Media
Five features in two national air-cooled titles between 2020 and 2023. Not advertorial — editorial. Writers came to the shop, stood over the work, and photographed it step by step. Every one is reproduced here in full, with the original printed pages alongside.
Every feature, start to finish
Between them these five features document 132 photographed steps of chassis and sheet-metal work — floor pans, Bus door hinges, pan shortening for buggy and 356 bodies, and the shop's own weld-in tunnel access plate.
Magazine features aren't the only place we write about the work. Between issues we post shorter dispatches on the shop blog — what a Big Washburn Carb Window actually does and why we cut them, a look at some of the hot VWs that came through the shop this spring, and the story behind the tunnel access plate featured below. Same voice as the five features here, just without the six-month lead time.
Installing New Floor Pans on a Beetle
A full pan-off floor replacement on a stripped '66 chassis, written by Brian himself — measuring the body mounting holes, breaking the factory spot welds, and spot welding the new Wolfsburg West pans at 1-inch centres.
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Unhinged! Rebuilding Bus door hinges the right way
Thirty-seven steps on why factory Bus door hinges crack and how to put them right — TIG fusing the rivets from inside the door, reaming the pin bore, and closing a .125-inch door gap down to .016.
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Get Shorty: Buggy/356 Pan Conversion — part one
The prep stage. A sandblasted '67 pan with a sordid repair history, Masonite templating, a 1960 donor spine for its shifter section, and the chassis jig that holds a shortening to one millimetre.
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Get Shorty: Buggy/356 Pan Conversion — part two
The cutting and the welding. 326 millimetres out of the spine, a new section formed in 18-gauge on the Beverly shear, TIG welded, planished, and the factory spot-weld pattern replicated.
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EZ-Access Plate Install
Seventeen steps installing the shop's own weld-in tunnel access plate — the kit that turns a snapped clutch cable from a floor-crawling roadside nightmare into a quick repair.
Read the featureWorking on a story? We'd like to be in it.
We welcome coverage of builds, the shop, the parts side of the business, and the story of Washburn's Metal. Shop access, photographer visits, and b-roll are all on the table. Email is fastest.