Club 80-90 Forums

Does that name ring a bell with anyone regarding camper renovations ?

The name rings a bell form the 70/80's. Somewhere in the Midlands, Warwickshire? Used to specialize in replacement engines.

Wow only Big Herb remembers. Barry Hazelock iirc . He went to live in Greece I think. He was praised as a good worker by safer motoring mag but eventually stories came out, I read one piece where an owner said he'd taken his bus in for a front panel job and when it rusted later he took it to another bodyshop to be told the original had been hammered back and the new one welded over it. I can't see that personally unless it was the lower section only. Another garage was one above Halifax which the vw mag lauded on a regular basis as a "mini wolfsburg " that one didn't last long, then there was a gti specialist garage in Huddersfield that looked fantastic I remember thinking he must be coining it in. He was also heaped with praise by the mag but sadly didn't last long. Maybe the small place with two or three people and modest premises are the better bet.

A friend of ours Peter cage who had a multi show winning karmann ghia had a canterbury pit converted splitscreen camper that was restored by Baz hazlocks team then rerestored properly years later. The work on the front valance inner and outer plus front panel was shocking under all the filler. The ghia was done by charles green. the work on that was stunning. Wasn't that place in Halifax called Halifax beetles by any chance?

I remember them, they were the go to people for magazine fodder.
As far as I remember they always had a good reputation but I was only young and just starting to read VW Motoring , Volksworld etc.
They always seemed to be in magazines repairing something or other and I'm pretty sure they featured in some resto book or some such.
The GTI place was in Mirfield initially, a lad I went to college with worked there, I think it moved for a short time to St Andrews road, a building that is now home to FMG, the GTI Centre, owned by "Bez" I seem to remember. Not sure what happened there.
Halifax Beetles.
They got big, quick, aparently they bought a container full of panels and their supplier went bump leaving them, I'm told with a container full of free panels hence the step up that helped them get big quick.
I used to work with one of the guys from the bodyshop, good guy also Richard that worked there does know his onions and is trading locally resoring Aircooled stuff.
The owner "went missing" owing a lot of money.
I still speak with the guy that ran the parts dept.

There used to be a guy advertised in the auto trader in the north , you may have been too young to remember him but his ads were a great laugh e.g. Mercedes automatic - would suit a one legged hitler Fiat mirafiore - floor rotten through but good for running around in. Austin Princess - be like Capt. Mark Phillips and get yourself into a princess.

I called in there (house of Hazelock) many many years ago for a quote on a restoration on my dads '73 T2. They were very expensive but the worked looked good .
Think they did alot of work on Lindsey Porters Beetle cabriolet ( think he was the first editor of Volksworld mag ) in his Restoration book.

I remember them!
Always pics in how to guides,VW motoring etc
Showing my age then?

There is a Karmann ghia in this months volksworld magazine that was restored by them some years back.

The article is full of praise for the work done.

I remember House of Hazelock well. They were based in Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate in Nuneaton. I didn't know the owner, but I did know Michael Jones who worked there. Michael was a great bloke and he arranged for Hazelocks to do some pretty major structural work on my '67 Beetle about 25 years ago (for what I now suspect was a massively discounted price). The work they did on my car was really good quality and 25 years on I still have it and I've not had to do any further body repairs to it. Michael's first love wasn't VWs - he had a '50s Bentley and always wanted an Alvis. Sadly, Michael passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly a couple of years ago.

The good, the bad... and then there was Wagenworks in Birmingham

It has been bugging me (no pun intended) why there seemed to be so little about 'House of Hazelock' on the internet. I finally remembered that it wasn't 'House of Hazelock' it was 'House of Haselock'. If you Google 'House of Haselock' you will find lots of information on them...