It's hard for us to believe it, but our VW Woody project turns FORTY this year! We first made this prototype in 1983, and it's still going strong! Definitely an Old Pal of mine, now, as we've been through a lot of fun adventures together...Happy Birthday, Woody!

WOWZA! The VW Woody Turns 40!

One of our favorite building projects is the Woody Wagon, a classic recreation of a surfer's woody, built on a standard Volkswagen Beetle. The Woody has been featured in Popular Mechanics, as well as becoming a repeat feature in Hot VW'S Magazine, and there are a lot of these little Woodys in use from Florida to Hawaii.

The car is remarkably cozy inside and we've had ours up in the mountains, all around California — we even shipped it to Kauai back in the '90's! It's still around, going strong, and hope it continues to for decades to come!

I can attest to the fact that it's lots of fun—I've been driving the prototype VW Woody for 40 years now, and I still love it! (has it been THAT long?!?) The photo above was taken for the original article in 1983 and the shots in Big Sur and Carmel were taken of the same car in 2009!

Good old Woody!

Click on these photos for a larger versions.

Keep in mind that these plans are now 40 years old and are not DOT-Approved. These plans are offered as a study guide and an insight in to how we created our own project. They are a starting point for developing your own design, essentially. Our usual detailed building guide and drawings documenting how we built our project are included, as in all our plans.

A Bug from the early to mid-sixties is preferable, but anything but Super Beetles will work in a pinch. Makes a nice, tight little wagon, with lots of room; ours has been used for almost 40 years and 70K miles. The plans have some full-size patterns which help builders fit the parts to the VW shapes.

This view of the rear of the VW Woody shows the ventilation screens which allow the cooling air in for the engine, as well as giving simple access to check the oil level.

As one can see in the photo below, the rear window opens to get into the back, as well as carrying longer boards or whatever.

When you need to work on the engine, the faux-Continental-spare is removed and the whole lower half of the rear is hinged down (we use a faux-spare in the rear of very lightweight foam for the good looks without the rear weight bias. The real spare lives in the front, where it always has). Then it's EASY to work on the engine. I have dual Weber carbs on this engine and it's all very accessible. I changed my taillights to repro '38 Ford style, with Blue Dots, which look great, but aren't too easy to see! So I added an LED third brake light at the top of the rear window. Looks a bit off from the completely vintage feel of a Woody, but it really helps people see when I'm braking!

To make the top shape, we use a pretty similar method to the original Ford Woodies: Cross beams and strips of wood to make the shape, covered with convertible top material. The material in this photo is the original top we made for this prototype back in 1983! It obviously stands up over time...And it Looks Great, we think!