Hotrodder buddy has a bug he wants to turn into a volksrod.

Thought we'd make a go of it and do it live at the club show as a bit of a drawcard.

We had only 2 hours available daylight - its a twilight show,
so the Friday nite before the show the car was marked up & some inside cuts made to speed things up.

Didnt get the door tops on but the public got a half decent show.

Even had a small fire with lots of smoke!

At the end of it, the owner got in and drove it around show for a few laps.

Heres some shots....


It was the apprentices' first chop on a beetle and he wanted to do all the cutting.
"just keep on the lines man"





Front section to about a foot behind the B pillar is removed





Replacement lined up. May have seen this piece before..





Some more cuts to be made to get the rear section down.






Some tips on chopping a roof on a bug..
Always brace the body...
Always remove the wiring harness from the left cantrail - roof side runner.
Best results with 3 roofs.





Last shot. The apprentice and me checking the failing daylight and the photographer needed a nap and didnt come back untill it was dark.

The first couple of chops I did on beetles, I cut the height of the
rear screen.
Now I leave the rear screen standard and lay the roof forward.
This way keeps the lines flowing across the roof all the way to the bumper.



Hope you enjoyed it.

yeah an i bet finding glass for the back would be a DAMN sight easier than finding glass for the back if you do what i did and chopped the back window so much harder now! haha.. if i were to do it again... id get you guys to do it!! lol.. na, i would do it how you have!

nice job guys! love it

Great stuff fella's. Would love to have seen the process and you make it look bloody easy. How do you go about getting glass for the windscreen and sides etc.

Well done and great to show the techniques. Kevin

haha, yeah... the big issue with chop tops (that i have found) is mainly the glass. For starters, depending on what bug and where you are. i chopped a 1972 super bug, mainly because i was told by a VERY arrogant person the valla before last that i couldnt do it. The problem with the 72 is its windscreen is slightly curved. so far as i can work out, the ONLY people in qld that will cut curved glass are the hotrod guys. if you tell them your doing it to a bug they will NOT help at all. working this out, i found a guy that would do it however he was charging $2000 per day and he says to shave the glass would take 4 days minimum. Considering i bought my car for a carton of beer, i wasnt spending that! eventually came to the decision that i could make the windscreen flat (which worked!) so $80 later i have a windscreen!

As for the side windows, the back quarter glass are flat glass which is about $30 per glass to get cut, so thats easy and i cut the doors in a way as to keep the standard windows in there, they just dont wind up as far (obviously).

sorry to hijack this thread! just trying to answer the question. Again, awsome demo Guru!

Guru,
I have seen beetles that have a few inches out of the front screen and the rear is at factory height. Ever tried on of these. I like them better as they don't look so flat. More raked.
Anyone have any pics of beetles like this.
T54

i think that some of the hotrod guys cut thier glass down by masking the glass and repeatedly sand blasting it. works for tempered curved glass.