Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-06)

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@PopularMechanics _ June 2019 57

HE RINGING OF THE PHONE echoes through the shop.
Dave Phelps, 34, walks away from the transmission he’s
dropping, wipes as much grease off his hands as he can,
and picks up the handset. It’s hard to hear the customer
over the soft diesel r umble of one of the nearby V W Vana-
gons. They’re not the original hippie vans, but rather more
capable vans made from 1980 to 1991. Phelps sticks to the
late models, and all of his fleet are Westfalias, the pop-top camper
style. Surrounded by these “Westys,” Phelps talks the customer
on the phone through Big Sur, Tahoe, and other secluded spots he
could drive off to.
Phelps spent most of his 20s driving his ’89 Westfalia across the
country, finding work and fun along the way: Montana for farming,
Lake Tahoe to snowboard, Michigan to his old home, and any inter-
esting spot in between. With all that time on the road, he had no
choice but to learn everything that could go wrong with his Vanagon.

Nearly everywhere he went he found the same thing: interest.

“So many times someone wanted to borrow my van. I’d say, If I had

another one, I would. And that’s how I got the idea,” Phelps says.

He started his rental outfit, Outwesty Camper Vans, in Lake

Tahoe, with two restored vans. Then last year he moved to Santa

Cruz and expanded to ten. Phelps practically locked himself in his

garage for seven months to restore them all at once. He dove into

everything. One day solar panels. Another, transmissions. They

all got new engines. Some nights he’d fall asleep in the shop. But at

6 a.m. he’d be at it again.

Eventually he added some help: Ryan Weigner, 37, for the cus-

tomer side of things, and Ben Boudreault, 34, to work on the vans.

Weigner owns the maker space and ceramics studio next door. He

suggested this shop space to Phelps after hearing about him on a

camping trip. Boudreault has his own commercial diving business,

but when he stopped by in his own Vanagon to see what all the V Ws

A / Ben Boudreault

fabricates a piece for

a van. With extensive

renovation and

projects like engine

swaps, the team

often creates their

own parts, a process

helped by Bou-

dreault’s experience

in his grandfather’s

machine shop.

B / Boudreault and

Ryan Weigner install

cabinets. “The feeling

of completion after

fighting something

for a day is great.

Then you get to use it,”

says Weigner.

C / The team handles

almost all upkeep for

the vans in the shop,

including maintenance,

cleaning, and repairs.

All while shop dogs

Benny and Choque

look on.