Here’s 10 of the coolest things we saw at the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet 2025

Here’s 10 of the coolest things we saw at the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet 2025

JK's Marketing & PR Director
Published 3 February 2025
Josh Reynolds

There was a huge amount of great stuff for sale at the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet this year, so here’s a few of our favourite things.

A few of the JK Team headed up to the British Motor Museum for the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet, which is quickly becoming one of our favourite events of the year.

Since the swap meet is one of the earliest shows of the year, it’s a great chance to catch up with friends we haven’t seen for a few months, hunt for some great deals and obscure parts, and to get ourselves all excited about driving our air-cooled VWs again after the winter.

There were two halls above the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, both full of people selling all sorts of air-cooled parts and accessories, from NOS (new old stock) treasures still in their original boxes, to wild accessories like Beetle-shaped telephones!

Shaun, Caz, Chet, Mark, Josh, and Weener from the JK Team were all there hunting for bargains and catching up with people we haven't seen for a while, so here’s ten of the coolest things we saw at the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet 2025.

Think you saw something there that was even cooler? Get in touch on Facebook or Instagram and let us know!

Car Custom in the original packaging

Back when Mark and Pete from Just Kampers used to regularly fly to the USA to visit the scrap yards in California, they’d always stop at Car Custom in Los Angeles.

Car Custom isn’t around anymore, but it’s fondly remembered by a lot of people who were into the customised VW scene in the 1980s and 90s, so it was cool to see an unopened Car Custom part still kicking around, especially one so far from home!


Hazet assistant tool trolley

Everyone seems to agree that these Hazet ‘Assistant’ tool trolleys from the 1960s are incredibly cool, but they’re also really useful!

We’ve got one which we use in the on-site workshop here at JK HQ, and it’s great for storing tools and parts while we’re testing our potential new products, working on our own VWs, or getting stuck in to our current Project Beetle.

Mark Reynolds, who founded Just Kampers back in 1989, even turned an old Hazet assistant tool trolley into a pull-along wagon for his grandson’s first birthday!


Robri gravel guards

We spotted this pair of original Robri guards for sale, too. These ones are designed for the VW Beetle, and were just a small part of the massive catalogue of accessories which Robri made for classic Volkswagens.

These accessories were available through Volkswagen themselves, and have since been replicated by countless other manufacturers, but seeing some originals for sale at the swap meet was really cool.

Anyone who’s out to build a super original classic VW will snap up accessories like these to help complete their build – and protect it once it’s on the road.


Beetle telephone

Part of the charm of attending a swap meet is finding those strange little collectables you’ve never seen in person before, and there was no shortage of them at the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet this year!

One of our favourites was this VW Beetle telephone, which was made and sold back in 1988.

They were made by the Columbia Telecomms Group under official licence from Volkswagen, and were available in either black or red.

We still use our landline phones all day here at JK HQ, so we were definitely tempted to scoop this up, but it just didn’t have a lot of the options we use when talking to you guys over the phone, so we had to pass it up. Hopefully someone bought it, though, and is enjoying it!


Bill & Steve’s decal

A bit like Car Custom, above, Bill & Steve’s was a big name in the custom VW scene. Their store in California was a popular spot for the original Cal Look owners to hang out.

It looks like their physical store closed down in 2024, which is a real shame, but they’re meant to be opening an online store soon.

A cool decal like this would add a real touch of authenticity to a Cal Look Beetle, especially if the owner is a long-time Cal Look fan who visited the original store in California!


Holeshot Hole Stars with Goodyear Eagle Dragway Specials

We spotted this pair of Goodyear Dragway Specials on Hole Star wheels and really want to know if anyone bought them, and what they’re fitting them to if they did!

These are some serious racing tyres, which aren’t for road use (which is written pretty plainly on the side of the tyre), so there’ll be a pretty limited market for them, but whatever they’re fitted to is sure to be incredibly cool.

Chet from the JK Team was seriously tempted to pick them up for his Beetle, but didn’t have the money to invest in these or a lot of the other cool stuff that caught his eye!


NOS Beetle cabriolet deck lid

This NOS rear decklid was from a pre-1957 Beetle Cabriolet, and is in amazing shape considering it’s around 70 years old!

You’ve probably noticed by now that we’re big fans of going to swap meets, and this is the kind of find that gets us all excited to get on the road early and hunt around for what’s out there.

There’s loads of great quality reproduction Cabriolet deck lids out there, but if you’re keen to get your hands on an original part like this, then your best bet is usually swap meets – since you’re already there, you can see the parts in person, and you won’t need to pay for shipping (as long as you’ve still got room in your ride to take it home with you!).


Swamp Cooler

There’s something about Swamp Coolers that’s just… cool! They look great on the side of your air-cooled VW, and they work really well at cooling the interior of your ride with nothing more than some ice and some basic physics.

As an American invention, they’re usually designed to mount to the cab window which is the passenger side if you’re driving on the right as you would be in the US.

Sadly, this means that if you use one here in the UK with a right-hand drive Volkswagen, you’ll end up with one unbelievably cold ear as the swamp cooler channels air through the opening, chills it, and then shoots it through the vent directly onto the side of your head!


VW Type 4 rear wing

We’ve got a long history with these Type 4 rear wings, as we used to go to dealer clearances to find parts when Just Kampers was first getting started, and would always end up with a small selection of random Type 4 panels.

This nearside (left) rear wing was showing its age a little, but when Mark spotted it the panel brought back fond memories of loading up a van with as many useful parts as possible and bringing them back to Just Kampers so they could be used to repair customers’ VWs.

You don’t see many VW Type 4s in the UK, but that’s one of the best things about going to a swap meet – it’s a great opportunity to find all sorts of great parts and accessories, no matter how rare or obscure your VW is.


VW Puma

Speaking of rare and obscure - have we saved the best ‘til last?

This VW Puma was in the car park outside the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet with a big, tempting For Sale sign in the window.

We imported our own Puma over from Brazil years ago, and they’re really fun to drive as well as looking incredibly cool.

This one was first built in 1981 in Brazil, and is sporting some awesome patina along with a narrowed front beam and a few other modifications. Looks like it’s far too finished to be our next project vehicle, but it’ll be a really fun new ride for whoever does buy it.


It’s great to see how much the Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet has grown over the last few years, and to see it’s still as popular as it was when it first launched. The new, bigger venue is great and offered a few of us the chance to visit the British Motor Museum, downstairs from the swap meet.

Mark ended up selling more parts than he bought, Josh managed to only spend £3 on a Hot Wheels Beetle for his son, Chet could have spent a small fortune on bits for his Beetle (including the Hole Stars), but it sounds like Shaun and Caz spent a bit more than that on some NOS bits for Dotty, their '55 Oval!

We hope you enjoyed the Swap Meet as much as we did, and if you've not been before it's definitely one to add to your calendar for next year!

5 days ago