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Double the fun - Splitscreen Double Cab


 


This Double Cab used to earn its keep at shows displaying 


a selection of wheels on its back, but now it lines up in the 


Show ’n’ Shines, having given up work for good


 


The Double Cab you see here was originally imported by Joe Gallagher of JGE Wheels to use as a mobile advertising vehicle, and I think you will agree, a Split Screen Double Cab loaded with seriously cool rims will catch your eye at a show. The Bus was picked up via an advert on the Samba.com in San Francisco. As with any commercial vehicle, they are bought to work and work hard. This one had been no exception – once back from the media blasters it was clear it had worked very hard indeed. The floor, rear cargo floor, both drop gates, rear corners, lower nose section, sills... the list goes on but you get the idea: it needed work! 


Although the Double Cab was still required to be a workhorse, it was going to be wearing the name JGE, so Jon Abbott was not about to let his reputation slide, which is why this Bus was restored with the same level of detail all his customers’ cars get. The DC was repainted in the original shade of Dove Blue with signwriting from Neil at Prosign. To retain a stock look, the seats were retrimmed in factory spec and an NOS Barndoor steering wheel was installed using a custom-made spacer. The only other non factory addition was the Gene Berg shifter, which links to a 1303s Beetle transmission and straight-axle conversion allowing the DC to sit lower and more importantly to allow the use of the entire 1914cc engine out back. 


The engine features twin 40 Dell’Ortos and a custom-made exhaust system as well as a 69mm counterweighted crank, 120 cam and 044 heads. Other nice touches included rear Safari windows, JGE Torker rims and a rare Bice accessory bumper. This is how Wayne McCarthy, the current owner, got the Bus in 2008, and although it looked pretty amazing he had a few ideas of his own, so it was off to T2D to discuss plans with Paul Medhurst. 


First on the list was to change the front and rear bumpers. The Bice units, although rare accessories in their own right, didn’t look quite right to Wayne, so they were carefully removed and replaced with a set of towel-rail bumpers colour coded in Dove Blue. 


To bring the Bus more in line with the desired Resto Cal stance, the old beam was replaced with a four-inch narrowed beam, Slam Bam arms, drop spindles and T2D Slam Shocks. The 1303s gearbox was not sounding the best, so Paul supplied and fitted a Rancho Performance ’box in its place, which has helped the performance of this commercial Bus dramatically. To help it stop as it needs to with that extra power, the T2D team fitted a dual-circuit brake system. Funnily enough, the JGE signwriting by Neil Melliard was left in place, and who could blame Wayne, as Neil’s work is top class. 


So that was transformation number two, or transformation number one in the hands of Wayne McCarthy, and the Bus’ third unveiling if you include day one in the factory. This is how the Bus stayed for a while, though all the time Wayne still felt it was missing something. The ideas were rolling around in his head. 


In September 2009, a year after its first makeover, the Bus found its way back into the T2D workshop and transformation number two began. The dual-circuit brake system was replaced with a servo unit and the engine came out again to have some serious detailing. The detailing was handled by Jon Abbot. With the engine back in place, a rolling road dyno showed it now produced 140bhp, which is nice!


The next item on the wanted list was a set of genuine Porsche Fuchs rims. These were fitted using genuine Porsche black anodised wheel nuts. The bumpers were removed and painted off-white, as was the VW nose badge. Both Wayne and Paul had toyed with the idea of painting the roof in the same shade of white, but thanks to the magic of Photoshop, they weren’t happy with what they saw, so they left it as it is. Well, that’s not entirely true – the paint on the roof had a very slight fade, so this was rubbed down and repainted to bring it up to the standard of the rest of the Bus. 


Next job on the list, the JGE signwriting needed to go – a tricky job because it was glued-on gold leaf lettering. Neil and Mandy Melliard at Prosign tried to prepare Wayne for the fact that he may have to repaint the sides if anything went wrong, but thankfully it all came off, though it did take five days to remove! In its place are period perfect dealership logos from O’Callaghan Motor Works, which was one of the first VW dealerships outside of Dublin and was owned by the late Paddy O’Callaghan, who was best known for rallying Beetles back in the day. Paddy was a great influence on Wayne, who felt it would be a fitting tribute to him, so he scanned an old business card for Neil, who reproduced the design perfectly. 


While walking around European Bug-In 2 with Joe Gallagher, Wayne spotted a Double Cab with hoops and bows and commented on how nice they would be. What he didn’t know was that Joe had an NOS set at home and gifted them to Wayne. They were quickly cut to roof height and mocked up before going to the blaster’s, and finally painted 2K gloss black. Another Wayne, this time Wayne the Timberman, was called in to redo the timber on the bows to match the existing aged oak on the rear bed. Trimmer Ian made a set of square-weave grey carpets to sit on top of the rubber floor mats for a little extra comfort now that Wayne’s four children would be riding to the shows in the Bus, and with that in mind he also fitted six seat belts. But it doesn't end here as Wayne then had the underside stripped and repainted in Dove Blue with a clear wax seal to protect it. 


Small touches make all the difference – like the Carrera headlight grilles, the clear indicator lenses and the detailed centre caps. The Bus’s rear Safari came from San Francisco, but Wayne has also fitted front Safaris to really get the air flowing, and as if that wasn’t enough, how about the factory-fitted ambulance fans?


 

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