Needless to say, the original VW bus was also the original camper van. Westfalia built its first conversion in 1951 at the request of a British officer stationed in Germany. And in addition to Westfalia, an innumerable number of individuals have applied their creative energies to adapting the box on wheels to their desires. This one, posted at the Cohort by SoCalMetro, is undoubtedly one of the more ambitious ones ever. I would have died for this 40 or 50 years ago. I still am…
Not only does this have a drastically higher roof, including custom windshield panes, but there’s no doubt that the whole body has been widened too. The wheels are clearly sitting in further in their wells, especially at the rear. Sadly, SoCalMetro only posted this one shot (please, more, next time!). Looks like some tall windows in the passenger side, one tall one on this side, and then a couple of small awning windows. And looks like there’s a hood scoop in the back for the poor engine. Well, it’s quite easy these days to build a VW air cooled engine with up to 2.3 liters and plenty of power, so this rig might not be quite as terminally slow as one might expect. But that all depends. Just needs a second engine.
Speaking of, I once came across an amazing twin-engine, twin rear axle, double-decker VW bus in an old Popular Mechanix or such, in the city library when I was splaying hooky from school one day. It was from about 1961-1963 or so. A guy in Tennessee no less cut up and spliced together two or three old VW buses, and put them together like a Greyhound Scenicruiser. He extended it with a second rear, including a complete second drive train, and then raised the rear 2/3 with a second upper body part. I was riveted with the account. They built it to go hunting! And it could run on one or both 36 hp engines! I seem to remember that the biggest challenge was shifting both transmissions, never mind the throttles and clutches. But with twin rear axles, they said it had great traction in the woods. I bet it did.
I’ve tried in vain to find that article again. Maybe Sally Sublette can? She can find anything. I’d love to see it again, to make sure I didn’t dream it or that it was a drug-induced hallucination.
From this distance it looks to be a clean, craftsmanlike job.
It also has an black-on-yellow California licence plate. First year for those was, I believe, 1956. The current retrospective historic-scheme plates are yellow-on-black.
You may be able to find something to your liking with this search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=3+axle+vw+bus+twin+engine&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1yKHZot7TAhXBOyYKHSdBCU4QsAQIJg&biw=1366&bih=657#q=3+axle+vw+bus+twin+engine&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CXzRfwON_13K_1IjigXg5MZg7lef20C1c3CJz3d658qXjq0iJzvBiXHTAuYXQTz42XP3EUdThswZ0e7xWDDJYmSAJggioSCaBeDkxmDuV5ERGNTtltGz1xKhIJ_1bQLVzcInPcR0W5UXt1r8NAqEgl3rnypeOrSIhGfkGttAREZYyoSCXO8GJcdMC5hEUFB_10aSUC82KhIJdBPPjZc_1cRQRAngYyVF3-e0qEgl1OGzBnR7vFREfnafumTsyfioSCYMMliZIAmCCEe6WvDqt770Y
No luck. it would have to be a specialized search in old magazines. Sally is an expert on that kind of thing, searching library data bases for old magazines and newspapers.
I would hazard to guess that the one I read about is the grandaddy of all of these types of extended VW buses, because it was just not done back then, yet.
Paul, I’m getting to the day’s CC postings later today than usual (9:27 pm here), but I’ll take the compliment/bait as a challenge and see what I can turn up.
[p.s. my proofreader eye did catch a couple loose ends in your essay, if you want to take another peek before filing it away…..]
Is this what’s been lurking in your memory since ’61, Paul?
Nope. That’s interesting too, but the one I read about was almost the opposite of this one, meaning the rear part of the bus was a double decker, but the front was normal. And it had twin rear axles and powerplants.
I appreciate the effort, but don’t spend too much time on it. 🙂
I can see it in in my mind’s eye. I don’t remember which of those magazines it was in, and I’m guessing at the vintage. I stumbled across it in 1970, but it was obviously from the early 60s or so.
^^^Update—that’s the only such thing in PM, 1961-63. Other possibilities?
BTW, the 1961 new-car issue was really comprehensive–both US and import cars…..
Volkswagen Sprinter? ?
Not hard to split a VW van, stitching it back together slightly more work, my VW nutter friend has pieces of the outer skin of his van off at present repairing a filler repair job done before he bought it, likely a harder job than was done on this but with the extra width comes the room for a corvair or Subaru turbo conversion without the need to cram everything in, both a better option than a VW four if your looking for reliable extra power, That extended VW van conversion in Popular Mechanics rings a bell our highschool library had issues going back to the mid 50s, I read as many as I could lay my hands on, far more interesting the study.
This is not a well done handycrafted Hippie Camper, but rather a VW Type2 ‘Verkaufswagen’ or market stand. Nearly all were made by Ben Pon Amersfoort /Netherlands(*), so searching for a german manufacturer will give no result. These vehicles had an additional 125cc stationary supply engine for a refrigerator, hence the hood scoop in the back.
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(*) Volkswagen ditched Westfalia in the 1980s in favor of Ben Pon.
That’s why Westfalia does not exist anymore, whereas Ben Pon Amersfoort is one of the largest auto suppliers in the world: http://www.BenPon.nl
Are you sure? The featured van has been widened as well as having the roof lifted and quite different from the standard high roof conversions
Now that is cool, a OEM conversion Food Truck!
There was another very interesting early VW microbus custom made model, and I can’t remember the name. But only very few were made. The whole upper section was replaced with mostly glass roof. The windshield was full wraparound, backward slant “A” pillar, like you see on a 58 Chevy or Ford. All side windows were bigger and the rear window was like the windshield. The only things recognizable were the original VW headlights and the big V in front. Same with the rear, original taillights and engine compartment door. It was made for sightseeing, and the VW Samba looks very outdated in comparison. There’s only one left, and it’s somewhere in Switzerland, maybe sitting in a junk yard . I’ll see if I can find it online.
Here it is, The VW Auwarter !! I guess there is more than one left. This one looks to be in great condition.
Very cool looking VW Auwarter. They didn’t need to produce the second generation Bay Window VW bus in 68. They could have used this model instead !! LOL !!
Just spotted this very bus in Felton California last night!!!! 8-11-18