DROP THE TEMPO

Limebug’s marathon restoration of a 1951 Tempo Matador — from neglected Australian pickup to show truck in just eight weeks.

Words by Ned Faux — Hayburner Magazine, Issue 11
Additional history and updates by Limebug

Eight weeks? You mean eight years, right?

Nope. Weeks!

That’s how long it took Craig and a couple of friends to fully restore this 63-year-old truck.

It’s not just any old resto. We are talking about a Tempo Matador. You can’t just pick up the phone to GSF and order parts. You have to source original stock or fabricate your own. There are no Haynes manuals for when you get stuck. Plus, you have to have the vision in the first place.

It’s all very well buying such an unusual, rare piece of kit and having a bash at something different, but to execute it like Craig did is a whole other ballgame.

Let me tell you a little bit about Craig Shaw and Leanne Gwilliam. They are a couple and the owners of Limebug, a Stoke-on-Trent-based parts and accessories company with their own showroom and workshop, where they spend their evenings alongside staff and friends building projects.

I first met the couple around five years ago. Back then, Limebug was a small business run out of a bedroom. I used to run into them at weekends, as they would have a small trade plot at the shows.

Since then, through hard work, determination and innovative ideas, the business has gone from strength to strength, and it is now one of the main players in the UK scene.

The hunt for a Matador

I have personally been a huge Tempo Matador fan for a very long time. I have hunted for a panel van since I saw the old Bus Barn’s slammed-out Tempo a good few years ago.

When I got the phone call from Craig, looking for more information on these vehicles and saying he had the cash and was genuinely in the market for a Matador, I was excited for him.

My knowledge of Tempos is mostly theory. I can tell you geeky facts about years, types, etc., and I have one or two contacts for people who own them around the world. But as for my hands-on knowledge, well… let’s call it limited.

Luckily, my good friend Bobby Wilcox from Milkandtwo did the full, show-winning, nut-and-bolt restoration on Phil Jarvis’s Matador a couple of years ago.

Finding “the one”

This worked in well because, when Craig eventually found the one, he had a couple of people to vet it for him before taking the plunge and sending the cash.

It was an unusual sale. The truck was not actually for sale when he bought it.

The owner was a Porsche enthusiast and had this and a Deserter among his collection. Initially, the truck was bought to make a novelty bar in his man cave. But he said it quickly became apparent that the truck was too good to turn into a beer bar.

The main difficulties were not with the seller, but with trying to organise a container, being 250 miles from the nearest shore and 140 miles from the owner himself, who was initially reluctant to even send him a few snaps.

They did initially look at trying to put two vehicles in the container, but the second vehicle, a Bay Window, turned out to be an online scam. Apparently, it was kept offshore, on an island, in a container. The seller couldn’t answer the phone, etc., etc.

After getting over this, and subscribing the scammer to a great number of “male interest websites”, they managed to organise a small deposit for the owner to trailer the Matador to an independent company they had chosen. It then sat there so that both parties had control over what happened next.

The long wait

Over the next few months, the wait was on. I must have rung Craig ten times to see whether it had arrived yet.

When it finally turned up at the docks, they were greeted by the token miserable jobsworth, who said:

“So yours is that Tempo thing? With bits falling off it?”

Craig had a sick feeling of, “Shit, I’ve just made a massive mistake.”

Then the truck rolled around the corner.

Straight away, he knew he had hit the jackpot.

The bits falling off turned out to be just the wood moving on the back of the bed. After going through the truck and the two crates of spares it came with, they found all the chrome and Tempo-specific parts in good order.

They were also finding both a 25hp and a 30hp engine included in the deal!

It was definitely a diamond truck. The opportunity to get another right-hand-drive example in this condition won’t come around again for anyone.

Into the light for the first time

The plan was to get the pickup ready for the VolksWorld Show, which was roughly eight weeks away from when Craig first started.

A crazy deadline.

The first thing was to make sure it was all there. It turned out that the parts that were missing were fairly minor.

Some areas needed attention, such as the lower A-arm bushes. The ball joints needed re-shimming, the gearbox mounts required work, the fuel tank needed attention, and the glass was scratched up.

But overall, it was in amazing condition for a ’51.

Eight weeks to VolksWorld. The clock was ticking.

The hardest parts to tackle were the air system and the wheel choice.

Both were necessary to make the truck look like the picture Craig had in his mind, but after a while, they felt more and more like bad decisions.

The things they had to quickly overcome were the 6V-to-12V conversion and the rear airbag system.

Huge headaches started when they tried to work around the massively complicated front-wheel-drive system, the fixed-width arches and the huge drive flanges.

All this became a nightmare, but with such limited wheel choice, American Racing rims were eventually bolted on and looked perfect.

It got to the point where Craig threw away a full set of adapters that had taken three days to make, because they just weren’t going to work.

Four beams. One solution.

Every time, it clashed with something different.

They threw away seized rose joints and the clashing shocks, but in the end, Craig is proud to say that the Tempo underneath is 100% original.

If you wanted to make this a stock Tempo again, it would take around two days’ work, and it’s still all there.

Modified to the extreme. Original where it matters.

The truck was blasted by L&R Soda Blasting, and a variety of rust issues were dealt with along the way.

The colours of the truck are Deep Royal Green and Smoking Room Yellow.

The colours were matched rather than researched from the original paint codes. Being a commercial vehicle, it would more than likely have been liveried, and it had been painted extremely badly. Unfortunately, it was not in its original paint.

