Blam! Turning an old Volkswagen Beetle into a fighter

Paul Murphy of Yorba Linda, Calif., has a knack for novelty conversions, the kind of vehicles that are guaranteed to make you the star at every stoplight.

He knows he got it right from all the looks he gets. "It's like being famous without being a celebrity," says Murphy, who was at a car gathering in Irvine, Calif., over the weekend with son Paul III.

In the case of this Beetle, it's all the details. Murphy, for instance, added fake machine guns and ammo belts sticking out from the front end. There's an ammunition shell as the shifter in the sparse interior.

It's not the kind of vehicle that gets lost in traffic. "Being in California, you've got to be unique," he says.