From Love Bug to Locomotive: Australia's Matt Gardner's VW Odyssey Ep 11

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Music.

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Welcome back to Dub Life Diaries. Today we've got a guest whose Volkswagen obsession

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started before he could even talk.

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Matt Gardner grew up loving air-cooled VWs, became a mechanic,

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worked at a VW shop, and has owned some incredible Beetles and Combeys along the way.

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These days, he drives a train. That's right. He's a local motive driver. How cool is that?

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But the VW passion has never left. We're going to dig into his journey.

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Might talk a little bit about his collection and hear some wild stories from Matt from the road.

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Matt, welcome to the show.

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Hey, how you going? Hey, man. How am I going? I'm going great.

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Excellent. I love that this podcast is bringing together people like you and me.

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Before we dive into today's episode, I do want to give just a couple of shout

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outs to a sponsor, Volchmania Magazine.

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Issue number 22 is going to be out on shelves here in the coming days.

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Make sure that you're using Dublife 10 at checkout for 10% off your first issue.

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Shout out real quick to my buddy Dino Stiles from Dino's Garage in DC Metro area.

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Just want to say thank you so much for your support, Dino.

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Now, Matt, back to you. You emailed me several weeks ago and you said,

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hey, man, I'm so happy to see and hear about this podcast. It's crazy to hear

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how much of a similarity there is between Australia and the U.S.

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As far as air-cooled culture goes.

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My first response is, well, hey.

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The podcast is all about celebrating the people of the V-Dub culture,

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so do you want to come on the show?

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And you say, I'm a little concerned. I'm not that interesting.

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And I say, all right, well, shoot me some

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info on you, and we'll make that determination. I bet you are. I said it.

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I bet you are. I remember. Yeah.

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So, yeah, man, you sent me your background and your bio, and what?

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What you're you're you're super

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interesting in fact you're exactly what i'm looking for

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because here's the thing i made this podcast

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to celebrate guys girls people like you i don't i don't care where you're located

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right because this culture is is it runs deep little german cars but behind

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every vw fan to me is it going to be their cars it's going to be some really cool stories.

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It's going to be their buses or their combis.

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It's going to be their family. It's going to be their life and what they do.

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And that's what I did this for, because I feel like every person I've met along

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the way, I've had air-cooled Volkswagen since high school.

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I'm 47 years old. So give you a little age there, but every,

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everybody I've met along the way, they got a couple of things, smiles and stories.

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And they're always people. They say birds of a feather flock together.

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So, man, I'm just excited for this opportunity.

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But here's my point that I wanted to make by saying all that.

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This podcast is for you. It's for people like you.

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So just like you went to the website and you said, click here to register a

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guest or register as a guest, and you filled out that information,

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I want to address the listeners that are tuning in right now.

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You do the same thing because y'all got some really cool stories to tell,

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and I'm here to show those stories off.

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So log into the website, dublifediaries.com. Up top, it says register a guest.

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If you or anybody else you know living the dub life wants to get down,

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come on, come on, come on.

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Just like Matt did. And thank you, sir. All right.

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No worries. Let's face it. We all love talking V-dubs, so. Yeah,

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awesome. This is going to be great.

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So let's rewind it back to the beginning for you. Your parents showed you the

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love bug when you were just, what, 18 months old.

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There's no way. The way I say, yep. remember that far back, but what was the

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moment that you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that VW was imprinted on you, in you?

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I don't remember. For me, they've just always been there.

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Mum tells me that if they needed to settle me or needed me not to move,

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the love bug was put on and I didn't move.

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As a kid, I remember you'd be driving down the road and we used to play Spotto.

