Hot Trick, What the... Rise of the Monster Beetle!

[BattleTrak]

The Beetle has landed..

[Dadio]

Looks really pink in pictures , does it come with an optional Barbie driver figure ? I guess its more red in person .

[BattleTrak]

Looks really pink in pictures , does it come with an optional Barbie driver figure ? I guess its more red in person .

Yeah it’s just my bad lighting. This ain’t gonna be no Barbie bug!

[juicedcoupe]

This ain’t gonna be no Barbie bug!

Don't be scared. Barbie was a freak.

[BattleTrak]

Progress has really slowed down as I have been trying to figure out the final look and working on suspension problems. I have decided to really make this unmistakably a Monster Beetle..with the red body, decals and yellow CVA shocks. I already had a set of Beetle yellow CVAs which will work out great for the front but they are way too long for the rear..which you would typically use a Kyosho gold short shock. After much research, I found these mini yellow CVAs that have a perfect extended length of 63mm.





The biggest suspension problem is the terrible wire retainers used to limit the rear travel. Back in the day..they were a constant source of frustration because the collars would always slip allowing the rear arm to over-extend and throw the dogbones. To fix that.. I installed a 4-40 screw in the “Frog lowering kit” holes and trimmed the stop on the arm. Now it has a positive stop, eliminates the need for the wire retainers and allows me to eliminate the rear body mount/wing/wire retainer brackets altogether. In its place went a Trinity rear sway bar kit.

[TheDiamondOne]

BattleTrak your just nailing this build! U hearin me son?

[BattleTrak]

BattleTrak your just nailing this build! U hearin me son?

Yes, Sir! ..and thank you! This is the warm up for my other Hot Trick build..wait til you see that monster!

[BattleTrak]

[Dadio]

Cool Ampro Engineering parts. I love his YouTube stuff.

[BattleTrak]

The last phase of this build has been the most difficult.. After getting the rear suspension travel and ride height established, I had to match the front end and incorporate the body & front shock mounts all at the same time. To make things more difficult, I wanted to use a stock hard body and mounting posts.

First problem was that the front suspension was much higher than the rear.. to solve this I flipped the control arm brackets and drilled extra holes to lower them.



There is a good reason why you never see any Hot Trick Monster Beetles.. the body is small and if you want it properly centered over the wheelbase, it doesn’t allow for the typical front mounted shocks & body mount like the Hot Trick Blackfoot. Notice on the December 1987 RCCA Project Monster Beetle, there isn’t a good side pic to see how forward mounted the body is.. So for a nice body fit and look, the front shocks and tower needs to mounted on the back side of the the control arms. Using a cut down, aluminum copy of the JG #5003 front shock tower and ReRe yellow CVAs..I came up with this that looks awesome and sorta period correct. Some CRP adjustable spring collars too..







For the rear body mounts I used an unknown Hot Trick bracket from my stash and some custom cut & drilled pieces of 6x10mm stock.



Looking good! Added a vintage Holeshot 2000 motor heatsink for some more air cooling to the Beetle.. Final body finishing next!

[BattleTrak]

This build missed the left turn at Albuquerque...who knows where it’s going now..?!

[coxbros1]

Is the other one done yet?