The team at Kingfisher Kustoms have created this stunning replica of the iconic Beach Buggy from The Thomas Crown Affair for one of their customers, and it’s incredible.
Steve McQueen drove the original Beach Buggy in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, and it’s become an iconic vehicle for fans of classic cars and cinema.
Dave Fisher and the rest of the Kingfisher Kustoms team have recently finished creating probably the most faithful replica of the famous Beach Buggy that’s ever been made, and kindly allowed us to host it on our stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024.
If you’re not able to make it to the event, or just want to learn more about the Beach Buggy, then here’s some more information about what it is, how it was made, and why.
The Thomas Crown Affair VW Beach Buggy
The 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair starred Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, and a gorgeous VW Beach Buggy which was custom-made for the movie – possibly with input from McQueen himself.
It’s a really striking vehicle, with a unique look and feel which was expertly showcased by Steve McQueen when he drove it along the beach during the film.
It’s fair to say the iconic beach buggy has inspired countless people since the film was released, including a customer of Kingfisher Kustoms who decided they wanted a replica built.
The original VW Beach Buggy from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair
The Right Team for The Job
Kingfisher Kustoms have been independent air-cooled Volkswagen specialists since 1980, and have built up a fantastic reputation as experts in all things related to the VW Beach Buggy.
Dave Fisher and the rest of the Kingfisher Kustoms team even worked with East Coast Buggies to create two VW Beach Buggies for Jeremy Clarkson and James May to use in the Grand Tour, so they’re no strangers to building bespoke buggies.
This particular Beach Buggy came about when a customer contacted Dave Fisher and said he wanted to have a beach buggy built, but wasn’t sure exactly what style and specification he wanted. Dave suggested that he looked through the Dune Buggy Handbook and then got in touch again when he’d found something that really inspired him.
Days turned into weeks, and Dave was starting to wonder if the customer had gone off the idea when the phone rang. His customer had found the exact beach buggy he wanted, and asked Dave to open the Dune Buggy Handbook to a certain page, which featured the iconic orange Beach Buggy from The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen.
As iconic as the beach buggy from the film was, it wasn’t an ‘off-the-shelf’ build by any means! Much of the original beach buggy was either custom-made, heavily modified, or came from vehicles which weren’t nearly as common as they were back in the 1960s.
Not one to be put off by a challenge, though, Dave set about sourcing all of the necessary parts he and his team would need to complete the build.
Dave Fisher and the team at the NEC Classic Car Show 2024 with the finished Thomas Crown Affair beach buggy on the Just Kampers stand
Two of the VW Beach Buggies which Kingfisher Kustoms built for The Grand Tour, on display at the VolksWorld Show in 2023
Sourcing The Parts
Having been part of the VW community here in the UK for so long, Dave has a great list of contacts built up over the years, including James Hale, who wrote the Dune Buggy Handbook.
Dave had known James since 1973, and James had featured a lot of Kingfisher Kustoms buggies over the years, so Dave knew that James had been trying to build a replica of the famous Thomas Crown Affair Buggy himself, and wondered how far he had got with it. Dave gave James Hale a call, and found out that the project had never been completed, as life had gotten in the way – as it so often does during classic car projects!
When Dave asked if the project buggy was for sale, the immediate response was no – James had been working on creating his own replica of the iconic Beach Buggy since 1983, and had become very attached to it, despite the project having ground to a halt.
Eventually, after a bit of thought and time, James Hale decided he would sell the project Buggy to Dave at Kingfisher Kustoms, knowing that it would be finished and given the attention it deserves, and in Dave’s very own words, “create the most faithful reproduction of the movie car that we can do, even the bits that are wrong!”
That’s exactly what Dave and the rest of the Kingfisher Kustoms team did, and as you can see, the results are incredible.
Getting To Work
As mentioned briefly before, many of the original beach buggy’s components were either unique, custom-made parts created just for the film, or came from other vehicles which were fairly common at the time, but pretty rare these days.
Kingfisher Kustoms put an incredible amount of time and attention into working out exactly what parts and accessories they needed to faithfully reproduce the original buggy, double-check that they’d got the information correct, and then set about sourcing or creating those parts.
Here’s an overview of different aspects of the replica Thomas Crown Affair VW Beach Buggy that Kingfisher Kustoms made, and how they went about it.
Key Features of the Kingfisher Kustoms Thomas Crown Affair Buggy Replica
Body: The body from the original beach buggy used in the 1968 film was an original Myers Manx body made by Pete Condos and his team at Con-Ferr Manufacturing on the east coast of the USA, and was unique to that vehicle, so ordering another was obviously out of the question.
Luckily, James Hale had been able to purchase a replica fiberglass body which was hand-made by Bruce Myers himself in 1983!
