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VW Golf III 3-door conversion


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Oddly enough I was wondering if including the complete door handle area in the cut and move would be viable.  It would certainly solve the problem of having to remake it.

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@Bengalensis @Neddy Thanks guys. That door handle cutout is a tricky bugger indeed. Extending the cut down lower would be viable, it would be a cut across a flat surface so would be easy to fix. I'm leaning towards taking the entire panel out and leaving the window shapes intact as I'm more confident in being able to fix those cuts then I am in my abilities to recreate the rounded window corners consistently for all corners. Moving the door handle along with it is definitely a bonus. I would only have to rescribe the door panel line, which needs doing no matter what, and rescribe the top panel line which is straight. And insert a small piece of window trim top and bottom of the front window, which is also straight. 

 

@hendie I've ordered the 9 piece scribing set from AliExpress (which was a first for me, but half the world seems to do it). Should be here end of the month or so. 

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1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

 

I've ordered the 9 piece scribing set from AliExpress (which was a first for me, but half the world seems to do it).

 

I'm in the same half as you as I've never ordered off there either,.but tempted to get a set of those scribers too....

 

Keith

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17 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

I'm in the same half as you as I've never ordered off there either,.but tempted to get a set of those scribers too....

 

Keith

Correction, you WERE in the same half Keith 🤓

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Repairing larger "flat" areas, where there's also a little bit more room to work, is usually easier in my experience. That is very much the philosophy I used when I built RM1699 from the longer RML kit and had to cut up in sections, quite some years ago now... Also the door handle location in relation to the rear edge of the door glass seems pretty much the same on both versions.

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2 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Repairing larger "flat" areas, where there's also a little bit more room to work, is usually easier in my experience. That is very much the philosophy I used when I built RM1699 from the longer RML kit and had to cut up in sections, quite some years ago now... Also the door handle location in relation to the rear edge of the door glass seems pretty much the same on both versions.

Ah thanks, your Routemaster is a great example of the way I was thinking. I'll have a look through the build, it will give me some more pointers I'm sure. Good to see in practice that it should work.

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Very nice, I had a 3 door anniversary for a while and started to build it year ago and gave up. I brought a resin body off a French company but….

I’ll be watching as I’ve 6 in the stash to build each one of my Mk3’s.

love them 😍

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27 minutes ago, richellis said:

I brought a resin body off a French company but….

It wasn't very good was it?
 

27 minutes ago, richellis said:

I’ll be watching as I’ve 6 in the stash to build each one of my Mk3’s.

love them 😍

Sure, you can never have enough of them eh? 🙂 

 

Well, I'm happy enough to show you how you shouldn't do it :whistle:

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I managed to get a 3-door side profile printed to the correct size. Doesn't look like it in this photo... 

 

20230114111858-5ccc36f6-me.jpg

 

but that's just the perspective. The size is in fact correct. 

 

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The size of the rear window is spot on. 

 

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It's just in the wrong place 🙂 .... But, I can now use the printed version as a template. Good call, @Anteater

 

And, my Chinese scriber arrived this week, that was pretty fast. I haven't tried it yet, so we'll see how that goes. 

 

20230114112534-d18a11f9-me.jpg

 

 

 

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Well, the point of no return has been reached, and it's way behind us now. Cuts were made and gaping holes created. Ouch.

 

20230114121559-93ca3c33-me.jpg

 

If we look at the printed side profile, 

 

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we should be implanting the window piece right about here. 

 

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I need some lunch now. 

 

I think I'll fix this side up first before starting on the other side, because structural integrity has already been compromised a lot. Also, I may learn from mistakes I will make on this side. Note the absence of the word "if" regarding the mistakes. 

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I have to say, it's looking promising. I took some material out of the remains of the shell, to fit that window piece. I may have to take out a little (really little) bit more according to my template, to move it back just a tickle, but I'll take some measurements off the 1:1 car as well to double check. 

 

It's just taped in place for now. 

 

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I'm out for the rest of the day so I'm leaving it like this, but in the meantime I'll think about how to properly fix this piece in place. I'll probably skin it from the inside, then start filling the seams from the outside. When those have cured I'll start attacking the missing pieces in the front door. 

 

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1 minute ago, hendie said:

nice work Jeroen. How did the scriber work out?   I find myself using the 0.2mm tool for making cuts these days as I find it more controllable than a razor saw for longer lengths.

I haven't used it yet, but I see the potential it has for making cuts, I may use it on the other side!

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Your process is very interesting to follow.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle body form/shape in the areas to be filled.  Another part of our ongoing discussion on how you form flat pieces of styrene into what look like some challenging shapes!  Keep at it, and please keep us up to date on your progress!

Cheers

Nick  

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I think you're very, er..., brave to attempt this and am delighted to see it working so well so far. In terms of filling the hole, would it work to thin the inside first on each side of the gap, then add two thin pieces of plastic card, one the size of the hole to fill the gap, then a larger one to fit into the thinned bits on the inside which would give it some more strength. It would mean you would have to fill and sand the inside of the body a bit too, but I imagine you are already facing spending quite a bit of time filling and sanding as things stand so far.

 

Keep up the good work.

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What modelling time I have available today will be spent on the halftrack ambulance, but I did want to check measurements on the Golf. I cut out the front door from my paper reference and placed it on the model. The printed side profile is 2D so it's not tall enough as it doesn't take the car's curvature into account, but it's good enough to do some checking. The new position of the window piece is correct as far as I'm concerned. 

 

20230115094215-998c2e75-me.jpg

 

Check at the rear. I took a measurement of 38 centimeters off the real car, from the right bottom window edge to the panel line. That's 15.8 mm in scale. 

 

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I'm calling this good. 

 

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It was a bit of a three hand job to hold the ruler in place and take a picture, but I got there. 

 

Checking the clear part for the windows. There's a cutout here...

 

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which matches up with a tab in the front window. That looks rather weird, I already cut it off on the other side because it's no longer in the correct spot anyway.

 

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It's a pretty visible thing too, I don't like that at all. 

 

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I've never seen this on any of the kits I've built, I think it's a rather crude solution to ensure the clear part stays in place. I may build new side windows out of clear sheet. 

 

 

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This is coming along nicely.  Great work with the "cut and shut" method on the body sides.  

12 hours ago, Spiny said:

I think you're very, er..., brave to attempt this and am delighted to see it working so well so far. In terms of filling the hole, would it work to thin the inside first on each side of the gap, then add two thin pieces of plastic card, one the size of the hole to fill the gap, then a larger one to fit into the thinned bits on the inside which would give it some more strength. It would mean you would have to fill and sand the inside of the body a bit too, but I imagine you are already facing spending quite a bit of time filling and sanding as things stand so far.

 

Keep up the good work.

I think Spiny's suggestion is excellent.  It will give something for the filler to bind onto.  Keep up the good work.

Trevor

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