'On Its Wheels Again' | Rescuing A 1955 Vw Beetle | Episode 5

Oh, damn, mate, it's cold. Welcome back to another video. We're not in the workshop. I've come out on an adventure to Just Campers to pick up the last few pieces so we can get that oval back on its wheels and ready for the Volkswagen show. And hopefully, everything we need is in that building. Oh, this must be it. Hey. Hi, Don. Good to see you. You must be Mark. I am Mark, indeed. Amazing. Welcome to Just Campers. Thank you. I was just looking at all your awesome pictures. Is this where it all started? Yeah, this is where it all started. So, 89. It was just literally as a business welding up campers. The workshop was so small that you used to have to have a, if you did a bay window, you had to have a top that went over the doors. It was too long. It's literally like a single garage. Literally a single garage. So you started doing restoration? Doing restorations, yeah. 89 was on my own. By 1990, we already had two people. And then it sort of evolved through until when we opened a parts shop in 97. Wow. And then we came here temporarily in 99. Right. And the very first episodes of Wheeler Dealers were filmed here. In this building? In this, we're in the middle of it now. Amazing. It must be amazing to be standing here now in this huge building with this massive operation that you've got, knowing that this sort of, it all started at these humble beginnings. Yeah, yeah. Each morning when I come through, it does remind me to make sure the customers are happy because I don't want to go back to the beginning. Yeah. Let's show you around. Perfect. Thank you. These are all the guys that work here. We've all got VWs as well. This is Chet. I spoke to him. He helped me with some parts for the Oval. Yeah, that's it. And that's my cabriolet. It's the same age as me. We're just a couple of weeks apart in age. So yeah, a lot of the people drive the cars too. We need more space. We'll put another row in. Let's get all the cars in. Brilliant. Well, I can't wait to have a look in there. Excellent. Let's go and have a look. It's busy, isn't it? So is this all orders going out the door? No, yeah, we're open seven days a week. Really? Yeah, so we ship seven days a week. So this is the weekend's big stuff that's waiting to go. So it's all going to be picked up today and sent straight out. Ready for delivery on Tuesday. And then in here. Wow. So it ramps up during the year. So the peak is obviously the summer, at which point we've got 10 people packing. And at this time of year, we've normally got about five or six people packing. Every day? Seven days a week, yeah. Seven days a week. And then the small stuff goes by Royal Mail, middle stuff by DPD, big stuff by Tufnels, right the way up to full containers going to America, Australia, and into Europe. Right, wow. So all of the brake parts that you sent down to us would have been here. Would have been here, packed by one of the team here. And then a lot of the sheet metal parts like this, I can show you in a minute, they're actually made here on site. Brilliant. Trying to guess what that's from, but I can't. In a rear valance of a late bay. Oh, ah, okay, yeah. Floor panel, yeah. Floor panel, fridge, they're our own manufactured fridges, type 25, T6, T6. T6, so you do new stuff as well? Yep, right up to brand new. With the transporters up to brand new. Right, okay. And then even a barbecue going out. Somebody's enthusiastic. Somebody's enthusiastic for warm weather. Someone's ready for the summer. And then they've got a board so they can see the orders in the queue, and then they pick them all with a handheld. So you get on here. Royal Mail at the moment, so I've got to pick a bucket. You go and look for a real wheel bearing spacer. So it tells him what size bucket, or whether he needs a bucket, a basket, a trolley. For how big that part is. For how big the part is. And then, have you got, do you know where that wheel bearing is, or does that tell him? No, it doesn't tell me. Really? So it scans his bucket, and it tells him where to go in the warehouse. Can I give you a picture? No. And you can just wander over there, grab it, and that's it? Yeah, and if it's got multiple items, it'll take him on the fastest walk around the building. So it literally works out the route to go. So they don't wander around in circles. That is so clever. So all the small parts are down this side of the building. So when we first came here, we had to about here, just this little bit here. So all of these full of parts, full of bits. Little seals, grommets. Needed one of those. And on here, we want section three. This is a massive operation now. I mean, you can't have started like this. No, it started off with like a order pad, duplicated order pad, because we used to take a lot of the orders at the show, and then the customer could have one copy and we had the other. And then we'd still do the same on the phones. And then we put the IT in. I mean, it's evolved and evolved and evolved. The IT behind it's the same as a lot of the big mail order companies are using, but it's bespoke to us because we ship such odd shapes and sizes. Well, somebody might order something really small and a big piece of glass, I don't know, and a brake disc. And most systems can't cope with that. So we had to have it written for us. Same as they use in the Apple store. It's the same technology as the Apple store. How many people have you got working here? 52. 