Inspiration, where does it come from?
For many of us growing up we found things that inspired us, and for most, that stuff still inspires us today, and that remains true for Dane. Growing up Dane was into snowboarding, and all the guys he looked up to, drove cool lowered Volkswagens. That is what led him down the path of cars, Volkswagens (VW) to be exact. His first car was a 1998 VW Jetta, and while it remained mostly stock he was influenced by the fast and the furious movie, so he had installed some neon pedals and exhaust tip.
In his collage years Dane had found himself a Mk1 VW Rabbit pickup, mahogany red exterior with peanut butter brown interior with some 13′ gold mesh wheels. Sadly after a few years he decided to part ways with the truck. While this Mk1 left his driveway, it never left his heart. There are probably quite a few of you that understand that exact feeling, the sadness, even emptiness, that the “one that got away” can leave behind when you realize what you had.
Things come, even when you aren’t looking!
Dane went to collage for auto body and paint but had left the field after some years, and he had always wanted to put his skills to the test on his own big project, and only one car came to mind. He had owned many projects through the years, but that Mk1 pickup still tugged at his heart strings. While he was not after one at the time, in 2018 a Mk1 pickup popped up for sale down the road from him, and so he decided to go look at it with little intentions on buying it.
The pickup was pretty much a turn key truck that need just a little bit of love to hit the road as a daily driver. The truck was tan, diesel, and over all extremely clean looking. After much debate he decided to justify buying the truck as he thought it would be a good candidate for a full rotisserie build. He, like many of us would, immediately went and purchased some coilovers. He tossed those on along with the same wheels he had on the original pickup, and did some much needed maintenance, and boom, he had a road worthy Mk1 to enjoy!
With little to worry about with the factory diesel in the car, other than getting passed by smart car, he proceeded to drive it for the next year. Then, the shelter in place of 2020 happened.
Can’t be that much work…. right?
With the world on standstill, Dane got right to work! He has always been invested into the world of Porsche, and his family has a collection of 356’s, so when he learned that the VR6 from the Porsche Cayenne could be swapped in, he knew exactly what he was going to do. With the vast knowledge and catalog of parts from S & P Automotive, the Mk1 was running with a new heart from a Porsche within 2 weeks start to finish. After finishing the swap Dane proceeded to drive the wheels off the freshly swapped Mk1 without a single issue.
After the season had finished it was time to fulfill that dream of his, to put all his knowledge and skills to the ultimate test. He purchased a rotisserie and pulled the car apart to have the car media blasted. He was excited to get the car back so that he could begin what he thought would be a straight forward restoration. When he got the car back though, he was in for a major shock. The truck had structural rust front to back. This truck that he once thought to be super clean, now needed thousands of hours in metal fab. So he was left asking himself, “Do I spend the next year fixing everything, or do I just paint it and move on?’ After some debate, research, and probably a lot of convincing himself it can’t be that bad, he decided to attack the project the correct way. The Rabbit needed floor pans the whole way, both inner fender structure plates, where the bed met the cab, and the frame under the floor was completely rotten.
Luckily, Dane found a pickup that had been cut up for parts in the front, but was completely clean, and was mostly there from the glass back. So he picked it up and got to work drilling out all the spot welds on the parts truck and finally got access to all the panels he needed to make his truck the top notch car it deserved to be. After many long days, late nights, and hard work later, Dane has the dream Mk1 pickup.
So like… Whats actually done to it?
After all the bodywork comes paint! Dane finished this Mk1 in Porsche’s Arena Red, with a round headlight conversion, 356 style mesh headlight grilles, 914-6 VW Porsche emblem, polished Porsche door handles, a euro front bumper and fully smoothed roll pan in the rear. He fully shaved the bay to show off the 3.2L VR6 from a Porsche Cayenne paired with a fully custom smoothed 02J, with a VR6 bell housing and 4-cyl back case, and a wavetrac LSD, swapped in with a full S&P Automotive Mk1 VR6 swap kit. The VR6 gives off a heavenly note thanks to the Techtonics stainless exhaust. He plated a lot of the hose clamps, fittings, bolt, nuts, and small accessories, including parts of the Diesel geek short throw shifter, in 24k gold, really giving a nice pop to the engine bay.
He finished the interior in the original peanut butter brown, with rare Recaro edition Trans Am front seats recovered by Top Stitch upholstery in Minneapolis. He kept full OEM function of the dash, from the HVAC to the cassette player, it all works like it did when the truck was new. Fully recovering the headliner, rear and side panels in the same leather as the seats, the new carpet from Newton Commercial and a BFI color matched shift knob all really help tie the interior together.
For suspension Dane decided to run Airlift Front struts, CKW2 rear axle flip air ride using one leaf springs, drop plates, and to keep it all clean and simple he hid all the stuff for the air ride under the bed of the pickup. The wheels are extremely rare (possibly one offs) Epsilon/Conchi 2 piece superlights in perfect Mk1 fitment with the faces being refinished in a beautiful gold.
The perfect balance
Dane set out to build a Mk1 Rabbit pickup that had the perfect balance between comfort, style, excitement, and most important of all, reliability! He wanted to keep the DNA of the Mk1, but with inspiration from the 356 and a more modern drivetrain that wouldn’t take away from the vintage feel of it. I personally believe that he nailed that on the head. I had the opportunity to drive it after our shoot, and I must say it might be one of the easiest, most enjoyable, smile creating, ear sympathy making vehicles I have driven to date. You can truly see the effort Dane put into this machine himself. No corners were cut, nothing was unthought of, and it truly shows.
I hope that every one of you reading this has the opportunity to see this beautiful piece of art in person as photos truly don’t capture how amazing it really is.
