Silly rod on The Samba

Someone put a picture of this rod before, now its for sale http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=500249
Although I think its a total waste of effort and money, I admire the amount of work that went into it
Raf

nice bit of work anyone with a few bob in the bank can build a bug that takes a deep and happy mind to go that far and to think of to begin with
sill maybe impressive for sure

ART needs no explaination.
It was built because he could build it ,not to be a commuter, thats for no talent spectators. Why is the Mona Lisa worth millions, when its only old paint and canvas?

👍love it👍

Personally, I think it's great! It looks like a heap of crazy crazy fun:bounce

DUBB61 wrote:ART needs no explaination.
It was built because he could build it ,not to be a commuter, thats for no talent spectators. Why is the Mona Lisa worth millions, when its only old paint and canvas?

Damn straight! Automotive art...an absolute triumph, I'd roll it!

boristherat wrote:, I'd roll it!

For sure :thumb

"so that the car is somewhat street legal"
But that would have tobe the comment of the year.

I can just imagine yurning up and asking for a blue slip on this one.

"awww....c'mon...Itsjust a rebodied/slightly modded VW" :duh

love to drive that into a ratrod show here pretty good price too

That aint silly I think that is cool and with a cool paint job, and bit of airbrush work will bring out the full potential.

Would love to buy that and progress it.

The guy who has built is has a real eye for development. Gets my vote!

I have seen this car in person, and its amazing the fabrication and workmanship Franz put into it.
It was done... because he can.

Not something I would do, especially in OZ as chances of making it aroud the block without getting pulled over ar slim!
You can register heavily modified cars here, with just a safety inspection, then its up to the police's discretion.

amazing fabrication, no doubt about that.

just a few things make me cringe. like for instance, there's no way he can see out of that front screen. old school dragsters had the driver's helmet hang out the roof when they had a chop that radical. the next thing is, reversed front beam? is he completely crazy? sorry but that's just plain stupid (and don't even get me on my "no shocks" hobbyhorse). the right way to do it is to use a beam axle or a properly designed IFS system. yes it's hard work, but at least you won't end up dead. he's done this much, why not do it properly.

I love the look, but it's gone that one step too far. IMHO, if you can't drive it properly, then why bother. I was under the impression that hotrods were sposed to be made to go FASTER than stockers. That car is dangerous moving at slow speeds.

I think...

Silly rod

...is bang on the money. And I'm often horrified by KCW's commitment to trend over safety. Such talented guys, but such dangerous cars. I know a few people are gonna say I'm old, but the way you get to be old is by using your brain instead of just trying to look cool. Worth thinking about. 😉

Thats the rage over there in the rodders world at the moment. The lower the better! At least we now have a VW getting in amongst it all.
Rob....

the fabrication and skill level that went into making it is amazing
waste of time ? maybe in your opinion , not in mine or im sure franz's
as xxx said , he did it because he can
haters will always hate tho :P

I don't hate it, I just worry about how safe it is. Check this post off the shop talk forums...

A t-bucket here in San Diego suddenly turned sharply into a bus stop killing the passenger and leaving the driver in critical cond. From the stuff I have heard through local cruise nite is the roadster had a steering linkage or radius arm failure. Not sure if he built them himself or had a shop build the car for him as he was from Arizona. It just reminds me that before you ever think of building rides for others make sure you are a experienced or certified welder and fully understand suspension geometry. Some think he may have hit a pothole and bumsteer'd himself into the bustop. I could not even imagine the guilt if I ride I made killed someone and left a child without a parent.

THis is exactly what scares me. 🙁



[ Edited on 12-9-07 by pete wood ]

you seem to worry alot about engineering failures when their percentage of involvement in the road toll is very small compared to other factors in fatal accidents. There are more deaths caused by drinking,inexperience and tiredness than caused by speed or mechanical failures. Maybe you are pushing the wrong barrow? my2c

Im with Pete on this.

Legal and safe for on the road. No exceptions.

'Oh my arty work of rust ran over your child! looked way stylish while doing it':duh

There is not shade of grey. Whilst it is a nice artistic car it isnt a driver.

DUBB61 wrote:you seem to worry alot about engineering failures when their percentage of involvement in the road toll is very small compared to other factors in fatal accidents. There are more deaths caused by drinking,inexperience and tiredness than caused by speed or mechanical failures. Maybe you are pushing the wrong barrow? my2c

Again the point was missed completely. The guy builds cars for a living and this is his latest creation. He drove it across the state (without killing anyone, crazy I know) If people did not tinker then we would never have had hot rods and beach buggys and camper vans. Seems everyone wants to hide behind a cloud of litagation these days. How sad the passing of imagination. A toast to the Nanny State may all thought be removed from humans this day forth.

Maybe we should all drive pillow cars and live underground in case of meteors?

P.S Your child (mathematically) is more likely to be killed by a inexperienced P plater with an alcohol reading driving with his mates in an air bagged equipped car and will probably get a 6mth suspended sentence.

