Aircooled VW South Africa

A friend of mine got this cool Crestrider boat that he wants to restore. It really has some nice lines, and it also had a wraparound perspex window. It think it dates back to the 70's?

Many years ago I bought a swb Crestrider buggy shell with the same plate - although it was in two pieces (previous owner wanted to convert it to lwb) it was more or less the shape of the Meyers Manx, and it had a bulge on the bonnet. (It could have been two bulges, I am not 100% sure it has been a while). Below many layers of paint I found the remains of an original glitter gold gelcoat. Unfortunately I had to sell it, as I didn't have storage space at the time.

Does anyone perhaps have more info on the Crestrider company? I can just imagine how cool this boat would look behind a buggy, both in the same colour

I know the current owner of Crestrider well.His name is Chris Cox.He took the company over,about a year ago,from the previous owners.They bought the company about 3 years ago and took what was a very good company and bankrupted in 3 years.The original owner's wife,Rina,then got Chris involved and he took over the company.

He is in the process of slowly but surely rebuilding it.They have scaled down a lot.They mainly do canopies at the moment,but the used to do Buggies,boats,liners,canopies and even coffins.A lot of the moulds survived but the Buggy moulds are long gone.

Thanks for the info, Chris! I really would like to visit this factory once I am in PE again

The buggy moulds where lost in a fire.

My Burnt Out bug was a Beach Bronco by Creast Rider. Still recon its one of the best looking bugs around.

I recall you mentioning before that the toast bug was also a Crestrider, Tom. Do you perhaps have a few pics of it (rare, not well done, please )?

Where are the pics? I like these old boats too.

Those pics were uploaded into ACVWSA?

I'll dig in my vault at some time for the originals...