Bugzilla! Mike's Bug Project

Chapter 6: Getting ready for some more

The weather is nice and the jobs are many for Kurt. He's got a rush job (that's paying him alot more than I am) in the garage getting paint so it can run at Daytona here pretty soon. It's a 1960 Porsche 356 GT, one of 16 made and one of six still in existence. Kurt is bringing it back to factory paint for the occassion. So, Bugzilla gets to sit outside for awhile. No problem. Seniority has it's priveledges. The fenders are finally primered and straightened out. The fiberglass fenders, seen here mounted for the first time (even if they're only dressed), weren't exactly everything the manufacturer said they were. The front fenders are about three inches wider than stock and the rears are about four and a half inches wider, which is accurate. The rear fenders didn't match up with the skirt in the rear so the skirt was stretched down a bit in the corners to match them up. The front fenders didn't match up too cleanly with the front clip either: they had to have the corners tugged on a bit and even some material added in front to get them to flush with the clip. The fronts of the rear fenders didn't match up with the running board (from the same manufacturer as the fenders) and had to have some shortening done. The running boards had to be lengthened as well. There was also a nasty corner there which was cut out in favor of a nice curve coming up off of the running board.

The headlight rings are the metal Rossi style rings, with the turn signal in the base of the ring. Even though this bug is a 1970, it has the early style fenders on it to help confuse the onlooker. This picture has Kurt's bug in it as a mild comparison. They aren't side to side to get a really clear picture, and Bugzilla is completely empty so it's standing tall, but it gives you a little to compare it to. Off to the right you can see the front end of the Cortina. It was a nice day to drive up the canyon and the brakes had recently been redone, along with the clutch, so it was fun for everyone.

The decklid is orange still because it was a late-comer to the shop. I picked it up after finally deciding to use it rather than some other custom fiberglass monstrosity. After seeing how off the fenders were I thought I should stick with steel. The current plan for the decklid is to leave the louvres, french a plate in and fill the rest of the holes to smooth it out. If I get the urge to do something radical back there, the decklid is easy to redo so I'm just going fairly vanilla with it for now. It's also going to get twin `39 Ford tail lights, probably at an angle to match the bottom curve, frenched into each fender. Another thought was a third brake light. But where, might you be asking? Good question. Lots of folks have a billet license plate frame which contains both a plate light and a brake light, but that just doesn't seem right. The frenched in plate will have a light of some sort but not a brake light. Nope, we're trying to think of a good way to fit inside the intake louvres just under the rear window. The idea would be to illuminate the whole section, somewhat like a modern Cadillac. Kinda neat, eh?

Here's a side view that shows off the chop a little better. How does it look? Looks long, doesn't it? That's a little bit because of the chop and a little bit because of the white primer. The final color is going to be very dark which should go a long ways towards shrinking the car overall, but you're right, it does look long. The roof is physically longer which does help add to the overall illusion, but the front to rear length is the same as stock (sans bumpers, of course). Don't the fenders look great from this angle though? The running board connects them up quite nicely. The rear window almost seems non-existent as well - remember, it's lost about six and a half inches in top to bottom back there. One other thing in the hopper is something like a side light/signal something like what a Saab or Volvo might have, high on the side, right behind the front fenders close to where the gas tank lid used to be. It would help balance out the big third brake light in the rear as well as help to show a little of the modern touch. From a safety aspect, you can't really see the front turn signals from the side anyway so it would be a good idea to have those. Plus, they look pretty cool anyway.

Here's another great three-quarter shot from the rear. The fenders really show their size off. The junker tires on it don't really do the body justice, but they are just there to roll it from one place to another right now. Much bigger, and much cooler, tires and wheels are down the road a bit, but trust me, they'll stand out from the crowd. I'll just let this picture speak for itself.