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I've got two younger

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sisters and we used to sit there and

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play Spotto and belt each other up in the backseat of the car while we were

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driving along we uh we lived some distance from melbourne for a little while

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so i originally from melbourne but lived in in albury wodonga which is about

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three and a half hours away so lots of car trips and and lots of bruised arms

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we got banned from playing spotto,

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because we were belting each other up so much and then then i think we invented

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slap van which was you know find a combi but even yeah i've run into to my uncle's

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ex-wife in the supermarket yesterday and she told me,

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I'd forgotten all about this, that there was some family friend that turned

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up at my grandparents when I was very young of, you know, five or six.

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I vaguely remember this.

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And I got all excited because they were in a beetle. And, yeah,

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and they took me out and showed me the beetle.

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I think it was the first time he sat in one or went for a ride in one.

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And, yeah, so they've always been there ever since that love bug was shown to

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me and it's just never, never changed. As I got older, I sort of read books

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and dad would say, hey, what year is that?

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And I'd go, oh, it's a 72 because of this, this, this, and this.

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And, you know, in Australia we're slightly different with stuff.

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But, yeah, we were able to sit there and figure them out and Dad thought it was hilarious.

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And I remember I've got a photo that Mum took when I was very young.

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We went to the Royal Melbourne show and I don't know if Dad did it on purpose

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or not, but we parked next to this 1500 Beetle and I dove out and said,

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Herbie, Herbie, Herbie, and had to have a photo with it.

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So, yeah, they've just always been there. And I don't know where it came from.

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It's just the moment it was put on, I didn't move.

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Something I hear a lot from, you know, true enthusiasts, guys like you,

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is similar stories like just like this.

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They don't remember when they were bit by the bug, but it happened.

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And, you know, that's their life. And another question I had that you kind of

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already answered was you were the kid that was pointing them out,

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you know, pointing them out.

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100%. Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, I, I, again, I see that passion in you. I knew that.

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And I say this to guests that come on all the time. I knew there was going to

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be more, you know, because everybody says that, oh, it's no big deal.

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It's just that, man, you've got a lifetime with these cars.

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You're an ex-VW mechanic. You drive a damn train.

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That's pretty cool. Similarities between VWs and trains, but yeah, it is pretty cool.

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Yeah, it is pretty cool. So I heard that you used to follow around one of your

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high school teachers just to talk about your collection.

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Can you elaborate just a little bit on that? What was that about?

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So he drove a, it would have been similar to what I've got now,

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a highlight bay window microbus.

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He drove it to school, had some mag wheels on it, driving lights on the front.

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And he was just someone that I gravitated to because of that Volkswagen connection.

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So whenever I had a break, I'd search him out. His name was Ron Donahue and

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his nickname among the students was Rondon.

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And so I'd follow Rondon all around and

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and we just talked Volkswagens he actually took me to

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the first Volkswagen show I ever went to which was Day of the Volkswagen which

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is still going here in Victoria it's you know Victoria's largest show and and

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probably my favorite show but I'm a little bit biased being a Victorian and

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yeah he he took me in his microbus when I would have been.

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14 I suppose and drove down to

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Melbourne to go to the car show so yeah he was was

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a really big influence on me he was was one of sort of two people in that time

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that took the the kid that was obsessed with Herbie and started to point it

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in the direction of more just Volkswagens in general so he yeah he was awesome

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and I ended up buying my first car off him the first driving car I got Yeah,

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we're going to touch on that.

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Any other cars in his collection that you remember?

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So he had the Microbus, he had the Beetle Eye, ended up buying,

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and then there was a third car –.

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And I remember it being up on blocks. It was a six-volt Beetle,

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but I think the dash had been modified, like had a whole lot of gauges.

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And I think his original plan was he was going to modify it or something.

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And I don't think it ever happened. I think it ended up being sold.

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But, yeah, that was it. He only had a small collection. He only had sort of the three.

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But it was someone who had always loved them. And he wanted to – I was mortified

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when he told me. I couldn't believe it as someone that loved original stuff back then.

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And he was going to put a Porsche, wanted to put a Porsche motor in his, his combi.

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Cause he was someone who went skiing a lot up at Mount Buffalo and,

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and he felt the combi was just a little bit underpowered.

