designation was "Type 181".

In the German Army it was known as the "Kubelwagen".

That is a pretty close approximation, microgoat - nice job!!

Was wondering when you were going to post this up over here... Really enjoying the project, cannot wait to see its completion.

The outside of the body has a full coat of epoxy now. I need to do the inside, then go back over the outside with a finish coat, and start sanding it.

Interesting. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done. "thumbsup"

this has to be one of the best bodys yet

alright that's just too cool. I'm a huge vw fan and if you could make this a production body i'd buy at least half a dozen. the vw thing is one of the coolest and least remembered vw's out there and i love 'em.

No way. With all the ribs and the undercuts, you'd never get it off the mold :lol:

Fully coated and ready for sanding 8)

Wow - you would'nt have to tell me what it is, it looks pretty much spot-on.

Definitely a 181, no question.

Very impressive. It's going to look great with a paint job...

i think it should be bright yellow like on 50 first dates.

Danielk gets a cookie, for reading my mind 8)

sweet a freaking cookie! *sits in corner eating cookie*

i searched google for a pic of the one from the movie but i couldnt find one.
here is a pic that is close
http://www.type181registry.com/Class...ennettMatt.JPG
the black top looks great on it too. a soft top would be awesome, especially if you made the top fold down scale. :D

I'm still trying to figure out how to make the cool dog-dish hubcaps. Gotta be removeable to get to the wheel nuts, but stay on when it's running.

I'll use screws if I have to, but I'd rather not have to.

make em like they are in real life. have little clips on the back of the rim that pop into holes drilled into the rim. you could make the hubcaps themselves from something you could find at the dollar store. go there and look in the kitchen supplies i guess. also pick up one of those cheap mesh strainer things to use for grill mesh for your air inlets; nice scale accessory.

OR put flanged nuts on the wheel backwards so the flange is on the outside and use a piece of rubber tubing that fits snugly over them...glue it to the inside of the hubcap. looks great...I was thinkin orange... but yellow is good too

It would be tricky to get the dimensions right, but you may also be able to solder or epoxy the wheelnuts inside the hubcap and combine the two into one unit??

Yea, yellow is a good choice - it was a very common color to see them in BITD...

I am so impressed. I had one back in high school, and it was super pimp! I cant wait to see how this turns out!

The problem with using the wheelnuts, is that the fronts don't turn. Right now I'm leaning toward a flange on the wheel with two holes drilled in it. The holes will match up with holes on the hubcap, and a C-shaped piece of piano wire will hold them together.

Or maybe magnets.

or better yet...
 

... just cut up some shocks. Problem solved "thumbsup"

you should use a little styrene or something to make the wheels look more scale to the original stock steels that were on the Things.

Or I could press the hubcaps into the original Frog wheels (which I did), and try to find some batteries for the camera (which I ain't).

EDIT: Which I is.

dang goat, lookin good but i know they are too small. you planning on picking up some more of the frog rims and doing some custom tires?

That's what I was planning, but another (and better) idea came over me. A friend from Germany brought me some ARP buggy tires, which I mounted on the TTB F-150, so I recycled the TTB's old Kyosho Option House Dunlops (probably the last set on earth) onto the 181.

Frog front wheels all around, but with rear outers for more width and offset. The new tires fill the arches perfectly, don't rub, and give it a cool beach-buggy look.

And no, I won't sell 'em.

very nice, love the custom body.