I am a VW van nut and own one of the Infinity Stones of Van Life: a watercooled 4WD Volkswagon Syncro Vanagon. When we drive the thing to the grocery store or hardware store old hippies, hipsters, and white girls with dreads materialize out of thin air to talk about camper vans, VWs, our van, reminisce over a van they want or used to have, drool about a mods they want to do to their own VW, etc…
Over the years, I have designed and made a few tools, parts, and jigs that make VW and Syncro life better. All of those have been for my own use, but I recently decided to do a little something that I plan to sale:
Any Volkswagen owner worth their salt wants a German license plate for their ride. I have one and while looking for the perfect place to mount it up front (my state does not require a front tag on a classic vehicle) I had a Wile E. Coyote flash of brilliance: I would utilize the 2′ receiver hitch on my front bumper and make a super tough combination brush guard/Europlate holder. Almost like a Stinger on the front of a Jeep, but classier!
I did some measuring of the plate, drew up a flat model of what I wanted, measured again, fixed a MAJOR screwup in the design/drawing, and then sent the file off to SendCutSend to have my parts cut out of 1.88″ steel. Bing Bang Bong 5 days later, the parts showed up at my door.
After a LITTLE tiny bit of file work, everything fits perfectly! Will have to wait until I get a time-sensitive cabinet project finished before welding up the prototype. I think that this bad boy may have limited customer base, but there will be Syncro, Van, Sprinter, and overland folks that will love to have one of these.
I will update the build as I go and may make a YouTube video of it.