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Whereas with a Porsche motor in it, it would have gone really well. He saw it.

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So yeah, he, um, and then we, I can remember doing outdoor ed with him and,

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and we'd be just walking along bushwalking and talking Volkswagens. That was pretty cool.

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Now that wasn't your first Beetle came when you were what? 1213 you said it

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was the park something like that yeah that's right yeah so is that this one,

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The one I've got now. No, no, no. Is that the one you got from the teacher?

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Or is that the 64? No, no. So the 64 was from the school teacher.

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I actually don't remember how it came about that I bought it off him.

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I remember I paid $300 Australian for it and we took it down to Melbourne.

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With that car, I used to actually, Melbourne's dad's driveway was fairly long in Albury-Wodonga.

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It was about four car lengths long. So I used to, when they went out without

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telling them, I'd jump in and move the Beetle backwards and forwards and sort

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of taught myself how to deal with the clutch and how to steer a little bit before

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I was even legally allowed to drive.

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But yeah, the parts car that you're referencing was a family friend.

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I don't know if it was out of the blue or if it was organised because obviously I was fairly young.

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And I still remember this night they rang up mum and dad and said,

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listen, we've got this Beetle.

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We want to get rid of it. we'd like to give it to Matt knowing he's

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obsessed are you happy with that and then I remember dad hanging up

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and turning and saying to me you know

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you've been given a beetle and so and I remember going oh excuse me a minute

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and I ran down the other end of the house and just screamed in happiness yeah

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and so then dad and and his friend whose father had given us the car went out

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with a trailer I can't remember how long after and we picked up this car it was sitting in a paddock,

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at their farm in a place called Jindera in southern New South Wales,

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just over the border, and put it onto the trailer and dragged it back.

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But while we were there, we looked at this other car, which was the car that they bought it for.

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They'd had a little bit of a fender bender in this 59 Beetle and used this other

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car that they'd given me to sort of get the parts they needed to straighten it all out.

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And that was a very cool car. And even at 12, I looked at it and thought,

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wow, this is nice and original. It's a great little car.

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And I'm kind of embarrassed here. But even at 12 or 13, I looked at them and

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said, if you're ever going to sell it, let me know.

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I'll buy it. And they just laughed. And then, yeah, so we dragged that home.

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Unfortunately, that car never sort of had anything done to it.

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It sort of sat in our backyard.

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And then when we moved back to Melbourne, I had the two Beetles.

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I had the school teacher Beetle and I had this 58 model Beetle.

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And Dad said, well, I'm not taking two cars to Melbourne. We can only afford

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to take one. You've got to pick one.

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And so the 64 sort of had to be the one that went to Melbourne.

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And so that 58 model got passed on to someone else, unfortunately.

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So yeah, it's a great year. I love it.

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Was it the same there for just the 58 and 59 were the only?

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Slightly different in that you guys had some indicators. You had those little

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bullet indicators on the guards, whereas we didn't have that.

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We had the same as the ovals with the still the semaphore indicators.

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So just those little semaphores poking out and that was it for indicators but

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otherwise pretty much everything else you know that that that sort of only quite

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a bad one for that month correct correct yeah so first of the big back window

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so they got the big back window that's right the the

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new six volt dash but all oval running here the 36 horsepower the crash box

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so yeah yeah I had a 58. It was beautiful.

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I say this a lot, but I feel like, man, I feel like that's the one that got away sometimes.

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Yeah. Yeah. I just do it. It was a beautiful car, but I had other opportunities

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and other visions for other things.

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And I really wanted to, I love the way that the thing looks, the Type 181.

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Yeah, they're cool. When they're lowered and the windshield's down and the top's

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back and you're slammed and you're kind of low riding slash beach cruising, I really like that vibe.

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Yeah. So I had to get one.

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Yeah, I hear you. I got a 74. So, you know, I'm kind of, I couldn't do that

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in my Beatles over the years.