52? This is marketing and purchasing. And then around the corner is e-commerce. Hello. How's it going? You okay? So when people call up to order parts. That's next door. That's next door, okay. So we've got sales and customer service. And then we did have purchasing at the back there, but we moved them in with marketing. With marketing, right. Look at this place. So we pick the first three levels, one, two, three, with the, what I call them, flying carpets. And then above is the bulk stock that normally corresponds with what's below it. Right, okay. But it's in speed order. So the faster it sells, the nearer the middle of the building is. So you've got seatbelts next to... So things that people order quite often. Yeah, exactly. Seatbelts next to brakes, next to carb kits, next to brake drums. So the service parts are really quite, yeah. Wow. So how big is this place? It's about 24,000 square feet in here. So you got wings next to barbecues. Ideal. Ideal, perfect. Just what you need. Next to cookers. And then you got more recognisable things like... Heater channels. Yeah, heater channels, beetle bumpers, flip belly pans for split screen campers. Oh, for the double door. Yeah. Yeah, from underneath. And then we do a lot of MDF panels for the split space inside 25. For the door panels? Yeah, so you can then trim them yourself. Because a lot of people want to make it the spoke to match the rest of the interior. To match the interior. Oh, I see. Yeah, but they're all pre, all the holes were in the right places. Did you make these? They're all made here. Yeah, they're all made here. We're not made here, we're made in the UK. Yeah. You've got everything. Try to. Yeah. We should have bought a bigger van. I think we're going to need quite a few bits. So Mark, there is one thing that we need. The fuel filler cap. Fuel filler cap. It's got to be here somewhere. So here we go. This should be the right cap. Perfect. That looks right. And it's got the seal. Perfect. Thank you. No problem. That's really good. So these are complete front beams that we make on site here. And then we put the original Febi centre pins in them. They have proper roller bearings in there. Actual bearings. Actual bearings, rather than people putting urethane in. Like the originals had, the needle rollers, yeah. Yeah, and they're made so they can be left or right hand drive. And you can put a servo or not put a servo on it. Perfect. So there, and then we do narrowed, lowered. Do you? Standard height. Yeah, and they're all fabricated here. They're all made here. We'll show you in a moment. So there's a whole metalworking shop here. This is an awesome shop. This is proper English cottage industry. This is so cool. This is your new oven. It is. It's a monster. What goes in there? And here you go, you can actually see the beams being powder coated. They're literally in there to be powder. So these are like type 25 repairs for the rear suspension. All of these pieces, these repair panels, you make them all here? They're all made in here. And powder coated, so that can go on with that finish. You don't have to sand it off. So the cab floors, these are made here. They're pressed on the press. So you've got the dies. Yeah, made with a female tool. It's heavy. It's solid, isn't it? Yeah. The right gauge. It's the right gauge, just as it was originally. And all the flutes line up. So if you just want to let a piece in, you can cut a piece in and line the flutes up. How nice is that? You can confidently say, like, yeah, because you make it here yourself, if it doesn't line up, you can change it. Exactly. That is so good. So we use the New Old Stock panels to be our template to make the parts against. So that's an original New Old Stock? Yeah, it's a New Old Stock side. So they'll use that for making the repair panel at the bottom or for making the windscreen repair lip or the side window repair lips. So we've got lots of the New Old Stock parts here and that's what we template against. I'd love to have one of these. I really would. Especially with that rack of tooling to go with it. That's just amazing. I guess this is things like seals and things like that. You'd put little lips and things, fold edges, and yeah, all of that, actually. You can do two different folds at the same time. Yeah, because offset it with, yeah. It literally punches like this. That's bizarre. And it just goes bang in one go? No. It just munches around. Yeah, it munches around. So it's got, they're all the different heads. Different heads, I see. Right. And then it just goes, and the whole sheet of metal goes. Yeah, exactly. It's like a nibbler sort of thing. