Time Warp Custom...a 1959 VW Single cab

Time Warp Custom...a 1959 VW Single cab pickup turned into a mini big rig. It features an aluminum semi-trailer, with a sofa, a table and chandelier.

With a Possum belly 32' trailer and rear trailer axle is from a 1970 Cadillac El Dorado and the rear tractor axle is a tag axle.

Designed and built by Ken Nethken

Photos: Hotrod Magazine and Ken Nethken 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul

conventional draw bar tow ball with tag axle to stop it tipping up on acceleration (sic), so not really a semi.

I noticed they had also turned the engine/transmission around so it was mid engined.

hard to see if they deleted the portal boxes off the end of the axles.

At some point they would have sorted wheel rotation so it had 4 forward gears.

Kombis had the axles rotate the opposite to a Type 1 as the 2 gear portal boxes reversed the rotation.  Swapping it around and using a Type 1 transmission would give it 4 forward gears but high gearing, or swapping the crown wheel to the other side of the diff (easy to do in a VW) would do the same thing, but give it lower gearing.

Regardless it would have been really slow! 

mammoth wrote:

conventional draw bar tow ball with tag axle to stop it tipping up on acceleration (sic), so not really a semi.

I thought to my self, what makes or doesn't make a semi trailer

So I Googled it and got this as a answer

I reckon it's still a semi trailer

What sez you ?

Semi-trailer - Wikipedia share.google/aQElww6TB9DtWFgWS

Paul
 

Zuffen the drive line is from a Cadillac Eldorado, they are front wheel drive so I'm thinking the drive line is the right way around

Paul

Mrsmackpaul wrote:

Zuffen the drive line is from a Cadillac Eldorado, they are front wheel drive so I'm thinking the drive line is the right way around

Paul
Paul, the engine and transmission are both VW as Zuffen says and have been reversed in the chassis. You can see it i the pictures.
 

The blurb that was attached to the photos said it's Cadillac Eldorado

Maybe the VW motor was more of a trial fit and was changed to the later Cadillac

some more bellow from the bang shift forumWe’re speechless. Hell, we’re worse off than that. We ran across this incredible little creation on eBay yesterday while doing a generic search for “rat rods”. Yeah we were planning on finding some grotesque weirdness to scare you with and instead found this. Yeah, this thing is amazing. This VW bug was turned into a miniature big rig and made the pages of Hot Rod Magazine in the 1970s. The little truck is so great we may have a tear of two of BangShitfty joy leaking down our cheeks.The vehicle started out as a normal 1959 VW bus (something that would be worth an ungodly pile of dough today) and was cut down to make a brilliantly cool “cab” for the big rig look. There was some fancy engineering out back to mount what the ad calls a Formula Vee style engine and transmission layout which is kind of inverse as it would have appeared in the bus originally. The whole chassis is custom buy keeps the torsion bar suspension. The truck no longer has that engine in it so the buyer will need to fix that situation. The interior is 100% custom and while it has aged, it’s all still there and can totally be fixed up. There is one huge element missing, though…the trailer.Perhaps the most stunning part of the whole program was the custom designed, engineered, and built aluminum trailer that the tractor hauled around. It was basically a camper type situation which, as you can see from the old Hot Rod photos below opened up and had enough room for an open-air den along with what we assume is another couple rooms as well. Incredible.The paint scheme has been changed over the years, one of the exhaust stacks is gonzo, and father time has dulled the formerly polished wheels but the incredible thing is that all of this can be fixed. The trailer, though. Is it possible that the thing has been lost to history? Sadly it appears so but we have to guess that someone, somewhere knows where it is.We don’t know the asking price of the VW but we do know that we love it. Boy howdy do we love it! 

 
Paul

Formula V set up is engine in front transmission inverted to get it going forward.

Still be slower than I would like to drive.

I looked at the Cadillac when building my custom pickup. The 500Cube engine drove a THM400 transmission driven by a silent chain from the rear of the engine. I couldn't use that set up as it wouldn't pass ADR or emissions.

I used an LS3 and mounted it backwards driving into a Nissan Patrol transfer case and running it in 4 high with the tailshaft running down the side of the engine to an inverted Patrol Diff.
It can lift the front wheels on the street if you give it enough right boot.