VW Golf III 3-door conversion

[JeroenS]

Good day everyone, and a Happy New Year to you all! Yesterday, I ended the year with a build, finishing it in 2022's buzzer. What better way to start 2023 than with a new build?

 

Now, this will not be an easy one. I will be building this, the Fujimi VW Gollf III. 

 

 

Which will be built to match an actual car. 

 

 

You might think, why is there "conversion" in the topic title? Well, here's why: 

 

 

Turns out, Fujimi does not make the 3-door variant, that's just what's on the box art. Sneaky devils! Besides that, they only make a GTI body, and the real car is a plain GL. It has no trim! 

 

Hence the challenge. 

 

There are measurements. 

 

 

And I can get more, that's not a problem. I have made photo's of the real car, I'll probably need more but that's fine. First thing is to think of a way to make a 3-door out of the 5-door. I've already been thinking about this, of course. But now it's getting serious. Anyway, there's no time limit or anything, I'm just going to try my best and see where it leads me. I modelled my sister's Fiat 500 about 4 years ago and found that there's always some little detail to add or modify. I'm trying not to go down the rabbit hole too deep. However, I'm kind of hoping my skills have improved since then, the Fiat was only my third build at the time. I sure hope they have!

 

Let's see what's in the box, apart from that deceiving body shell. There's not that much, I can tell you! 

 

This is kind of funny though. 

 

 

A vending machine? That didn't make sense, until I looked at the box art a little closer. Yep, there it is. We will not be using this, but I'll be saving on it. 

 

These are all the other body parts. 

 

 

There's chassis and suspension parts. 

 

 

Luckily, there is a three and a four spoke steering wheel in there. Doesn't matter, the real car has a two spoke steering wheel. 

 

Interior parts. 

 

 

Choice of RHD and LHD, phew... Sporty front seats which will need modifying of course. No engine detail in a Fujimi kit, as per usual. That's fine, it saves us a rabbit hole. The 3-door conversion is more than enough work, thank you. 

 

Wheels. These are nice, but they're also completely wrong. 

 

 

Finally, clear parts. 

 

 

That's it. 

 

I have the original paint, you've seen me use it on the Benz Tanker to try it out. 

 

 

It's more shiny than the real car's paint, but I'll be modelling it as it was when it was new. I mean, my friend can look at the worn down version any time she likes. I believe her car is from 1992 so yes, it's pretty old. 

 

So, let's start with that body shell and see where we end up. Maybe not today though. 

[Bengalensis]

Happy New Year! So this one is up on the bench for serious work now. This will be interesting to follow. You have some cutting and reorganizing of body sections to deal with, but that will make a more interesting finished model. If you can't find suitable wheels they can always be drawn and 3D-printed in the end.

[JeroenS]

9 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

Happy New Year! So this one is up on the bench for serious work now. This will be interesting to follow. You have some cutting and reorganizing of body sections to deal with, but that will make a more interesting finished model. If you can't find suitable wheels they can always be drawn and 3D-printed in the end.

Happy New Year Jörgen! With lots of nice builds hopefully 🙂 

 

I'm going to weigh my options for the body modification. There's the possibility of cutting out the B-pillar, moving it back and rescribing the door panel line. I suck at scribing though. Another option I was contemplating is to leave the B-pillar intact and make the door longer. For this to work best I would have to cut the door out, which I was thinking about anyway. I have to do something about the interior tub anyway, might as well go all the way. I'm not in a hurry!

 

For the wheels, I don't want to make my friend spend more, what with the paint and the kit itself it was already an expense. I was rummaging through my "wheels"' box (lots of truck wheels in there, oddly enough), and I found these "steelies" which I bought for my sister's Fiat, for which I ended up using the kit wheels. But they are a pretty good match, and the circumference matches that of the kit wheels. 

 

 

I think these are supposed to be 14 inch wheels, but I think they just might work. 

 

[Neddy]

Ooh, this one's going to be interesting in many areas.  Before you get too far into the build, have you compared the wheelbase of the two-door and the four-door?  I looked into doing precisely this with an Audi A3 and discovered they were totally different 2-door to 4-door which really bit me in the bum.  If this is the case with your model Golf there's all sorts of additional fun, like shortening the bodyshell, interior module and chassis.  😆

 

I hope for your sake they're the same dimensions!  🤞

[keefr22]

With the excellent scratchbuilt tank you've just made Jeroen this should be a walk in the park! Really looking forward to seeing this one come together!

