Remember the '60s? They say that if you can, then you probably weren't there! But besides a cultural revolution and some great music, there was a revolution in the auto industry, too. And for many people, it wasn't the dawn of the muscle-car era, it was the rise of the imports, which were spearheaded by a little car from Wolfsburg: the Beetle.
Volkswagens were incredibly popular in Southern California in the early '60s, and the idea of blowing the body off the chassis (or "pan," as it's more commonly called) and mounting a fiberglass dune buggy soon became all the rage (thanks to the efforts of Bruce Meyers and his Manx bodies).
But dune buggies weren't the only bodies to be mounted up to shortened VW pans. There were several companies exploring the advantages of combining a stylish 'glass body to a dependable and inexpensive chassis. Jim Kellison, who made his mark in the kit car industry in the '60s with his beautiful J-2 coupe, also made bodies (the ClodHopper, Sand Piper, and the Dagger) for the VW platform. In the late '60s, he developed a GT-40 lookalike that mounted to a VW chassis.
But another popular automotive movement was happening right alongside the dune buggy craze in the '60s: hot rodding. Well before the cushy street rod faction took over in the '80s, hot rodding of the '60s was more about performance than comfort. So, with the two schools of thought happening at the same time in the same place, you might wonder why there wasn't a meeting of the minds from these two schools of thought and, as it turned out, there was.
Kent Fuller, a well-known racer who also built exceptional drag racing chassis (he's now in the NHRA's Hall of Fame), decided to meld the two camps and create the Volks-Rod: a vehicle that was a '23 T hot rod up top and a VW underneath, at least in general, because Fuller was also interested in using a hot rod I-beam axle and radius rods up front, plus a four-bar-based rear suspension. The stock VW pan just wouldn't do. So, with his drag frame-building expertise, he fabricated a twin tube ladder frame from which he'd hang his suspension pieces.
Once he sold his first one, a few others got the idea they could sell them, too, and a small dealer network was set up. But the idea of these hybrids never really caught on in a big way and, after 50 or so were built, Fuller eventually sold his molds to Speedway Motors (who still sells a version of it today).
Fast forward a couple of decades to Walt Letherman's garage in Santa Rosa, California. Walt had always liked the little hybrids, and even tried to buy an original Brizio-built Volks-Rod when it had come up for sale once, but the asking price was too high. Saddened for years because he passed on the purchase, he was surprised when he found one parked in the driveway of a parts house next door to the place he had been eating lunch. Upon investigation, the guy who'd driven it there was Kent Fuller, out for a spin in the very first Volks-Rod!
Fuller knew of a V-Rod for sale-just 6 miles from Walt's house. Walt went to check it out and, though the best thing about was that it was a period-perfect '60s-era Volks-Rod, the worst thing about it was it was a period-perfect '60s-era Volks-Rod! Walt then spent the next three months restoring the V-rod from the ground up, starting with a bare chassis.
Work included beefing up the original chassis with additional crossmembers, making his own suspension pieces, and getting the frame painted to match the car body. Walt then delivered a bunch of parts to the chromer, and continued with the build by installing a four-way disc brake setup. Being an old-time hot rodder, Walt had lots of odd parts lying around, and he incorporated them into his ride (when was the last time you heard of someone using a Datsun 210 E-brake handle?). As Walt says, "Never throw anything away!