DUBB61 wrote:The guy builds cars for a living and this is his latest creation. He drove it across the state (without killing anyone, crazy I know) If people did not tinker then we would never have had hot rods and beach buggys and camper vans. Seems everyone wants to hide behind a cloud of litagation these days. How sad the passing of imagination. A toast to the Nanny State may all thought be removed from humans this day forth.

I've got no problem with people tinkering, but this car is not tinkering. It's a radical custom from top to bottom. Again, I have no issue with radical customs...as long as they are safe. I don't care if the car is scraping on the ground (I can't see how that's very impressive) but if it scrapes safely who cares.
BUT, I can't see how this car is safe if the frontal view is so disaffected. There's barely an inch of glass left to look out. I also cannot see how leading arm suspension is safe either. Let's also talk about the lack of shocks. Every modern (post 1930) car in production had them. Why do Franz and John Jones some how think they know better? They don't.
Now as I said before, the craftsmanship on the car is amazing. I cannot fault that. Both Franz and John are masters at custom mods. But that is not to say that everything they do is appropriate for roads with other motorists. What about what dodgy back yarders will do to copy their work? That really scares me. Sure do what you like to your car, but if it doesn't comply with road rules, don't drive it on public roads. Take it to a race track, that's what they are for.

P.S Your child (mathematically) is more likely to be killed by a inexperienced P plater with an alcohol reading driving with his mates in an air bagged equipped car and will probably get a 6mth suspended sentence.

This is a silly argument. My child is also more likely to be killed by a drunken p plater than an AK47 or a falling 747, but you won't find me avocating assault rifles or campaigning for lower standards in air safety.

The final thing that most people forget in this whole scenario is this. When someone screws up in a modded car and people get killed, that whole scene suffers. Cops crack down on everyone and politicians get pressured to outlaw all mods. So if you want any scene at all, respect the rules that were made for everyone's safety, coz accidents will undermine all the things legal car modifiers have fought for.

I had my car engineered properly so I know my family (and every one elses) would be safe when I drove it. And it wasn't that hard. So, as they say in the movies, "suck it up princess" and do it properly instead of just whining and put everyone's safety at risk. Why should other people's stock pride and joy have to share a road with dangerous modified crap? The answer is...they shouldn't.🙅

Have a nice day. 🙂

I had my car engineered properly so I know my family (and every one elses) would be safe when I drove it. And it wasn't that hard. So, as they say in the movies, "suck it up princess" and do it properly instead of just whining and put everyone's safety at risk. Why should other people's stock pride and joy have to share a road with dangerous modified crap? The answer is...they shouldn't.🙅

Have a nice day. 🙂 [/quote]

So what you are saying is that ANY modified VW should not be part of the SCENE if it is not tagged and that show organisers should not allow these vehicles to enter or be judged at there shows as they are encouraging "dangerous modified crap"

I wonder what "SCENE" would be left?

a bunch of engineers and accountants talking about their latest palm p.c ?

Unfortunately you cannot engineer out the Nut behind the wheel. Keep Safe

cool link.............cool car!

& thanx

Sorry this is a long post...

DUBB61 wrote:So what you are saying is that ANY modified VW should not be part of the SCENE if it is not tagged and that show organisers should not allow these vehicles to enter or be judged at there shows as they are encouraging "dangerous modified crap"

Nope, shows are shows, who cares what the cars drive like as long as they look good. But the offending cars should not be driven there anyway, like I said before.

As to what scene would be left if we all did it right...I actually think the scene would grow hugely. The yanks have a whole political lobbying arm to their modified car scene that makes sure that they can continue to mod cars. So does the hotrod scene over here. Hotrods have much more freedom than we'll ever have, coz they worked hard for the privilage. If everyone played by the rules and got together, we'd have a lot more power to get politicians to let us do what we wanted. Govts are there to represent us, they are not "the man" to be rebelled against. Worth thinking about.

Let me give you a VW example.

During the early 80s, dunebuggies were outlawed in NSW. The RTA went the extent of taking plates off some cars, even though they were quite safe.

In the early 90s Wayne Horsfall and Godfry Reid got them OKed again by working with the authorities and getting the right legal permits. At first, they would only allow some SWB buggies, but now a lot of engineers will OK them. Now we are even allowed to put EJ20turbo engines in them (which is really nuts, 400 potential Hp in a 750kg car :duh ). All because people did the right thing. Because of this people like myself and many others have been able to build buggies in NSW and enjoy driving them.

Now imagine this. If three or four people got their drop spindles authorized properly, then you could get an engineers report when you bought the spindles included in the price. Then your car would be legal and comply with insurance. THe same thing could be done for narrowed beams (providing they were not too narrow and had shocks).

Legally done mods create a precedent that other people can follow. THe whole mod scene benefits.

Can you see what I'm saying?

p.s. I'm still good mates with the engineer that did my car. He's a really smart guy who gave me heaps to think about and a lot of very good advice.

what a great rod 👍 👍

its pioneer engineering like this that developed the beach buggy, rods and many others good on them!

Someone has to push the boundries or else nothing moves forward. Art for arts sake. no matter what the "flat earth type" think. Viva revolution!🥷