The VW Camper Company not only sell and service veedubs but also undertake some of the most skilled and complex fabrication work from its Oxfordshire workshops. As VW Heritage customers, we thought we’d take a closer look at some of their most recent creations…
Formed in 2005 by VW fanatics Angus and Karen Watt, VWCC started off as a VW rental hire outfit before getting in to sales and servicing. Now its Oxfordshire-based 800 sq/ft workshop is chock a block with classic VWs, with in-house welding and fabrication facilities, a spray booth, engine room and on-site dyno facilities adding to the wide range of services on offer.
The Banbury firm also specialises in elevating roof refurbishment and as well as offering its own replica of the Devon ‘double top’ full elevating roof, is a dab hand at restoring other roofs from the likes of Dormobile, Danbury, Westfalia. The company is also an approved fitter for the Litesteer power steering system and also has a servo assisted brake upgrade solution which could be handy if you’re using your van a lot.
Some of the most involved projects recently have been ice cream vans; one was done for Mars and involved a complete restoration followed by bespoke fabrication, complete with Mars livery…
The other was for the alcoholic lollipop company Lickalix, which involved building a custom frame to accommodate an industrial size chest freezer. In fact, the van made an appearance at Carfest this year, so you might have already spotted it.
Another notable commission was by surf company Reef. Here, a funky Splitty was totally refurbished in a suitably cool surfer blue, complete with wooden roof rack and chrome ladder – the finished product being taken to Reef’s HQ in Switzerland where it was to be parked inside and used as meeting room [bottom right). Now how brilliant is that!
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg because with rust free campers from the UK and overseas being sourced all the time, basically vans can be built from a bare shell to any specification.
The only time they baulked at doing this was with a totally original, mint Canterbury Pitt. Said VWCC’s Amanda Austin: “The customer bought it from an auction, but hadn’t really appreciated just how much of a gem it was. It was absolutely unmarked. He wanted stickers putting on but we refused, although we did give it a thorough service. We diplomatically recommended that if he wanted something to ferry the kids to school in, he might want to go and buy another, less pristine vehicle and save this one for best.”
When we looked VWCC also had a dozen or so campers listed for sale, ranging from tin top Microbus needing basically everything doing at £5,950 to a fully restored 1972 Dormobile for £32,950. And it’s not just VWs; the company also works on classic Porsches and usually also have a number of these for sale as well – including when we went on the site, a gorgeous looking yellow 914 which had just come out of dry storage. Very tempting!
As a one stop Dub shop, VWCC certainly has all the bases covered – and just like us, it’s a business that’s run by VW nuts for VW nuts…
Ian
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage