VW tripple cab pick-up

Those of you who are into your Buses will already know all about the rare Binz double cabs - modified VW single cab pick-ups that pre-date the factory crewcabs.
But for those that don't, here's a brief resume. Binz was a German coachbuilders who, in the late 1950s, took standard single cab pick-ups and lengthened them in the cab area to make some extra covered storage space available behind the driver and front seat passenger. A new, wider side door was added on the passenger side only for entry and the result was a functional, if rather poorly constructed half pick-up, half panel van.
The idea was a success though and, according to Binz buffers at least, around 550 of these boss-eyed beasts were built before Volkswagen decided to produce their own far better looking and better built double cab, or crew cab, depending on your persuasion.

But what if someone had gone to Binz, or a similar coachbuilders, and said "I want one of those, but make the cab bit a bit longer, okay." Surely Binz would have obliged yet, despite the myriad special bodied versions built on the good old VW Bus platform, it seems no one ever did. Until now. The triple cab, or Tripple Cab as its owner Kevin McCain (better known as Pig Pen to his friends), is the brainchild of Chris Clark, the same guy whose Reichspost Beetle pick-up we featured last month. Clearly a man with a fertile imagination, Chris penned the idea for the Tripple and Pig Pen translated the drawing into reality.

"I bought, sold and bought back the two Buses it took to build this," he told us. "It was obviously meant to be!"

Starting with a '58 Panel, Pig Pen lopped the back half, or at least the back quarter, off right behind the side loading doors and grafted on the back panel of the '57 single cab in its place (and before anyone starts blubbing about that, we should point out that somebody else in the past had cut the entire underside out of the pick-up to fit a mid-mounted V8 engine and Ford 9-inch back axle, so it was well beyond saving).
That got the overall dimensions and look for the Bus sorted, but that was really just the start of the work. And what makes it all the more remarkable is that this was Pig Pen's first restoration. Go big or go home, huh?

For the full story check out the December 2008 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 31 October and then available through back issues.

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