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Chattanooga man turns VWs into trucks and other vehicles

By: Clint Cooper
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With a circular saw and a Volkswagen, Larry Lovelady can do interesting things.

The retired Chattanooga body- shop owner is now working on his third truck made from a Beetle. He also has crafted 11 three-wheeler trikes and two dune buggies from VW parts.

“I’ve never seen anything put together like I put these together,” said Mr. Lovelady, 68, who has “won about everything” for his automotive creations in competitions such as the World of Wheels Custom Auto Show.

The Tunnel Boulevard resident ran a three-stall garage behind his home for about 40 years and said he was often referred to as The Volkswagen Man although he worked on all cars.

“That title fits him,” said neighbor and friend George Dye. “If he doesn’t do it right, he doesn’t do it. He’s straight up. He’s one good dude.”

Mr. Lovelady even raced VWs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, doing “just so-so” but winning one race in Henagar, Ala., he said.

However, his primary association with the imports was working on them.

“I think I painted a (VW) for a teacher at McCallie School two or three times,” Mr. Lovelady said. “I’ve done worked for the second and third generations of families.”

Retired today after a couple of heart attacks, he is slowly completing his third VW truck but is determined to have it done for this winter’s World of Wheels.

“You never make what you’ve got in them, out of them,” Mr. Lovelady said. “Laborwise, you’re not going to get it out. You’ve got to enjoy it.”

He said his first glimpse of a VW truck came in a magazine like Popular Mechanics. He ordered his first blueprints from a firm in Bristol, Tenn. His contact there told him only one or two out of 100 people who ordered the blueprints ever made the truck.

“It’s kind of a long, drawn-out operation if you don’t stay with it and know what you’re doing,” Mr. Lovelady said.

His first two trucks were made from a 1972 Super Beetle and a 1962 Beetle. The one he’s presently working on came from a 1973 Beetle.

Mr. Lovelady said he made the first two straight from blueprints. He has modified the one that’s still in progress with a longer cab — to accommodate taller people such as a friend whose “knees were up under his chin” when he tried it — and two additional windows.

He started work on the truck in 1987, he said, but left for years, “it rotted to the ground. I started all over again, and I’ve used all up-to-par materials.”

To create the trucks, Mr. Lovelady uses a circular saw and sometimes a hacksaw on an intact VW.

“You just cut it across the top and sides and lift off the back,” he said. “But you’ve got to be careful. You may not cut out enough or may cut out too much.”

Some roofers once saw Mr. Lovelady take a saw to his car.

“They thought I was crazy,” he said. “They said, ‘You just messed up this perfectly good VW.’”

Mr. Lovelady has put a stake body on his first two trucks and will do so on the one he’s working. He makes all of his custom vehicles to drive on the street and not just for show.

“Once I show them, somebody comes by (to buy them) who has more money than they have sense,” he said with a wink.

The dune buggies Mr. Lovelady made had tube frames and a Volkswagen chassis and motor.

The three-wheelers had VW transmissions and frame mounts.

Mr. Lovelady and a friend once had plans to go three-wheeling with Elvis Presley, who had a trike (not one he made), but the singer died before they got the chance.

Today, he works on cars for a few people here and there, photographs races at Boyd’s Speedway and Cleveland Speedway on weekends, but no longer makes dune buggies or trikes. The truck, he said, is his “last little project.”

“If I enjoy it, I do it,” said Mr. Lovelady, who’ll paint his project bright red with a black frame and chrome trim. “I like driving them, and I’m anxious to get (the last one) on the road. They’re one of a kind.”

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