The Badger Files

                  Badger Coachworks name came from the name of my first car, my 1964 Land Rover. I bought my Land Rover in 1975 when I was a senior in High School in Southern California.

               It wasn’t long till I found myself in the Land Rover Owner’s Assn. of Southern California as a member. I remember at one of the club meetings in Pasadena (gas was about 45 cents a gallon then) discussing nicknames for our Land Rovers. It had to be named after an animal, but it had to fit. So one day at  the Cal State Fullerton bookshop I was thumbing through a book of Roger Dean’s artwork (the band Yes’ album artwork), and came across the artwork for an album “One Live Badger” by a band called Badger. It had an interestingly designed font for the name “Badger” . I felt that this was a style I could paint on the side of my Land Rover. I had to think about this possibility and put the book back on the table.

             A few weeks later I was camping in Coyote Canyon in Anza Borrego (boy I miss that place) with a friend of mine in my Land Rover.  While on an early morning walk, a Badger appeared 20 yds. away on the dirt road. I found myself mesmerized by the sight of a North American Badger (not as common as the UK), and watched it watch us for a seconds before it scurried off into the brush. I turned to my friend to say “hey did you see that”? He was groggy and apparently oblivious to anything at 6:30 in the morning, let alone seeing the Badger. That was it! That was the sign for the name of my Land Rover. That Monday I drove back to the bookshop, bought the book and drove to the paint store for painting supplies. It took close to 14 hrs. to paint the name on the side of the vehicle by hand.

             In 1980 I started working at my brother’s upholstery shop learning to make Mercedes interiors. It wasn’t long before I started doing an interior for the Badger. I started making interior components as side work. So needless to say, when I started my business I had to name it Badger because the vehicle started this crazy idea of making Land Rover interiors.

             Friends still refer to my Land Rover as “Badger” 30+ years later, and I have become Badgerman. The Badger had covered over 400,000 miles before it got a galvanized coil sprung chassis with Range Rover axles. Then there was the Defender nose and doors…. Well, you know how you can’t stop modifying your Land Rover. It gets worse, you buy more Land Rovers. One more may be to much, know your limit.

 

Sew on and sew on….

 

- Chris Laws

1975 Anaheim, CA

1977 Anza Borrego, CA

1979

Myles Standish, MA

1982 New York

1989 At. Brit. Rally

1990 Sandy Neck beach, MA

1996 Nauset beach, MA

1998 Nauset Light, MA

2000 Eastham, MA

2005 Nantucket, MA

2004 Pleasant Bay, MA

2005 So. Dennis, MA

259 Great Western Road/ P.O. Box 285   South Dennis,  MA.   02660  USA

Phone: 508.394.2680                     Fax: 508.760.2281            

Email: info@badgercoachworks.com

© Copyright 1997-2011 Badger Interior Coachworks. All rights reserved

Badger Coachworks

Summer 2009

Summer 2009

Winter 2010