 

Happy New Year to you and yours!

 

Keith

 

PS that vending machine would make a great load for a future Van Dordt truck build! 

[JeroenS]

31 minutes ago, Neddy said:

I hope for your sake they're the same dimensions!  🤞

They're the same!

[dnl42]

Happy New Year! 🎉

 

This could be quite the project! Won't the doors need to be lengthen in addition to the rear quarter panel work?

[galaxyg]

Happy New Year. That is a tricky project indeed.

 

The kit looks typical of Fujimi kits from that era *except*... that looks to be a one-piece engine back there on one of the sprues. How unusual.

[Vesa Jussila]

Happy new year. This is interesting project. Nice to see daily driver built.

[Toftdale]

Originally I thought moving the b pillar would have been the way to go, however on contemplation cutting the door out and lengthening it makes more sense because as you implied there will be less scribing and it will be far easier to line up the interior.   - Andy 

[JeroenS]

51 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Happy New Year! 🎉

 

This could be quite the project! Won't the doors need to be lengthen in addition to the rear quarter panel work?

Happy New Year dnl! Yes, the front doors are a lot longer for the 3 door variant. 

[JeroenS]

52 minutes ago, galaxyg said:

Happy New Year. That is a tricky project indeed.

 

The kit looks typical of Fujimi kits from that era *except*... that looks to be a one-piece engine back there on one of the sprues. How unusual.

Happy New Year! 

 

It is unusual isn't it... 

 

 

It's not that they didn't give it any thought. 

 

 

There is some resemblance. But what's the point? It's not like you'd be able to show it off, if you were inclined to open the bonnet.

[JeroenS]

14 minutes ago, Toftdale said:

Originally I thought moving the b pillar would have been the way to go, however on contemplation cutting the door out and lengthening it makes more sense because as you implied there will be less scribing and it will be far easier to line up the interior.   - Andy 

I think so too, I'll probably go down that route. As for interior... 

 

 

There's basically none. This will be a long project 🙂 

[psdavidson]

Well, this will be interesting to watch

[klubman01]

This will be interesting!  Another opportunity for you to do some scratch building.

Trevor

[Spiny]

Looks like a challenging project, but I'm sure you'll pull it off. I remember the Fiat 500 and that worked out pretty well, even if it was one of your earlier builds.

 

It's certainly more than I would attempt myself, but for what it's worth I think you're going the right way about it chopping the body then filling as required. My main concern with that is that as the bottom of the window slopes up a bit towards the rear you might have to do more than just put a bit in the middle. But even so it still looks as though it's least work option.

[CrazyCrank]

4 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Happy New Year! 

 

It is unusual isn't it... 

 

 

It's not that they didn't give it any thought. 

 

 

There is some resemblance. But what's the point? It's not like you'd be able to show it off, if you were inclined to open the bonnet.

 

It's a very challenging projet, @JeroenS,  even if you limit the modifications to the bodywork...

 

But, beeing you, I would cut out the bonnet to make it openable, would remove the whole contents of the engine bay, and would fabricate all the parts from scratch, because it would be a shame not to show this renowned engine !

 

[JeroenS]

8 hours ago, CrazyCrank said:

 

It's a very challenging projet, @JeroenS,  even if you limit the modifications to the bodywork...

 

But, beeing you, I would cut out the bonnet to make it openable, would remove the whole contents of the engine bay, and would fabricate all the parts from scratch, because it would be a shame not to show this renowned engine !

 

Let's just start with the bodywork 🤓

[JeroenS]

Well... I've been translating the measurements from the real car to the kit body. And thinking some more about how to go about this. I now think that cutting the front door out and making it longer just... won't cut it. See what I did there? 😇

 

The reason is that I can't use the current panel line. It's wrong for the 3-door. 

 

Check the panel line on the real car. 

 

 

It curves towards the rear of the car. 

 

Now check the panel line on the 5-door. 

 

 

Right, it curves towards the front. Fujimi have got that right. Well, they pretty much have the body spot on. 