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It really feels good driving that thing. but anyhow

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anyhow so again back to the

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back to the 64 the 64 was the

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the your first proper driving one that came correct right

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that's right it was the second beetle i owned and

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and that was when we moved back to melbourne i left

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school not long after and and started my apprenticeship so and

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once i started working as a mechanic that was

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when i could actually i'd already started like I played is

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probably the best way to put it with the 58 and done little jobs but nothing

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major but once I started to learn what to do that was when I started to really

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work on cars and we got the the 64 on the road I remember it had rust where

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they all go in the the battery tray and I.

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You don't want to weld it. And I'm not going to mention which workshop this

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is because this is very dodgy and they'd be upset with me.

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But they said, look, don't bother paying someone to weld it up.

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You haven't learned how to weld yet.

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Just get a bit of metal, grab some pop rivets, pop rivet it through the floor,

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and then get that tar paint and just tar over the top. And then no one will know.

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So all we did was dad and I sat there with this

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metal plate and pop riveted this metal plate into the into

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the battery tray and and chucked it in i remember i

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think one of the headlights stopped working on the way

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for the the so over here you got to get what's called a road worthy and then

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you've got to take it into vic roads for an inspection when it's been off the

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road they check the engine numbers and the chassis number make sure it all matches

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and uh and yeah i remember going into vic roads and something stopped working

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and dad's like you got to fix these things because I didn't have my license

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when we first got it registered.

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And then learned to drive a little bit in it and drove it for a little while,

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but not long after I got it.

00:16:09.524 --> 00:16:13.504
It was Easter and we had some friends down from Wodonga staying with us and

00:16:13.504 --> 00:16:17.824
we went for a drive to the video shop in those days and tied some videos.

00:16:18.164 --> 00:16:20.804
Yeah, Blockbuster Video Easy was another one over here.

00:16:21.164 --> 00:16:24.764
And driving back, it spat a plug out of number three, I think,

00:16:25.224 --> 00:16:27.004
just shot the plug, the thread went.

00:16:28.324 --> 00:16:32.724
And that meant that we had to put a helicoil in and fix it, which is no big deal.

00:16:33.304 --> 00:16:36.684
But mum and dad were like, no, no, it's not reliable. You need a better car.

00:16:36.844 --> 00:16:40.324
You're going to have to get a better car. So I never got rid of that 64 or I

00:16:40.324 --> 00:16:41.664
didn't get rid of it for a long time.

00:16:43.144 --> 00:16:46.944
But probably one thing I sort of really regret, I try not to regret much,

00:16:47.064 --> 00:16:50.344
but I went and bought something different.

00:16:50.504 --> 00:16:53.904
It's still a Beetle, but a different Beetle rather than I probably should have

00:16:53.904 --> 00:16:56.684
just put the money into that Beetle and fixing it.

00:16:57.004 --> 00:17:04.044
But instead, I was told I had to get another car, so I got another Beetle, which was a 73 Elber.

00:17:05.604 --> 00:17:09.544
One owner, a really neat car, but not what I wanted.

00:17:09.764 --> 00:17:16.144
I love six-volt Beetles. And yeah, it was a cool car, but I didn't keep it too long before I was.

00:17:16.605 --> 00:17:19.385
Before that went and oh that was when i

00:17:19.385 --> 00:17:22.565
uh yeah i sold that because i discovered combis

00:17:22.565 --> 00:17:25.965
and and felt i needed a combi in my life now so

00:17:25.965 --> 00:17:29.305
that conversation's coming after let me

00:17:29.305 --> 00:17:32.185
just touch on one thing yeah because i feel like right

00:17:32.185 --> 00:17:35.765
here is where the wrenching also just

00:17:35.765 --> 00:17:38.825
may have started right were you yes yeah

00:17:38.825 --> 00:17:42.805
for sure obviously always mechanically inclined you

