As I don't have the required skills to create the mould (and I was rather scared of screwin'up my master!), I call for help my friend Seb, of DinkyGarage, who's job is fiberglass stuff...

So, this is a 5 pieces mold that Seb built out of my master (which won't survive the operation : R.I.P!).

The numerous grooves (doors, hoods...) obliged us to multiply the number of mold parts... Unless the removal from the mould would have been impossible... Once the mold created, we still have to take a first shell out of it... December 2006, the very first shell comes out of the mold!
Here are some teaser pictures of the thing, the bare shell just put down on 4 karting rain-tires equipped wheels, which I will use to motorize it : Highly cool, isn't it?

I'm more than happy of the result... There's still a lot of work to come, but Seb obviously made a great job... Many thanks dude!

OK, the shell is out, let's make a chassis to put under it!

Still trying to get a new toy for a reasonable price, it was out of the question to ask a professional body shop for Küby's paint job. So it's only homemade stuff, full D.I.Y., thanks to a few friends help...

However, I had a time dead-line : everything had to be done within a weekend, not to disturb the activities of my friend who let me do it at his work place... So, everything will be done on 15 and 16^th may 2005!

We built kind of a paint cabinet, just to get rid of dust... Well, this is the easy par, let's first prepare the body! Here we are, the openings have been painted... The "only" thing left is the body to get its coats of green sauce! OK, its finally painted! Last, but not least, we still have to put back everything together! And let's do it as fastly as possible, looks like a storm is coming... I'd like to give a gigantic "thanks" to Fred, Aurel', Xav'Yeah and Alex for the great help!

Obviously, in such conditions, the paint doesn't look like a show car one... Far from that. But trust me, it's not too bad either! And within a 600 euros budget, it was difficult to do much better... Even though, thinking about it...

I used industrial type paint (usually used for trucks). It's a little bit less shiny as normal car paint, and there's way less colors available. Actually, I must admit the final color of Küby is pretty far from what I originally expected... But I like it anyway.
However, this industrial paint is much cheaper, and way more resistant than normal car paint. And as I still want to keep this toy low budget... That's perfect to me!

Floor pans, after an vigorous cleaning with metallic brushes, is brushed with two coats of black Hammerite (Hammerite is an anti-rust paint, containing glass micro-spheres, and looks like a gel : it isolates the metal from the air's oxygen, therefore preventing rust...)... The result is even better than I expected!

OK, finally Küby looks presentable... It still needs a top, clean seats, and let's go cruisin'!

Like every kid, I ever wanted to build my own go-kart with a lawn-mower engine... And years are passing away, and we never build the go kart...

Then one day, I found the realisations of VW-Bratz, a UK base company, which now has disappeared. Wow! Not only it's a DIY go-kart, but it even looks like a VW! I definitely need one! (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm 6 years old in my head... So what??)

Those mini splits are pure perfection marvels, but... Well, this perfection has a price (300£ the shell, around 450€)! (see on FreeBugRiders the "pour les gosses (For Kids)" thread to see pictures of those VW Bratz splitties). Plus, 1.60 meters long is pretty big, therefore bulky to bring on a meeting.

I then found Mini Buggies in Netherlands, superbs as well, little less bulky, but less original, and still a little bit expensive (260€ the shell alone) for a toy I'll use twice a year...

So, I started to think about making my own model of mini-VW... I first started thinking about a mini bay window combi, then a beetle... But finally, the Thing is way easier to make! Plus, I own a real one to take measures on, and this will definitely be more original!

So I started taking all the measures on Küby, my Thing, then I transfered it into a 3D model using Sketchup. I decided to make it scaled 1/3 : this is the same scale as the VW-Bratz Splitties, if I meet some one day, well make a perfectly scaled 1/3 mini-meeting... And a 117cm long shell by 50cm wide is a good compromise between bulkiness (therefore transport) and "comfort", the final goal being to give it an engine and drive it... Here is the 3D model... Now I have to build a wooden master out of it, using the numeric model's measures. So, after buying a router and a few woodcuts of MDF, I start making a master as close as possible to the original one...


Here we are! July 2006, the master piece is finally ready to go, now I have to make a fiberglass mould out of it to make the mini-Thing shells...

So, priority #1 is to put the beast back on the road...

Which will finally take way longer than I expected! Between my job, lack of money, lack of time, and those bloody fucking brakes that I can't bleed correctly... The whole thing took one year!

So, Fixing the brakes... Wheel cylinders, master cylinder, flexibles : everything's new. At least, it will brake!


Tires : I wanted to get an "off road" look, so needed large tires with big studs...
Finally, I decided to use 195x15 Colway C-Trax MT (reference given by PJ Macua, 181spirit.com's webmaster ). Rather cheap, quite good quality, and perfect look!
For those who are interested, I bought these tires from BONNOT 2000 (BP 2, 183 Rue Raymond Poincaré, 88290 Saulxures s/ Moselotte - (+33) 329.266.161) : they're very serious, shipped and received within 48 hours at a very good price, plus a very friendly contact. Good addresses are so rare, let's share them!


A nice ground clearance, hum??

Well, of course, like in every restoration, I had a few "bad surprises"... Here, the floor pans have been eaten by rust, everything being skillfully hidden with fiberglass. However I had verified carefully... Well, this is not that serious, I can fix it...


After having lost a lot of time on the brakes, giving a new youth to the ignition system, remade a large part of the electric wiring...
April 2005, Küby finally goes through its security check, my car registration document looses the "non driving vehicle" mention, and I can go for my very first cruising! Isn't it ugly with this color... Er... What the hell is this color?? "Cow"?


Phew! I'm more than happy to finally drive Küby now! If you have a closer look at the third pic, you'll see that this is a place that I particularly appreciate (see my IFA and Porsche pages)...

OK, so, finally it drives... Now let's make it more presentable!

I was thinking about buying a 181 (you englih people call it a "Thing", right?) for a while... Without really looking for one, but the idea of a 5 seats convertible, to cruise during the summer, going to my job with the wind in my hair, the windshield being folded down on the front hood, was very seductive to me!

I finally found Küby on eBay, a few dozen of kilometer away from home. March 18^th 2004, I go in le Var with my friend Laurent...

The Thing is being sold by a vintage cars enthusiast, but Küby is a bit... "Neither done nor to be done".

It's in primer, but not painted ; the engine runs, but not smoothly... I could drive it, but the brakes and tires are dead for a long time...
Unfortunately, and I'll discover it much later, some body parts have been "repaired" using fiberglass... Obviously, there's no top... The top chassis is there, but it's a bit bent... Plus the front rail is over-rusted! That's an usual problem on Things, humidity accumulates inside this cavity, and here is the result 30 years later : The interior is not complete, and looks like a "patchwork"... I'll have to look for a lot of parts... Well, OK. Obviously, Küby is not in a very good shape!
But anyway, I don't want to do a full restoration on it, nor a Best of Show, but just a good cleaning, to have a funny convertible for next summer...

So, this is not the best deal ever, (1800 euros for the base), but I take the Thing... I gotta expect lots of work to do!