Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från VolksWorld

Don’t forget, you can buy single issues, or back issues, of VolksWorld at the regular cover price, with free UK delivery (£1 additional charge for international postage) here: shop.kelsey.co.uk/issue/VWW UK customers can also save money by ordering three issues for just £9.99, including delivery, via the continuous credit offer available here: shop.kelsey.co.uk/suboff er/cb2ovww For those who prefer their media digitally, you can buy three digital editions for only £7.99 ($9.99 in the United States). Incidentally, every print subscriber will be able to download the digital edition free for a limited period, too. Alternatively, if you’re looking for your local stockist of VolksWorld, simply type your postcode in here: tinyurl.com/y26a38ul, select VolksWorld from the pull-down menu, enter your location and choose your desired search radius (1-20 miles). Remember to put the…

Our Editor, PK, lives on the ‘Essex Riviera’, known for many things, but in its time as Mecca for UK Cal Look. It’s fair to say the ’Look that swept the country in the late 1980s originated there, albeit influenced by what people were seeing in the imported US magazines of the day. So much so, references were made to it as the ‘So-End Look’. If, like Paul, you were resident of Leigh-on-Sea, or Southend, back then, you’d have struggled to get away from pastel-painted VWs cruising the ‘Golden Mile’ seafront. If they weren’t local cars, they were travelling there, thanks in no small part to the presence of the German Car Company shop, purveyors of all things UK Cal Look at the time. Toby Dammery was one who witnessed…

Can you believe this 1966 Split Bus started out as a 1973 Type 147 Fridolin? Of course you can’t! The truth is, though, it did. Well, the strand of life that led to its creation did at least. The human being lucky enough to have the keys in his possession goes by the name of Rich DeWitte. Rich makes his own luck in life by running a landscaping company in Las Vegas, Nevada. By all accounts, it’s an all-consuming gig, and so his VW addiction needs an enabler. Step forward George Tsagrinos, owner of The Wagen – a ‘One stop Aircooled VW Rehabilitation Centre specialising in the preservation and restoration of early air-cooled VW’s’, also located in Sin City, Nevada. Rich first got his hands on the Fridolin – a…

The UK VW scene was in the heyday of the ‘new wave’ at the time Gary first built this car. You’ll read a lot about those times past in this issue but, if you weren’t in the thick of it at the time, you might find it hard to understand quite how exciting, energetic and creative things really were back then. I personally love the way the scene has evolved over the decades since but, looking back, there’s no doubt the late ’80s and early ’90s were a more carefree place, with less rules and a more everyone welcome attitude. There are still plenty of people who aren’t afraid to break the rules, of course, but in the main VWs built these days wear original paint colours, have stock-style upholstery…

“I found myself drawn to the image of Rick Pearmain’s lemon yellow graphic’d Bug parked on Southend seafront” Visitors to UK VW festivals over the last two decades or so have enjoyed countless displays of nostalgic show cars thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of Stu, the founder and main driver of the Back to ’89 movement, B289 for short. The aim has always been simple – to celebrate and remember the custom VWs of the late 1980s and early ’90s. If, like myself, you recall most of these cars, either from seeing them at shows or reading about them in magazines, the displays are a little window back in time, but they also serve as a rolling education for those fresher faces to the scene who have never seen…

AUGUST VW WHITENOISE FESTIVAL Date: 19-22 Aug Location: Norfolk Showground, Dereham Road, Costessey, Norfolk NR5 0TT Contact: www.vwwhitenoise.com STANFORD HALL Date: 22 Aug Contact: www.stanfordhallvw.com CAMPERFEST Date: 26-30 Aug Location: Chester Racecourse, CH1 2LY Contact: www.camperfest.co.uk JUST KAMPERS OPEN DAY Date: 27-30 Aug Location: JK HQ, Odiham, Hants RG29 1JE Contact: www.justkampers.com SEPTEMBER VW ACTION Date: 3-5 Sept Location: Santa Pod Raceway, Wellingborough, Northants NN29 7XA Contact: www.vwaction.co.uk EDITION 38 Date: 3-5 Sept Location: Overstone Park, Northampton NN6 OAB Contact: www.edition38.com FIELD OF DREAMS Date: 3-5 Sept Location: Escrick Park Estate, York, YO19 6EA Contact: www.classicvolks.com/vwfieldof dreams.html GRILL-N-CHILL Date: 10-12 Sept Location: The Hop Farm, Maidstone Rd, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6PY Contact: www.grill-n-chill.co.uk BUSFEST Date: 10-12 Sept Location: Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcs WR13 6NW Contact: www.busfest.org PLAYERS SHOW…

If you’re fitting out a VW Camper, you’ll love this CNC SmartBench from Trend tools, which brings speed and accuracy to a huge range of interior fitting jobs, including building cabinetry, creating flooring, door cards and panelling on anything up to an 8 x 4ft sheet. You can even use it to create graphics and vinyl decals. Designs are transferred from a Mac (with Windows environment) or PC straight to an autonomous routing / cutting machine using USB or WiFi. The beauty of it is that once a design is created, it can be stored and perfectly replicated time and time again, which will undoubtedly make this set up very appealing to small businesses. The manufacturers say it takes just three minutes to set the compact SmartBench up, while it…

