Kenny Pfitzer Designs Classic Campervan Customs for SEMA

This year’s SEMA Show is underway and will be running from November 1 to Friday November 4. Essentially a trade show, SEMA is a 4-day event offering attendees the chance to see into the future and get a first-hand glimpse of some of the latest performance products from the automotive industry.

You might therefore expect to only find the space-age tech of the near future on show, and featured in some of the latest modern invariably electric automobiles, yet perhaps going against the grain slightly is Kenny Pfitzer Designs with a reworking of the classic sixties VW camper bus. The company is showing two custom built campervans using a 1961 15-window Deluxe Camper and a 1963 Single Cab Camper as donor vehicles. The Single Cab arrives in a traditional 2-tone VW style of yellow and black, while the 1961 is finished in a surprisingly nice looking shade of brown.

For SEMA, this is all about the design process. Kenny Pfitzer Designs stripped each vehicle back and 3D-scanned the parts to give themselves the ability to design and create the custom body panels using Computer Aided Design (CAD). The result is a pair of widebody Type-2 custom campervans reminiscent of the ground-hugging Cal Look VWs we all know and – unless you’re a purist – probably love.

Virtually all the panels were redesigned, including the sills, both bumpers, and the very striking wheel arches. All panels come together seamlessly (if you will excuse the pun) to give a very modern particularly American look to the traditional classic VW Campervan.

Of course, when a classic Volkswagen is lowered like this, the way to go these days is adjustable air suspension, and with the fine adjustability this offers, the connection between redesigned wide wheel arches and the black Monoblock wheels can be set up just right for a very dramatic look. The stunning black and yellow creation here is then set off nicely with some polished stainless-steel exhaust tips.

Kenny Pfitzer Designs is the result of a long-standing inbuilt desire to work with and modify vehicles. Kenny spent much of his sixties childhood watching and eventually helping his dad restore vehicles in his garage. He says that he started with a 1968 VW Squareback and swiftly followed this with a Volkswagen Microbus which the pair of them stripped down, repaired, and then rebuilt from the ground up. Kenny’s ability was later noticed by the famous West Coast Customs, where he was employed for 5 years learning and refining his craft and skills.

With an eye for the finer detail and realising the competitive stakes that it takes to get noticed these days, Kenny left no stone unturned and no part un-tuned in the creation of these fantastic reimaginings of the classic Volkswagen Camper Type-2. I feel that these days we are seeing fewer and fewer classic VWs making the headlines, so it’s great to see and these are a treat for the eyes. It’s good to note too that the design process allows Kenny Pfitzer Designs to be able to now easily recreate what they have created here, and the company will be hoping to take on new orders from 2023.

Images: kennypfitzerdesign.com via Instagram