Page 10 - Harnett Life Winter 2020

how things work, Fraser said the scientific method is part of but that’s about it. We specialize in the water-cooled Vanagons
his everyday world. “There is a lot of math and chemistry, as made from 1983-1991 and have a waiting list for our services.
well as the fundamentals of how machines work in my day- Customers come to us from all over the country, especially
to-day.” he explained. “Like in understanding how an internal with the VW Vanagon Syncro vans, which are complicated
combustion engine works, for example; vehicles are compli- 4-wheel drive vehicles and amazing off-road. People have a
cated machines. Science plays into my everyday world. I take hard time finding shops with the knowledge and know-how to
in information, make conclusions, problem solve and trouble- work on them.”
shoot. It makes me a better mechanic. Some technicians may
get certain certifications, but I do not find them necessary. For There have been six generations of the Volkswagen Transport-
me, learning has always been concrete. We can’t plug these an- er, following the start of production in 1950. In the 70 years
tique vehicles into a computer and find out what it needs — we since then, more than 13 million examples have been built —
figure it out ourselves.” many still on the road today only due to specialty shops like
Fraser’s. While the slower and older models are not really not
Why only work on Vanagons with VW models abound? Volk- highway-ready, Transporter Werks brings them up to speed by
swagen is the founding and namesake member of the Volk- modernizing, refreshing the running gear and using more mod-
swagen Group, a large international corporation in charge of ern engines, often choosing to restore old parts for the vans
multiple car and truck brands, including Audi, SEAT, Porsche, rather than buy newer lower-quality ones.
Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Scania, MAN and Skoda, not to
mention the long line-up of VW passenger cars, SUVs, trucks Of course, not all older Vanagons get updated; some air-cooled
and modern vans. With global headquarters in Wolfsburg, Ger- aficionados prefer to keep their VW for Sunday drives, car
many, Volkswagen has covered the globe with its automobiles. shows and “car and coffee” outings. It’s all about what the
owners want.
The answer: Fraser found his niche. Cubbyhole. Forte. Calling.
The Transporter is the namesake of Fraser’s company, but as
“Back when I was working on many other VW models and a vehicle is sold under several nameplates worldwide — the
older air-cooled cars, it was overwhelming. Air-cooled is old- Transporter or Caravelle in Europe, Microbus in South Africa
school and takes my skill and experience here in the shop. and Vanagon in North and South America.
Complete restorations can take a full year and even longer. VW
did not start with water-cooled vans until 1983; that’s the delin- Given the factory designation Type 2s, with varying genera-
eation mark between the older vans and the newer technology. tions, the buses and vans were released in spiraling years, fol-
We may work on air-cooled cars for some repeat customers, lowing and deriving from VW’s first model, the Type 1 Beetle.

What started it all you ask?
Vintage VWs of course. TW
has restored many old VW’s
in the last 25 years. This VW
truck is actually referred to
as a Doka or Double Cab.
Many of the first buses were
real work horses back in the
day. This particular Doka
was a 100% complete resto-
ration completed about ten
years ago. You may see
it occasionally up in
northern Va. Though in
recent years, TW made the
decision to streamline the
business and only work on
the later Vanagons.

Page 9 Page 10 Harnett Life ~ Winter 2020