Bruce used a series of images, and his experience working with fibreglass, to recreate the body without a template, which is incredibly impressive. Dave bought this body as part of the project, and was able to use it to build the replica beach buggy.
This direct link back to Bruce Myers of Myers Manx Buggies is an amazing element of this story, and makes the beach buggy even cooler.
Paint: After a lot of research and comparing the film footage with photos taken at the time, the Kingfisher Kustoms team were able to paint the buggy’s body in the iconic orange colour seen in The Thomas Crown Affair.
This vibrant orange was selected from a colour palate only available in 66-67 and is a hallmark of the original film buggy. This wasn’t easy to track down, since in many photos the beach buggy appears more red than orange, but the team kept on hunting down the correct colour until they found it.
Windscreen: The unique wraparound windscreen was created by Kingfisher Kustoms themselves.
They had tried to find a boat builder who could create one, since the original windscreen was from a speedboat, but the quotes came back ‘on the pricey side’! Dave and the team were even able to improve on the original design by making the side screen removable so it’s easier to enter and exit the buggy!
Fuel Tanks: Originally the movie car had two tiny petrol tanks situated under the dash, but this wasn’t particularly practical or safe. Instead, one larger tank was fitted under the rear frame where the tonneau cover rests.
Chassis: As with most dune buggies, this build is based on a shortened Volkswagen Beetle chassis. The chassis modification is critical to maintaining the compact proportions of the buggy while ensuring it can handle off-road terrain, just like in the beach scenes of the movie.
In an odd twist of fate, Kingfisher Kustoms had originally made the floorpan for James Hale back in 1983, when he started his own project to recreate the Thomas Crown Affair Beach Buggy.
Dave and his team stripped this back to bare metal and re-zinc-coated and powder-coated it prior to building the buggy back up.
Fuel Tanks: Originally the movie car had two tiny petrol tanks situated under the dash, but this wasn’t particularly practical or safe. Instead, one larger tank was fitted under the rear frame where the tonneau cover rests.
Engine: Just like the original buggy from the movie, this replica runs an air-cooled flat 6 from a Chevrolet Corvair, with four Rochester carburettors married together with a unique linkage and special camshaft. These allow the engine to rotate in the opposite direction, so it can work with a VW Beetle gearbox built by Rich Neal.
Given the Chevy Corvair’s fairly infamous reputation, the flat 6 wasn’t particularly easy to source, but it was important to get the engine right when so much attention and effort had been put into the rest of the vehicle.
Suspension: The team at Kingfisher Kustoms poured over movie footage and hundreds of original pictures to ensure they got the details of the suspension and crash bars correct.
All the suspension, transaxle and axel tubes were chromed to replicate the original Buggy, and then created the crash bars from 1” square tube.
Wheels and Tyres: The wheels are original Torq Thrust D’s fitted with oversized off-road tyres, mounted on polished chrome rims, replicating the look of the movie buggy.
These tyres not only provide better traction on sand and rough surfaces but also contribute to the classic beach buggy aesthetic.
Interestingly, the original rear tyres fitted to the movie buggy were slicks taken from a 1967 Indianapolis Nascar which won the race. Steve McQueen requested that the tyres were removed, and they then had the paddle profile they’d need for driving on sand hand-cut into them! However, for safety BF Goodrich’s have been fitted to the replica.
Brakes: The original movie buggy was fitted with three handbrakes, often called Steering Brakes.
These work by having a central brake lever that lifts all three levers and applies the handbrake, as well as two separate levers which can be applied by the driver depending on which side of the vehicle needs extra braking while driving off-road. This would have helped Steve McQueen better control the beach buggy when turning into the sand and allowed it to turn harder into the sand dunes during filming for The Thomas Crown Affair.
Although a bit on the ugly side, this feature just had to be installed for the replica!
Seats: The vinyl bucket seats are custom made, and trimmed by Tall Toby Trimmers. The rear seats were from a 1960’s Datsun Fairlady, which were also not that easy to source!
The front seats were actually fixed in the movie car, but the team at Kingfisher Kustoms ensured that these were adjustable for safety and comfort in the replica.
Dashboard: The dashboard is kept simple, with original Stuart Warner gauges and controls. The original movie buggy had no indicators or wiring for lights, but this replica does.
Kingfisher Kustoms ensured that the interior reflected the charm and nostalgia of the original buggy, while also offering modern convenience and safety.
Well Worth The Effort
Overall, an incredible amount of time, care, attention, and skill went into creating this amazingly faithful replica of the icon beach buggy from The Thomas Crown Affair.
All of this hard work has paid off with a buggy which looks, feels, and drives as brilliantly as the original.
Thank you to Dave Fisher and the rest of the Kingfisher Kustoms team for allowing us to host the beach buggy on our stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024, and for taking the time to provide us with this information.