 

 

I've drawn in where the 3-door panel line should be, and also where the rear window should end. These are pencil marks, so they're a bit vague, but just about visible. This means that I would have to rescribe the door's panel line anyway. So there's not really much to be gained by cutting the entire door. 

 

What do you guys think about plan B? By the way, I'm curious which plan we'll end up with, maybe all the way up to Z 🙂 

 

 

The red line is plan B's cut line. I then loose the hatched part to the right of the rear window (or the part left of that panel line, anyway, about that much plastic). This lets me slide the cut piece all the way to the right. The two numbered arrows in the B pillar mean that that panel line should end up where the new panel line in the door will begin, and the front window should end where the panel line now is. The measurements are still ballpark but I think it's about there. I would have to move the door handle which is a part I will probably scratch build as it's rather crude, so that's not an issue. Making the cutout in the door is trickier but doable. Fill that old panel line and scribe a new one. I'm not going to like that, but it would look silly without one! Or course, the rear door handle and panel line will go as well. 

 

On the front door side, this means I would only need to smaller inserts top and bottom of the window. 

 

I will now think about it some more. I'd appreciate your take on this!

 

[keefr22]

Well, it seems workable to me, but being lazy I think I would just cut the B pillar out completely, do whatever reshaping of the window outline is needed, cement the B pillar back in and rescribe the door shut line. Or am I missing something basic...?

 

As to scribing the panel line I'd be tempted to make a 10 thou plasticard template of the rear of the door shape and either PVA glue or double sided tape it to the body as a guide. Should make scribing relatively painless and using either adhesive method would make it easy to remove and then just flip over and use on the other side of the body...

 

Keith

[Anteater]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

Well, they pretty much have the body spot on. 

 

I guess there's a first time for everything...

 

But to your problem, moving the B-pillar and re-scribing would seem the only way to go. The indent behind the door handle will be tricky to achieve neatly; perhaps drill out and carefully softly-square the edges, then glue a piece of plasticard behind it and shallow fill if necessary? 

 

As for getting the right shape for the door rear, why not find a side profile of a 3 door Golf and print the image out to 1/24 size. You could then cut the photo out to provide a door template which could be replicated in something more substantial to scribe against. 

 

Easy as that...

[hendie]

interesting tasks ahead Jeroen.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle this.  

As for cribing - I always made a mess of that until I got one of these cheap scribers from China.  I use the 0.2mm for most jobs and its easy to use and gives great results.  I also use it for cutting panels out. The one I link to isn't the cheapest - there are cheaper options on ebay.

[JeroenS]

5 hours ago, hendie said:

interesting tasks ahead Jeroen.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle this.  

As for cribing - I always made a mess of that until I got one of these cheap scribers from China.  I use the 0.2mm for most jobs and its easy to use and gives great results.  I also use it for cutting panels out. The one I link to isn't the cheapest - there are cheaper options on ebay.

Thanks Hendie, I'll look into those, any improvement on scribing implements is more than welcome. 

[JeroenS]

8 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Well, it seems workable to me, but being lazy I think I would just cut the B pillar out completely, do whatever reshaping of the window outline is needed, cement the B pillar back in and rescribe the door shut line. Or am I missing something basic...?

 

7 hours ago, Anteater said:

But to your problem, moving the B-pillar and re-scribing would seem the only way to go. The indent behind the door handle will be tricky to achieve neatly; perhaps drill out and carefully softly-square the edges, then glue a piece of plasticard behind it and shallow fill if necessary? 

Thanks guys. Moving the B-pillar is definitely the easiest route. The reason I'm contemplating a more difficult move is that I'm hesitant losing and having to recreate those nice rounded window insides. 

 

 

But that's also mainly because of my "scribing fobia". Having a template to scribe against like Anteater suggested, and with some better tooling might be an incentive to overcome that. I'm probably overthinking it as usual, that is if I start thinking at all 🙂 ... 

[Bengalensis]

I've been thinking pretty much along your sketched plan, but I might consider going down further with my cuts and bring the complete door handles with me in the process. For scribing I would definately make a thin template much like @keefr22 says, the shape of the template you can experiment with as @Anteater says until you have reached the compromise that will fit the model.