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, I know, they recognise that noise. I know what's happening in here. Hi, John. Good morning, Mark. How are you? Yeah, good. Hello. How's it going? God, it's a lot of work in that. Yeah, we do around 10 at a time. God. And so that's an inner seal. That's it. For a type 25. That's it. And we do offside, nearside. And give it a final fettle up. So is this two pieces? That you've just cut? Yeah, that's two pieces. That's two pieces, yeah, yeah. This is the main body. And this is just the panel. You stick that bit on. You can see the seal. Yes, of course. There we go. That's the whole panel. That's very clever. I bet your welding is better than mine. Have you seen the beams? Yeah, we've just seen them being powder coated. Yeah. They look really smart. Do you like them? Really nice, yeah. They look really, really good. How long have you worked here? In May, 10 years. You're kidding. Doing welding, fabrication. Yeah, all the camper parts. All the camper bits, for 10 years. God. You obviously enjoy it. Oh, yeah. These are all like overflow parts where we store the goods. Right. And then over the road is the, well, we call it the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse. Another warehouse? Yeah, all the bulk stores over the road. All the cool, all the big stuff is over there. This just keeps going on and on. What's the story with this? Yeah, this belongs to Ian, who works at, just campers, does, works in the warehouse. So it's a historic circuit racer. So it's done stuff like Goodwood, in the historic class of Goodwood. Is it really? Yeah, and now it's being lightened and having a refresh. Yeah, there's not much left of it. There's not much left of it. And it's about to have a rebirth again. Brilliant. But I think with all these race cars, they've all got a history. Cool. Type 25, it had the most asthmatic 1600 diesel engine in the back of it. Right. And we've now put a Golf GTI engine in the back of it. No way. Yes, it's gone petrol to diesel and it now actually flies down the road. I've never heard of that. Kind of conversion before. Yeah, it fits straight in. How does an upright engine fit? You take the diesel sump off. So that's a Golf GTI engine. Yep. Wedged into a diesel van. But still the type 25 gearbox, by the looks of it. Still type 25 gearbox. And it bolted straight on? Yep. Really? That is such a good conversion. Yeah, it looks factory. It looks brilliant. Yeah, it looks factory, yeah. It's the vehicle Volkswagen should have built. Yeah. What's in here? So this is our workshop where we do testing of products to make sure that bits actually fit like they should do. And also where we're doing how-to videos. Beautiful car. What year is this? 56. It's called Jack. So we did it for my 50th birthday. You actually raced it? Yeah, I raced it with my son, Josh. Josh navigated and I drove. It's done about 20,000 miles since we built it. You're kidding. No, it's been used a lot. Wow. But we're just refreshing the interior now. So Mark, who does the how-to videos here, we just stripped the interior for the winter. But typical, it's just how life goes. It's in a bit of a last minute rush for the Volkswagen show. Is this going to the show as well? It's going to go to the show as well. You're in a similar position to us, then. Panicking. Well, I'm trying not to panic, but yeah. So it's got like a little race engine. So it goes from 30 horsepower up to about 60, 65. The same base engine. Yeah. That's awesome. And then all of our cars, we fit with the engine firefighter. So I think that's a must. And then to make it safe, because I figure, you know, you want to drive an old car on the road, but people aren't used to seeing almost no indicators. Yeah. Flashing brake light is not exactly helpful, is it? So we've put on it. It's got semaphores. Okay. And they flash now. So we make it so they flash. We made a modern LED flashing bulb that fits inside. Originally, that would pop out and just glow, very dim, kind of. No of you seem to get the gist that you're trying to turn right? No. So we've hidden in the back here, like a modern moped backlight. Right. So you can't see it until they flash. But then hopefully somebody behind you can see it in the vent and on the flashing semaphore. That is great. And then we've hidden another one of these in the front. So half the idea of the workshop is to try and do like simple how-to videos so people can feel empowered to fix their own cars or do some of the work themselves and then take it to one of the garages. It gives them a bit of an idea of the stuff that maybe they can't do but they can understand when they take