Scoop VW hits the road

Have you met our girl Tira? She’s the gorgeous ’73 VW transport van we call home. Well, not exactly home, but our shop. How she became our place for handmade goodness is a pretty good story. We decided to launch Scoop & Paddle in a mobile way, rather than build a brick and mortar scoop shop. Speed to market we thought. Less cost too. Not exactly… She was happily living as a surf bus in Manhattan Beach CA, when we found her online. Carlos Santana, the surfer, not the guitarist, was looking to find her a new home. We jumped at the chance. She was good looking for a girl her age, and he swore the engine was rebuilt and that she ran great. We snapped her up, loaded her on a transport, and waited. And Waited. And Waited. 3 weeks later she rolled into town. We picked her up, and drove off in a cloud of noxious white smoke, fingers crossed that we wouldn’t succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning on the way to our mechanic.

It took a little over a year (so much for speed to market), but we couldn’t be more pleased with the way she turned out. Most of the mechanical parts have either been repaired or replaced. We said a not so fond farewell to our “rebuilt” engine, and put in a spiffy new one with a little more power. The inside has been gutted, upholstery replaced, and an ice cream freezer installed where the surf boards used to be. The finishing touch was a custom made 4 foot wide service window with a steel counter that’s just the right height to let you peek inside.

We are getting used to her turning heads wherever we go, and love taking her on the road. When you see us, make sure to tap you horn and say hello. She loves it, and so do we 😉