When it comes to mini campers, a clean Toyota Sunrader or any brand of Chinook camper is definitely becoming more sought-after. These compact homes on wheels make perfect sense for someone who wants to hit the open road but doesn’t want to navigate dense urban streets with a huge motorhome under them, making it impossible to see parked cars and small animals nipping at your wheels. But did you know some enterprising builders took the original air-cooled Beetle and made a camper conversion out of one? This 1969 VW Beetle “Bugger” camper conversion here on eBay has been owned by the seller for 25 years and appears to be in mint condition.
The Bugger is listed for $39,995 with the option to submit a best offer. Now, that’s a lot of scratch for a very obscure camper model, but look at how clean it is inside and out. This is a vehicle that has clearly been loved since new. The interior looks like it belongs on the cover of a Better Homes and Gardens issue from 1972, with its perfect upholstery and fake wood paneling lining the table and appliance stations. This is really a marvel of packaging as the camper shell itself is not very large and they have crammed all of the traditional features of a compact camper into an even smaller footprint. There’s a sink, two-burner stove, and an ice box.
The upholstery on the dinette seats and the carpeting are original; the front seats have been re-done. The vintage Beetle floormats are a hoot and also totally fitting for a sweet Bug like this one. The dash sports some nice fake wood trim and a wood-rimmed three-spoke steering wheel, giving the camper a very upscale feel despite its humble origins of an air-cooled Bug. The doors and dash also have a dark wood-like finish, which makes you realize that when this camper was created, the builder really did go all-out in transforming it from an economy car to a camper conversion anyone would be proud of. Thankfully, it has a traditional manual transmission.
Not surprisingly, the Beetle has been featured in the traditional assortment of air-cooled magazines over the years, and I’m sure it will still draw a crowd wherever it goes. The seller notes he only trailers it to shows these days, which seems like a tragic lack of use for an awesome vintage camper like this but I also understand the fear of seeing what is likely one of only a handful of Beetle campers left ruined by an inattentive driver. The price is high but for the Beetle collector who has everything, when will you get another chance to own one of these?
This one got my attention with the correct VW camper plaid upholstery. Our ’77 Westfalia camper’s entire interior was done in the same cloth and really made it bright and cheery. Good build here.
I saw this vehicle in California parked along the street in LA when I was visiting a friend! I. Sure this was the same car the license plate is different in my photo which was taken in October of 2009.
To me the one you’ve pictured is orange and the one for sale is red. I would say they came from the same mother but are brothers under the skin rather than being the same.
Yes, indeed, same mother that was a set of basic plans seen in the June 1977 issue of Mechanix Illustrated. Who knows how many others were built from that? This website preserved some of those magazine pages: https://www.goodshomedesign.com/vw-beetle-chassis-with-sleeping-and-camping-for-four/
Missing the front clearance lights.
Different color.
there is no clearance lights shown in the magazine picture this didn’t come with those lights
I remember an old photo of this car and seeing again reminds me of what I thought then… a camper is eating a VW!
I hope the seller cleaned the “piss pot” seem in the eBay pictures.
“Two nations divided by a common language”, wasn’t it…?
“…makes perfect sense..” Are you serious?
The bare, stock Beetle struggled to accelerate to 60 mph let alone laden down with a thousand pounds of “camper” plus water, plus food, plus gear, plus air drag, plus passengers.
This is a death trap on wheels. Cute, but a seriously bad idea.
This car is a prime candidate for a Subaru EJ25 conversion like my Beetle. Then at least you have a fighting chance. Definitely do a disc brake conversion as well.
And the Beetle didn’t stop all that great either. You probably will have to throw out the anchor to stop this thing.
Art-
Assuming one generally stayed off freeways, what is so dangerous about it? Yeah it would take quite a while to get up to speed. Just because the speed limit is 55, doesn’t mean you HAVE to go that fast.
The only thing that I could see being a potential problem are the brakes and they can be upgraded if they are not already.
To me, it looks like a fun, well-maintained mini-camper which would be a hell of a lot safer than my motorcycles when it comes to collisions. Everything is relative when it comes to vehicle safety.
Respectfully submitted,
~Lothar
Yes, dumb, dumb, dumb………..unless you are going down hill all of the time. If you ever drove the highway between Jasper and Banff, any VW got in the way.
In 1974 I bought a ’66 orange Beetle. It broke down the first day that I I drove. This was by far. The worst vehicle I had ever owned. It had 80,000 miles. It was so slow! It barely was able to pull this little car. I know that there were some good Beetles. Not mine, I hated that car.
Wow imagine this terrific little camper climbing mt. Washington with it’s capable 50 hp engine? Now that does create an interesting picture. What highway would you ever drive this machine on?Sounds like an ideal purchase for the person with money that they can’t find a good home for! LOL
Jim
there are two kind of people who comment here: those who think it’s ridiculous, and volkswagen lovers.
i’m in the latter group, having owned well over 15 various Vdubs, including at least a half dozen buses and campers. if you own and drive an air cooled vw, you don’t expect to go fast in it, unless you’ve rebuilt the motor to freeway cruiser sizes.
when these cars were new, folks drove 50-65 mph, and they drove like that all day and all night. if you come to a long hill or a steep mountain, you downshift.
it ain’t rocket science.
i’d love to have this camper, but we have an old 16’ travel trailer/camper that we tote around.
Tell it like it is! Having owned a couple of busses, early Westphalia and a 21 window, I can add as others have, that you can boost that pancake engine up as far as your heads and crank will take it. 2100cc will move the bus along just fine thank you.
It makes no sense to critique a VW based on the performance parameters of a conventional drivetrain auto. Add in our advancing age and natural inclination towards safety, and the issue of stopping the bug rears it’s head.
I’d be happy to have this, maybe throw in a subaru engine but as with everything value is in the eye of the beholder. My guess is, it will take a while to sell this at anything at this ask.
You can be at the front of every traffic jam.
Leading all the way.
This is fine for a static display. Drive at your own risk!
May yeas ago, I stuck behind one of those, on I-70 in the Colorado Rockies.
Glad to see it is a manual, very cool.
If someone would swap out the Super 1600 cc engine for a Subaru, this could work, as alpha pointed out above. But watch out for high winds!
I think that against a moderate head wind it would come to a complete stop.
I’m pretty sure this is owned by a friend of Ian Roussel
Is Ian Roussel’s TV show, Full Custom Garage, still in production? Ian is one helluva car builder and has limitless ideas that he puts on to the road. A very clever man.
Second or maybe third gear and on the floor. What a joke!!!
Once again BF brings it’s living purpose to us readers. Thank you for featuring this piece of mechanical ingenuity. Good or bad, success or failure I appreciate them all. Well done Jeff and BF.
I’m worried about accelerating fast enough, proper stopping and handling ability. There’s something for everyone in this automotive passion of ours but I’ll be staying at a Hampton Inn at the minimum. Now where’s my keys to the GTO?