However, the paint at the very bottom was the same colour as it has now been sprayed.

Craig says it’s as right as he can get it.

The paintwork was carried out by Holdcroft Auto Bodies.

The finishing touches

Just to top it off, because there obviously wasn’t enough work to do already, Craig decided to do all the woodwork himself and completely rebuild the load bed and frame.

An interior worth preserving

The interior was 100% there.

They picked up a few little missing parts along the way, mainly just interior door handles and window winders.

Craig had a Berg shifter made and etched with a Tempo logo, and with a bit of struggling, it works a treat.

The finishing details

The 30hp motor previously fitted to the truck was removed and replaced with a late Bay Window 1600cc twin-port engine, paired with a late Beetle gearbox using ZF outputs.

The combination provided a more usable drivetrain while retaining the Tempo’s distinctive front-wheel-drive arrangement.

But with the mechanical work nearing completion, there was still one rather significant problem.

Time.

Forty-six hours. No stopping. One deadline.

The team embarked on an extraordinary 46-hour stint in the final run-up to VolksWorld.

Craig admits he couldn’t have pulled it off without the amazing team around him and their determination to keep going, fuelled by little more than the promise of more pizza.

Believe it or not, the truck was still being painted the day before the show.

I saw Craig at the show, and I can genuinely say I have never seen him, or anyone else, so tired.

The things we do to get cars to shows are unreal.

He had to become a restoration expert, a Tempo research historian, a parts finder, mechanic, painter, joiner and fabricator, all while somehow finding the time to run a successful business.

I would like to give a massive Hayburner “hats off” to the whole Limebug crew.

Was it all worth it?

Well, just look at it!

The show scene

From the Australian outback to Europe’s show floors

From a dusty barn in the Australian outback to some of Europe’s most prestigious automotive events, the little Tempo Matador had come a very long way.

What started as an almost impossibly ambitious eight-week restoration quickly became one of Limebug’s most recognisable creations.

Over the following years, the truck travelled the show circuit, causing a mixture of controversy, confusion and, most importantly, much-appreciated admiration.

Part commercial vehicle, part engineering curiosity and part custom show truck, the Matador had a habit of stopping people in their tracks.

Some knew exactly what they were looking at. Others had never seen anything quite like it.

A familiar face on the European circuit

The Tempo’s show appearances have included:

• VolksWorld Show — Twice
• Fitted UK
• Spa, Belgium — Twice
• Ultimate Stance
• Ultimate Dubs
• NEC Classic Motor Show
• Ultrace, Poland

From the Volkswagen-focused halls of VolksWorld to the broader custom-car culture of Ultrace, the truck found admirers in very different corners of the automotive scene.

Its unusual proportions, sweeping wings, exposed wooden load bed and low stance made it unmistakable, whether surrounded by traditional air-cooled Volkswagens or modern performance builds.

The appeal was never just about how low it sat. It was the contrast between the painstakingly preserved 1951 commercial vehicle and the engineering required to create something that looked so completely different from anything else.

From magazine pages to international attention

The Hayburner feature

The story of the eight-week restoration was documented by Ned Faux for Issue 11 of Hayburner Magazine.

The feature captured the madness of the deadline, the challenges of sourcing parts for a vehicle almost nobody had experience working on, and the determination of the Limebug crew to get the truck finished in time for VolksWorld.

For Limebug, the Tempo became much more than another restoration. It marked an important chapter in the company’s development and its move towards designing and engineering its own custom air-cooled components.

A truck that kept turning heads

As the years passed, the Tempo continued to attract interest beyond the traditional Volkswagen scene.

Its combination of rarity, engineering and unmistakable character made it equally at home among the custom builds and automotive creations of the wider European show circuit.

It was an unusual machine with an unusual history, and one that seemed to generate as many questions as compliments.

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour

Silverstone, 2026 — A place among the UK’s finalists

More than a decade after that frantic restoration, the Tempo Matador found itself in another remarkable situation.

In 2026, it was selected as one of just three UK finalists in the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, appearing at CarFest at Silverstone.

The competition celebrates extraordinary custom vehicles, judging them on authenticity, creativity and what Hot Wheels calls garage spirit.

Alongside a radically modified 1972 Volkswagen Beetle and a race-prepared 1989 Fiat Panda known as the Flying Washing Machine, Limebug’s 1951 Tempo Matador was recognised among the UK’s standout automotive creations.

The Beetle ultimately took the UK title, but the Tempo’s selection as a finalist was another milestone for a truck that had started life as a commercial workhorse in Australia.

Still unmistakably Limebug

What makes the recognition particularly fitting is that the Tempo was never built to follow a conventional formula.

It was a rare vehicle, restored against the clock, modified with an unusual engineering approach and kept recognisably true to its original character.

That same combination of originality and creativity was still attracting attention years after the first frantic weeks in the workshop.

More than just a show truck

For Limebug, the Matador has become something of a rolling signature.

It represents the company’s early ambitions, its enthusiasm for unusual air-cooled machinery and the belief that almost anything is possible with enough engineering, determination and, apparently, pizza.

From an uncertain purchase on the other side of the world to a show truck recognised on an international stage, the Tempo has been part of Limebug’s story for years.

And despite the magazine features, show appearances and attention it has attracted, the most remarkable part remains how the whole thing began.

Eight weeks. A handful of friends. One very unusual truck.

Not eight years.

Eight weeks.