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Sun May 11, 2014 10:04 pm

Bought myself a beat up rusty Tonka Beetle for cheap on Ebay. As it was in poor unoriginal condition I had no problem repainting it...

Took it completely apart, used automotive paint stripper to remove the paint from the plastic interior casting. Worked great with no damage to plastic.

The partially detached bumpers were re-secured with a hot glue gun. Polished the heavily scratched window plastic.

Soldered on some new brass tabs to replace the broken originals

My Dad has a bead blasting cabinet. Cleaned up gently in a few minutes.

Used some leftover etch primer from my full size Karmann Ghia project.

Used leftover L87 Pearl White also from the Ghia.

If you are going to do something like this, make sure your "project" VW has good bumpers and "glass" because these do not seem to be available. It was a fun and quick project, and as I have no intention of selling it, I don't care that repaints normally lower the value....

Mon May 12, 2014 9:25 am

Very nice.

These are such classic models, and make rewarding restoration projects, especially for those who like working with steel.

(They're also very popular in a rusty, patina state.)

I would have been terrified to use automotive paint stripper on the interior. I find that brake fluid works best for removing paint from plastic.

Mon May 12, 2014 12:23 pm

I tried it on a scrap damaged part from another Tonka. Was surprised it didn't hurt the plastic. Can't guarantee all brands of stripper wouldn't do this however...

Fri May 23, 2014 11:03 am

Nice, but you should have done the interior in red.

-jeffrey

Fri May 23, 2014 10:57 pm

I know, red would look better for the interior. The only reason I didn't is I kind of wanted it to still look like an "original" Tonka

Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:21 pm

Just completed a couple of more Tonka restorations... I like doing these as a break from working on the full size versions sometimes...

These were the two examples. Both were original, but featured too much rust for my liking. Both had undamaged bumpers and glass, so were good candidates to restore. Both were cheap E-bay purchases...

I initially used paint stripper to get the worst of the paint off. This revealed lots of surface rust under the factory paint on the blue example. Left in bare metal during a shift change in damp conditions??? Decided to gently glass bead blast later to remove this rust as well as the pits in the green body.

Used some etch primer next. The rust pits in the green body had some extra primer brushed on in the bad areas and were later sanded down. Two primer coats were applied.

And now on to the colour coats. The former blue car is now L478 Beryl Green. The green car is now L620 Savannah Beige. Both cars received two base colour coats and two clear coats. These were mixed at our local body shop supply store and loaded into spray cans for me. The paint went on well.

Beryl Green (to match my real '62 Beetle)

Savannah Beige (to match my real '70 Beetle)

With the L87 Pearl White example I did last year...

These little projects were a lot of fun and I am sure to do more in the future...

Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:43 pm

Here's a Black Tonka that I too found on e-bay, I bought it with the intention of fixing it up.

Wed Mar 18, 2015 8:16 am

I feel myself being bit by this bug...

What do you use on the plastic windows to remove scratches and haze?

Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:54 am

I would use Novus No. 2 plastic polish, but Volktales may have his own suggestion.

Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:40 pm

My windows featured a lot of scratches. I used some 600 grit sandpaper, followed by some 1200 grit. Then automotive polishing compound, followed by wax. This was just because I had this stuff lying around..

Sun Nov 27, 2016 3:13 am

Looks good

Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:14 am

I've got another one on the go right now. A little different then the past projects, I hope to have it finished in the next week and will post up the pics!

Fri Dec 02, 2016 9:31 pm

I can't wait to see the added sunroof! What color is your '66? 8)

Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:22 am

Hitest, my real '66 sunroof is L87 Pearl White. My first Tonka resto was an approximation of the real car. Now that you mention it, installing a sunroof would have been a cool idea... I might do another in the future with this idea, and the matching Pigalle interior would look nice. Hmmm.

The current project is painted and will be assembled shortly. Pictures should be up tonight. Note that while my other projects have been "original'-ish, this one is anything but...

Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:37 pm

Ok, here is the latest project...

Unlike my other restorations that were bought from Ebay, this Tonka Beetle has been in my possession for close to 40 years. I bought it used at one of those elementary school "fun-fairs" back in the '70's for 25 cents. It was beat up then, and was played with a lot when I was a kid. Now it is time to have some more fun with it...

Unlike previous restorations, this one will not be original! My intention is to fit these slot mags, taken from a scrap Tonka Dune Buggy. They are not a direct fit however...

Lots of Dremel action to modify both the metal chassis as well as the plastic interior tub to get these wide tires to fit under the fenders.

Here is the modified interior tub. A lot of material had to be removed to accommodate the fatty tires.

The chassis had lots of material removed. The axles now had to secured by other means, and I used some VW steel fuel line tubing for this purpose. The tubing was soldered onto the floorpan which was easily tweaked to allow for a lower ride height.

Things were test fit throughout the project. I wanted to make sure the wheels were centred in the fenders, something that is not true of all Tonkas.

Then the body was paint stripped, de-rusted via Navel Jelly, and most of the bigger dents were removed. Given that Tonka VWs have a lot of body ripples, it is pretty hard to smooth out everything.

After the primer set up, then it was time for some paint. First was two coats of base colour...

Then three coats of clear to make the Electric Lime Metallic pop.

Then wait until it dries and reassemble. I am happy with the way it turned out.

Note the broken bumpers converted into T-bars. There was a reason for these specific modifications...

My first car was a 1970 Beetle, and back in the day it was painted metallic green, ran T-bars, and featured Appliance slot mags. Originally the car was Savannah Beige, just like the other Tonka. However as I have another Savannah Beige full size Beetle project, I would not consider restoring my first car back to original. My first Beetle still is rotting away in the back yard, where it has sat for the last 16 years. And I daily drove it for 17 years before that! Maybe fixing up this Tonka, the way I envision my real car to be, will inspire me to do up the real thing! We will see about that...

Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:33 pm

Volktales wrote: Ok, here is the latest project...

Well done. :D

Wed Dec 07, 2016 12:19 am

At first I really liked the look of the patina body and was sad to see it get stripped, but then when I saw the finished product I was sold.
Volktales wrote:

That was a very clever modification with the wheels. I enjoy seeing something that has never been done before.

Here's a thought: If you were to go over the white stripes on the tires with a red permanent marker you would create instant redlines.

Wed Dec 07, 2016 8:13 pm

Hmmm, the Hot Wheels look on the tires would be interesting. I had a lot of fun doing this project and now am dreaming about fixing up my real Beetle. Maybe some day it will happen.

Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:07 am

I found a resto-worthy candidate on eBay. I plan to match its colors to my 1960. It's in pretty good shape, so part of me is torn about altering it, but this thread has me hooked.

Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:29 pm

Panicman, I am looking forward to see how that turns out. I have a couple more that I am going to repaint eventually in original VW colours as well. Maybe one in my all time favourite colour of Strato Silver...