Fernons Chop

[V8SuperBeetle]

Amazing work BTW! Looking good!

[fernon]

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I know it's been a while but I have been a little busy since my last update. Let's see on 08/08/08 I was in the process of taking my family to The Most Happiest Place On Earth - Disney World. We decided to get an early start to the day so that we could avoid all the morning traffic, unfortunately fate had other plans for us, we were less than a mile from the house and everything was going great the wife was happy and my son was excited that we were going to spend a whole week in Orlando, nothing could go wrong or so we thought, but in a blink of an eye everything changed.

I am still not sure what happened me and my wife have gone over it a thousand times and we still are not sure what happened, there wasn’t a car in front of us as far as the eye could see, I turned to look at the truck next to us for a second and the next thing I knew there was a car stopped in front of us, needles to say I didn’t even have time to hit the breaks, I slammed into the back of the car in front of us and that car was then pushed into the car in front of it. When I got out of the car, the car in front of the one I hit had taken off, more than likely they cut off the person in front of us and slammed on the breaks (Haitians do this in South Florida all the time so they can sue you) but when they realized they caused an accident they took off.

Our airbags went off and the car filled with smoke from the propellant, my son was hysterical not from the accident but from the thought that he was not going to Disney World, fortunately he was fine not a scratch on him, my wife on the other hand was not as lucky it seems that she took the brunt of the crash fortunately she only suffered from a sprained ankle and a couple of bruises from the seat belts, as for me I was more concerned with there well being to even worry if there was anything wrong with me, I was just banged up a little, no more that I usually am. I was just grateful no one was seriously hurt

After calming our son down and reassuring him that we were still going to go on vacation we took care of everything we had to with the car since the Insurance Company totaled it there on the spot we went back to the house and got in the truck and proceeded to go to Orlando thinking that our troubles were behind us we finally got up there, then on the third day we were there my truck starts acting strange, it starts sputtering and backfiring, it seems that the coils went bad and was making the truck misfire so I had to get that fixed.

Needles to say this vacation cost me a small fortune between totaling a brand new car, having to replace most of the ignition system in my truck and the fact that gas was at its highest cost ever, then having to go out and purchase a new car. I really haven’t been in the mood to do anything with the Volksrod or anything else for that matter.

Here are some photos of the car.
The scary part is we were just going less that 30 mph.

[bugdust]

Man, sorry to hear about all that. I'm glad everyone is alright. I'm even sorrier to hear you had to go to Hell...er, Disney World. I thought I was done with that place but then we had another kid.

[Cat Box]

im glad you and your family are ok and had a semi good time.

now go finish the car and post us some pics as i have wanted to see it finito for a very long time.

[mkparker]

Glad you guys are OK!! Things sure can go downhill fast sometimes!

[fernon]

Thanks Guys, I really wasn't posting this to get sympathy, just to let everyone know why I haven’t been around, but I forgot this place is like a family, a misguided dysfunctional family, but family none the less and people actually give a shit here, thanks for all the support.

Don't worry, all is not lost, fortunately I also have a great family that always goes above and beyond to help each other out, and no one more so than my brother-in-law, The Evil Metal Genius, he has really outdone himself this time.

Let’s just say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s a Volksrod moving full speed ahead.

[carlbugs]

here is a car that randy (dentfxr65) is building for a customer. when i was in his shop before Christmas, the car was finished except for the decklid, but i didnt take any pics

[Mikelrome]

I love that thing!

[vwfanatic]

pretty sure those front fenders were by arnie boyle, the same guy that did the original molds for cliffs volksrod (pirahnna) kit.

[71fatty]

man those front fenders are bad ass

[Boom]

those fenders are definately different I am not sure I like them but the workmanship to do that is outstanding I really like the chop and how they angled the B pillar forward and losing the drip rails

[mkparker]

Freakin' awesome GREEN too!!!

[Oldkid]

Originally Posted by carlbugs

here is a car that randy (dentfxr65) is building for a customer. when i was in his shop before Christmas, the car was finished except for the decklid, but i didnt take any pics

Man I wish you didn't take any more photos. lol

[onelowzuki]

That car makes my panties wet

[ratlook63]

Not my cup of tea with the front fenders, the big wheels and the slanted pillar but that is some amazing work!

[fernon]

Originally Posted by carlbugs

here is a car that randy (dentfxr65) is building for a customer. when i was in his shop before Christmas, the car was finished except for the decklid, but i didnt take any pics

Amazing work...
We really need to see more of this bug...
I love the Flat n' Fat look it's got goin on
and the front end is fuck'n rad. Love It!!!

[fernon]

What would you do with an extra 10-1/2" Inches?

Yes kids that's right not 8", not 10" but a whopping 10-1/2" inches.
Just so that we can say I bet you never seen one of these this big before…

OK, like I said, the Evil Metal Genius really outdid himself this time, he went ahead and fabricated a 10-1/2” beam extender for the bug.

As usual, we pulled the beam off the car to find more rust and more holes to fix.

The Evil Metal Genius making some final adjustments to the beam. Notice the OSHA squint.

Doing some test fitting before its all welded up.

[fernon]

Let's see you make it fit Smart-Ass

So now that we have the beam extender we have to see if it all fits under the hood

A little cut here, a little cut there and what do you know...

That steering box is going to have to go.
Looks like we're going to put a rack and pinion set-up in here so we don't have to cut the hood!!!

Yes, we do have top and bottom plates for it, we are just test fitting before we weld it all up.

Damn That's Sexy, Now we just need to weld it all up.

[bugdust]

Looking good!! I need to get started on my next extension design!

[fernon]

That's Too Fuckin High

OK, so the beam extender dropped the front end down another 2" but the car still looks like a Gasser, so once again the Evil Metal Genius does a Cut and Turn and now it has the right stance.

Before the Cut and Turn.

After the Cut and Turn. What a difference that made.

Before the Cut and Turn.

After the Cut and Turn.

It's starting to all come together now...

[kitbox56]

Hey Fernon,
You've gone this far.........I think you would be happy if you and the genius would cut the humps (smooth out) out of the front fender wells. The car looks great !
James

[volksmike]

that is nice... I had to channel the front of the body on mine to get it to hide the beam like yours. It looks great when you can get the hood to almost touch the ground!

[fernon]

Hey Babe Nice Rack!!!

Well we finally got the rack and pinion set-up tacked in and it looks and works great.
It is a Wright Rack and Pinion, it is super simple and very strong, but very hardcore, probably overkill for our purpose, but what the hell everything else we do is overkill.

Again everything tucks up under the hood nice and neatly.

[mkparker]

Lookin' great man!! Any reason you didn't mount the Wright in the center?

[Unkl Ian]

I would definitely mount it in the middle, so the tie rods are even lengths.