it to their specialist what's entailed and what they're going to do. That's half of it, I think. That's true. It's kind of knowing your limit. Yeah, definitely. I'm all for everyone having a go. I say this to so many people, even with, you know, things at home, hanging shelves and basic DIY tasks. It's like, it is doable. It's the same for these old cars. It's like some jobs, like a basic service, oil change, plugs, things like that. Exactly, your maintenance that you need to keep on top of. You can do so. Absolutely, you can do it. Yeah, in a workshop like this, I mean, there's no horrendously fancy tools. No, no, no. No specialist garage can, they can't see inside in advance. So it's very difficult to quite. Then hopefully then people have got a bit more sympathy when the garage phones up and says, there's this problem. So I think we're trying to explain to people, you can do the work yourself, but if you have taken to a garage, that, you know, they are old. Then always ripping you off, yeah. No, exactly. I think you're doing a great thing, though, just by trying to inspire people. I think it's a lovely thing to, that's what we want to do. We want to keep the vehicles on the road. Yeah. We don't want people to get fed up with what they've got, because they've come across a problem that they can't fix, or they can't understand. Yeah. You know, it's trying to, a little bit of education. By doing the work yourself, you kind of gain a bit more confidence in the car. Yeah. Because you know. You know what you've done. If it starts, if you're driving along and it gets a misfire, you know, ah, I haven't changed the fuel filter in ages, or that plug that was in the car. Should have done those leads. Yeah, exactly. You kind of have a bit more confidence that if it lets you down, you kind of know it. Yeah. You become friends, don't you? So, yeah, for anyone that owns a classic car, or wants to own a classic car, but is a bit daunted. Yeah. Work with these videos you're making, and it is a brilliant thing. That's what we're trying to do. But it's going well. I'm very grateful for the whole team at Just Campus for providing us with all of the parts and knowledge that we've needed throughout the way. And I've come down today to pick up the last few bits. We're so close because we're now days away from the Volkswagen show. We've still got a lot of work to do. There we go. Mark, honestly, thank you so much for the tour. No, you're very welcome. So we'll see you on Saturday at the Volkswagen show. Fingers crossed. If we get it all finished. Yep. And there you go. So you can take the bits with you. And the guys here will be happy. It's one less parcel to pack. Excellent. I love it. Thanks, Mark. Cheers. Today is the last day we've got to work on the Beetle. And we need to get that Beetle on its wheels, running, on the button, and driving it out the workshop. Today. It's going to happen in the next few minutes. Supplied by Just Campus. Do you want to try and choke to start? I don't know. I should think so. A little bit. That's it. Keep it like that. Go on. Strain it up. Not too much. Come back a bit. Oh, I'm nervous. Yeah, you should be. What about that big box? You're going to hit that. Here it comes. Natural light for the first time in years. Fantastic. This is brilliant. It actually feels really nice. It feels really good. Thank God for that. Really, really nice. Everything feels positive. Very, very good. We've spent the last few hours. I say the last few hours. Look how dark it is outside now. Doing electrical things. Wiring diagrams that I don't know how to read and don't understand. And we've got more wiring diagrams. John's losing his patience. Aren't you, John? No. No? No. I think we've just had a little bit of a eureka moment and figured out there's one wire that hasn't got power because of something else that John is under there now just doing. And hopefully these semaphores will be popping out of the side very soon. Okay, we've got power. Go on and hit the switch. Right. Oh! Switch! Oh, don't go there, boy. I have still got tomorrow. So tomorrow's Sunday. I'm going to come back here. John's not here. I will be here probably all day, cleaning it, polishing it, putting the hubcaps on, finishing the last few little bits. But cosmetics, really. The mechanics and the nuts and bolts of it are done. The next time you'll see the oval will be in next week's video. We will both be at the Volkswagen show and the oval will be on the Just Camper stand inside the stall. I can't wait to see it in there. And I hope that we get to meet the lucky new owner. Do you think it's going to sell? Absolutely. That's the spirit. Thank you so much to Just Campers again for helping us through this epic journey. And we'll see you next week at the Volkswagen show. John. That's goodbye from me. I think I owe you a burger. See you later. Bye-bye. We're alive. Who needs first when you've got second?