The brainchild of policeman, Derek Day from Solihull, this shorty Split shared the cover of the January 1990 issue of VolksWorld with Billabug. Even to this day that issue stands up as one of the best copies of the magazine ever. Let’s just say the cars in that issue, and the characters that created them, were colourful, even if much of the magazine back then was printed in black and white. I can still clearly remember being blown away by what was within these pages that wintery month, despite being just the tender age of 15 at the time. The Bus changed hands some time later but has been owned by Paul ‘Frosty’ Frost now for 22 years and, in that time, has gone through three different looks. As of…

So, if you’ve read the features in this issue first, you might now be wondering why a car like Brett Hawksbee’s Ghia, which was such a big part of the emerging UK custom VW scene, never appeared in VolksWorld before. To understand why, we need to take a step back in time, to around 1986, maybe even a year or two earlier. These days, there are magazines devoted to incredibly niche aspects of various hobbies. Like fishing but only want carp fishing? There’s Total Carp. If you’re into tractors, but only certain types, Classic Massey might be the one you subscribe to. But in the mid-1980s, the idea of a magazine dedicated to a single type of car was considered a bit risky. There were four well established modified car…

Go up in the loft and dig out your old back issues. In the December 1990 edition you’ll find the original feature on Gary’s chop top. It was a bit of a last minute affair, shot in a field at that year’s VW Action, and the accompanying story was just one column long. Interesting things to note, though, are it says the sunroof was fitted because kids had been jumping on the roof prior to Gary buying the car, and that he didn’t drive it at night (honest, officer…) because of how tinted the windows were.…

Photoshoots take a lot of time to sort out. But that statement is never truer than when you’re trying to reproduce a particular shot taken many years previous on entirely different equipment. Prior to this shoot, we spent hours arranging the details, such as sourcing deck chairs, tracking down Brett Hawksbee and locating the precise spot the original photo was taken. However, some things can’t be planned and are meant to be as, by sheer fluke, we bumped into none other than Rick Pearmain himself at Karmann Konnection on the morning of the shoot. Rick was living in America at the time, but was over in the UK for one week working on a Porsche just a few miles from where we were shooting Stu’s ‘homage’ to his old car.…

Whether you want to re-live past adventures, plan future travels or just create a version of your own Campervan, you’ll love this new, officially licensed by VW, Lego Bay Window. A clever update of the hugely popular Split Screen Camper set, it’s sure to appeal to kids, adults and collectors alike. We're really impressed with all the cool design details Lego has packed into this Bus, including the canvas pop-top, sliding side door, spare wheel, and even things like the realistic cab steps, bumpers and tail lights. Look inside and you’ll find a full camping interior with a well-stocked fridge, textile curtains and tea making facilities. The model (set no. 10279) comes with two folding chairs, a surfboard and some rather hackneyed flower power stickers, though we certainly won’t be…

If ever there was a story where parental influence plays a part in the outcome, Alex Boughen’s is it. Those pesky guardians have a lot to answer for here, not least for dragging 20-year-old Alex up proper, and blessing him with an irreverent sense of style and a non-conformist attitude to cars. Mum and dad, Beverley and Andrew, were most definitely part of the late ’80s VW uprising, when you could buy a not-so-old Beetle, or a used Split Screen Bus, for less than £500 and keep it on the road for not a lot more. Pastel paint, EMPI eights, DIY paintjobs, short shorts and weekends spent in fields were the order of the day back then. Ah, the good ol’ days, eh? The golden age Some call it the…

Can you believe there are people out there who genuinely class the 1980s as the era that fashion forgot? When it comes to shoulder pads and poodle perms they may have a point, but the style of the 1980s should not be dismissed so flippantly. As a defining period in time, it should be remembered, revered and – in one or two circumstances at least – revived. If you were to break down the DNA of any classic Volkswagen owner (though please, never do this!), you’ll be guaranteed to find one common denominator – nostalgia. Bob Daniels, owner of the turquoise ’63 here, has it in spades. He is also the man responsible for reuniting these two rad’ rides of yesteryear. Disposable camera Here’s how it went down: “In 1997,…

If you are ‘of a certain age’, and have been following the world of UK custom VWs, then we’re pretty sure you’ll remember this T-top Karmann Ghia coupé. If you’re too young to remember it, stay tuned, as it’s a truly epic story. We’ll bring its original owner / builder, Brett, into the story shortly but, to quickly recap, this car was big news in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The T-top roof conversion was a how to feature in VolksWorld, and a couple of sneaky pics of its wild graphic paint appeared, but the feature on the car itself ended up in the October ’89 edition of Custom Car magazine (see Old gold on p46). So, to finally set the record straight, we’ve hijacked some images from the…

“the lithograph design was not that of a Volkswagen, but a generic car of the period” This remote control Oval Window VW was produced by R. & W. Link from Schwenningen, Germany, under the brand name Mignon. Link bought the Mignon name and trademark in 1951 from the Staiger Company, and started producing toys with cable steering, but it didn’t last past the end of the decade. The company R.&W. Link / Mignon stopped›advertising at the end of 1957. It is unclear when the company ceased to exist, but it was probably around 1958 / ’59. The Mignon manual remote control VW was first introduced with two hand-held thumb cable controls, each about 1m long, and attached to the rear of the VW. Pushing one control steered the car, while…