I’ll try to take on it again. We just had a heatwave here, temps stayed at about 40ºC for 3 weeks. Everyone stayed in low energy consumption mode. And my garage isn’t isolated, so the car was as hot as I had just welded on it for this period. The only thing I was able to do was the shifter relocation and pedals.
But thanks for asking.
Of course! It’s an awesome project and the final result I know will be epic! I do forget sometimes that as temperatures cool down here, they warm up south of the equator.
Thanks for the update!
Ok, I’ll ask some opinions here. In case you guys aren’t following the thread from the beginning, this is how the Brasilia looked like in 1998 (I was about 4, and it was far from being ours).
To me, it was only a slightly better interpretation of a car used by a terrible band at the time, but then @HighOctaneLove said:
Also, removing that bodykit was a smart move, IMO, the car looks great stock and that kit wasn’t complete enough to pull off the 80’s Euro tuner vibe it’s trying to give off!
To be honest, I never have though of it that way, but now I can see the similarities! So what I’ve decided to do is take my 3d printable Brasilia to Tinkercad, design the old bodykit over it, and ask you guys what can I add/mod to make it full 80’s Euro tuner! I’ll print and share it here at the end!
I even made a Pinterest album with some of my favorite cars from the theme:
https://br.pinterest.com/mvdesigncw/80s-german-speed-shop-specials/
So, what do you guys think?
OK, for starters, you’ll need heavily widened fender flares with lots of strakes…
It was fashionable to put the face of a sportier model on the tuned car as well, with the above link having at least two cars using different front fascia’s than stock.
Bonus marks if you integrate a rear wing into the side strakes… You also will need a sunroof, IMO, as they massively amp up the cool factor!
The quality cars start with a red Scirocco and the best examples are at the bottom!
You’ll need multi-piece wheels and it helps if the centre is colour coded to the car’s paint colour. The outer rim should be either chrome or polished aluminium. You need to paint the car in a really striking colour; like bright red, blinding white, LEGO yellow or Bogliq blue!!!
The flares need to be boxy but look factory (assuming they took drugs first) unless the car was really rounded, like the Porsche 928 at the start of the forum thread in the third link… Look to tuned Golf and Scirocco GTi’s for inspiration since they tended to crib off of the factory hot rods style; only with the volume cranked to eleven!!!
I think your render is 90% there tbh; a sunroof, more rear flare (starting from the “B” pillar and ending at the back corner while also incorporating actual air intakes) plus a couple of spoilers (Above and below the rear window) and she’ll be a beast of uncommon beauty!
I really like the look of your stock bright yellow Brasilia and it’s much better compared to the bodykit version. Really good looking car 
IMO somehow this 80s tuner style 
Widening arches could look good, but no in the boxy 80s style, but more in 70s round/soft style, like Alfa Junior GTA
Can’t agree more with that bit of advice - back in the 80s, color-coded wheel centers were a common accessory for many tuning kits.
I don’t have many other ideas than to maybe look at Mk1 Golf builds from the 80s. I have always seen the Brasilia’s styling as the Golf from an alternate timeline where VW stayed aircooled and RR and yeah, I know, small 412 up front, but if VW had stayed rear engined maybe they would have carried on with that front styling, they kind of tried a modernized version on the 1988 Passat…
So, I think that much of the stuff that is working well on a Golf would, in slightly altered versions, maybe fit a Brasilia too.
@HighOctaneLove First, thanks for the albums! I’ll enjoy them as a good wine! Also, that’s a great crash course! I’ll look into it and come back with the progress.
@B4nditOo That’s a good alternative! This is just a fun design study, so don’t take it too seriously. On the real car, I hope I never mess with bodywork from a good amount of years! And thanks!
@abg7 written down, thanks!
@Knugcab I wish that’s what had happened! Brazilian designer Marcio Piancastelli and his team made all that they could for it to be a reality, but it wasn’t to be.
As fun as it was to visualise your Brasilia as an 80’s tuner car, this comment gave me a strong sense of relief; it would be a tragedy to hack up your car as it’s way too nice!
This actually sums up what I observed in the pictures I saw really well. The best 80’s tuners used factory cues, amplified them so they were more aggressive, then (ironically) somewhat subtly introduced extra design elements that would compliment the uber-OEM style they’d created.
