A man turned vintage Volkswagen Beetles into awesome minibikes

The Volkswagen Beetle is iconic with its bright colors, rounded body shape and headlights that look like eyes. With pop culture references like “The Love Bug” and “Herbie Fully Loaded,” the car type has become famous both on the road and on the big screen.

To keep the cars on the road, Brent Walter has been taking those vintage Beetles and repurposing them into minibikes he calls “Volkspods.”

How did he get started? He became inspired when he stumbled upon some fenders in his Hunting, Indiana, shop and decided to use the material to practice butt-welding (don’t giggle; this is a technique by which two pieces of metal are joined on the same plane). He already had plans to weld light-gauge sheet metal into a ragtop (the folding material for a convertible), and he decided that playing around with the fenders would allow him to perfect the technique.

What he eventually found was that by melding two front fenders and two rear fenders, he had created something quite striking. With a bit more tinkering, the Volkspod was born!

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByY9uXegb3o/

Walters’ pics began making the rounds on Instagram, and requests for custom Volkspods began rolling in. The photos even made their way to Robbie Wolfe of “American Pickers,” who also contacted Walter, wanting to create one of his own. Walters’ creation had officially hit the big time.

While people are clamoring for their own Volkspods, each bike takes months to build. So if you want one of your own, you’ll either have to fire up your own welding torch or get in line. We suspect the necessary auto parts will soon be in high demand, though, because the company no longer produces the Beetle.

If you’re a big Beetle lover but can’t get your hands on those parts, you can still create your own VW-inspired project. Larissa of the DIY blog Prodigal Pieces, for example, painted an old dresser to look like the front of a VW bus.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-jpiNqCSrZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

How cute!

How about it? Ae you coveting a Volkspod of your very own?