I STARTED this series to work out if I was having a midlife crisis or not, because I had the urge to buy another Kombi.
I hadn't had one for years. We had them as young blokes growing up, going surfing up the coast, just partying. Any time off was spent camping in the Kombis.
What I discovered out there was this VW family, with not just Kombis but Beetles as well. The thing with Kombis, everyone's got their own stories about them. And they made so bloody many of them, it's a worldwide car. The more I dug into it, everyone was Kombi-mad.
It didn't matter who they were, how wealthy, what end of the scale they were at. They were a friendly bunch, up for a chat.
They appeal to all, nine to 90. My young bloke is five and he loves it, wants to go driving all the time. It has this appeal to everyone, just reels them in.
Tim Bowden (facing page, top), he's old school. I chose him because he did it back then, when families got "splitties", loaded them up and took the family around Australia. He doesn't have one now. He did Ayers Rock. The places he took that thing were unbelievable. He has old shots of his wife cutting one of the boys hair on the roadside on a dirt road. It really is classic stuff.
Kristen and Shane Ayerst, of Carey Bay, have a camper. They each had it in the back of their mind to get one, and when they mentioned it, they both said yes. They decided to get a Kombi and have plans to travel.
Adrian Smith rebuilds them. He's got two he rents for weddings. He does the engine, mechanics, body gear, repaints them. Everything but the upholstery. He's got several, and he does them up. He does them for people - amazing. And people love them.
"People are always looking in the windows," Smith says. "It's always turning heads."
Andy Roberts regards his Kombi as the holy grail - 23 windows, double-door deluxe. The shell he got from the States, converted it to right hand drive. He's rebuilt most of the shell, a massive rebuild. It's like he remanufactured most of the van. His end result is amazing, in red and chestnut brown.
After all that, I found I wasn't having a mid-life crisis. It was just my love of Kombis. Now, I have my fourth one.