Talking about upper end front swaps. Passat headlights and grille on a Brasilia. I’ll mess with it a little more when I got the time.
I was leaving this to be posted when finished, but I’ll probably not finish it in the near future. This was the process of making a fiberglass front splitter for the Brasilia. But first: Why?
I always loved the looks of the '84-'86 Gol GT, from the splitter to the spotlights, to the custom graphics, it looks rad. '80s rad.
After starting attending a car meet farther away from home, and having to take the motorway to go there, I’ve noticed the car was unstable at the front above 100 km/h. Could it be solved by tuning tire pressures? Yes, but you’ll really take out my motivation? Also, this render released by Thiago D3sign gave it a nice push.
First, a “before” look
I’ve decided to build it from sheet metal first, to nail the shape on a material I’m more comfortable with. Backing sheet fastened to the car
Guides added
Wireframe added
Main sheet added
After that, I removed it, made a 3 layers thick fiberglass panel, took tape molds from the metal version, traced the parts on the glass sheet, cut them out, and glued them with the same resin used to build the panel, with metal reinforcements at some points. For some reason, I only have pics of the final gluing
First fitment. Mounted lower on the car, and with a higher angle. The clearance at the center is the same as in my dad’s '05 Civic, to ensure it wouldn’t touch the ground on our garage ramp. Would it look better with less angle? Sure, but I don’t wanna scrap it everywhere.
Trimmed, and with longer side plates bolted AND glued on
And now with a lick of spray paint. I’ll still sand and PU paint it, just not now. For now, this is enough.
I’ll consider suggestions to make it look better, especially if said suggestions have Cyberpunk tendencies.
One of the parking light bulbs was burnt. I broke the other while trying to remove it. After some searching on my old RC stuff box, I’ve found some white LEDs. The resistors I had were a little too high for 12v, but it’ll work, just dimmer. If you need to see parking lights on a yellow and exceeding loud car, good luck son, you’ll need it.
On the left the stock bulb and its holder, on the right the LED and resistor soldered to some sword connectors, and into a 3D printed housing. The 2 sides were hot glued after the pic.
Not too shabby if you ask me. A pity’s kinda useless and only there for the law.
Today I’ve replaced the side mirrors on the Brasilia. The stock ones closed by themselves at highway speeds. I’ve chosen a pair from the Gol I’ve posted above. Works great, and makes sense on the 80’s aesthetic I’m going for with this car. I’ll print something to close the holes left by the stock ones.
Before
After
(Don’t mind the ugly door cars, they’re on their way to be replaced)
I know front lips can make a significant difference at highway speeds at least on Beetles, sure they have more of a wing profile than the Brasilia and probably is more affected by lift, but since they both share the problem with a light front end, it will be interesting to hear about the results.
Oh, they were amazing! I’ve tested it on the same stretch of highway, with the same tire pressure, before and after installing the front lip. Before, at about 100 km/h, the front end would lift and become scary light! After at the same speed, you can feel the front lowering with the aero pressure, the car feels planted, with great front grip, and reaching its top speed of 135 km/h doesn’t feel to be harder, in fact, it’s easier to keep it at max speed since it doesn’t feel like it will crash at any moment anymore! I can’t wait to install my EFI and see how it compares!
Awesome!!! It’s always nice to find out that a mod actually works as advertised (or theorised in this case, hahaha). Your enthusiasm for improving the performance of your car makes me want to go out and buy something old and slow myself… Until I remember that my current car handily out accelerates, outhandles and uses less fuel than anything I could possibly afford, after they’re fully modded, hahahaha!!!
Keep up the good work, it’s fun to follow your progress on this fascinating artifact of differing regional legislation; the Brasilia is the only VW Beetle I’d be willing to own! 
Do it. When you have no expectations and no NVH study at the factory, you’ll feel like driving a race car when going about your day!
There’s no way to beat a Honda or Toyota in this. Just give up already. And I do have this nice lady to daily drive, witch will never be beaten by the Brasilia:
Just don’t sell your daily to get the project, save the money untill you can have both. The better the project is, the worse it will be to DD it.
Having is not the right term, it’s my dad’s car, but I drive it almost daily, so yea.
You’ll like what I’m doing now. All I can say is that I’m already tired of soldering LEDs for 3 days straight. More on that later.