00:17:42.805 --> 00:17:45.665
know guys like you know early on right you're good

00:17:45.665 --> 00:17:49.105
at yeah as a kid sure yeah

00:17:49.105 --> 00:17:51.705
as a kid i'd get my toy cars and pull them apart and put them

00:17:51.705 --> 00:17:54.945
back together again and you know love love lego and

00:17:54.945 --> 00:17:57.825
sitting and you know building stuff out of lego and

00:17:57.825 --> 00:18:01.025
so yeah it was always sort of hands-on stuff my

00:18:01.025 --> 00:18:03.985
dad's a carpenter by trade so you know dad was

00:18:03.985 --> 00:18:06.885
always fixing the house so i've since discovered i'm

00:18:06.885 --> 00:18:10.585
not so good at that but i'm okay with a car we're

00:18:10.585 --> 00:18:13.685
doing something on on your cars though as soon as you that's

00:18:13.685 --> 00:18:16.365
all right they'd have issues you were doing it yourself you were

00:18:16.365 --> 00:18:19.385
fixing correct yep yep as as i was learning as

00:18:19.385 --> 00:18:22.185
an apprentice that translated into me doing stuff

00:18:22.185 --> 00:18:26.065
on my own cars and and keeping them on the road servicing them doing whatever

00:18:26.065 --> 00:18:30.465
needed to be done so yeah you know doing road trips in them and then breaking

00:18:30.465 --> 00:18:35.145
down and and what have you so yeah oh it was always there and as i did my apprenticeship

00:18:35.145 --> 00:18:41.445
and gained those skills that was when i did more and more so yeah yeah Yeah, and really.

00:18:41.765 --> 00:18:43.885
That 64, I learned a fair bit on it.

00:18:44.045 --> 00:18:48.565
And the 73 too, that L bug, there were lots of little things that went on that

00:18:48.565 --> 00:18:51.325
that you started to learn. Right, yeah.

00:18:51.825 --> 00:18:54.725
So for a while, I know you were all about the Beatles.

00:18:55.405 --> 00:19:01.285
Now we'll jump into the Comby conversation. One night after a club meeting,

00:19:01.505 --> 00:19:08.385
a VW club meeting for you guys, someone hands you the keys to a freshly restored 65 split window,

00:19:09.070 --> 00:19:13.130
Talk to me a little bit about that. What happened there that night that changed

00:19:13.130 --> 00:19:15.650
and made you go to the buses?

00:19:17.430 --> 00:19:23.330
So we'd all gone to the club meeting and as you do it, I'm sure it happens where you guys are.

00:19:23.750 --> 00:19:28.750
After the club meeting, you're all out kicking the tires and talking smack and having a bit of fun.

00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:33.090
And I remember that Andrew had just finished what he calls Red Bus.

00:19:33.590 --> 00:19:35.990
And he's like, no, combis are better. Combis are better. I'm like,

00:19:36.050 --> 00:19:37.190
no, Beatles are better. Beatles are better.

00:19:37.510 --> 00:19:40.930
No, no, no, combis are better. And I'm like, no, give me a Beetle any day.

00:19:41.090 --> 00:19:45.650
He says, here, take Red Bus for a drive. And so me and another club member jumped

00:19:45.650 --> 00:19:50.990
in this bus and we only went around. We were at a pub over the other side of

00:19:50.990 --> 00:19:53.690
town and we just sort of drove around the car park at the pub.

00:19:53.750 --> 00:19:57.770
So I didn't get out a second year, but it instantly fell in love.

00:19:58.710 --> 00:20:02.450
I was like Will Smith in Independence Day. I got to get me one of these.

00:20:02.450 --> 00:20:08.270
Like, it was just the way a splitty, like, people say to me,

00:20:08.350 --> 00:20:09.890
oh, what's so good about split-screen combis?

00:20:09.970 --> 00:20:12.170
I go, well, they don't go, they don't stop, and they don't corner.

00:20:12.490 --> 00:20:14.930
And that's what I love about them. Like, they're just awesome.

00:20:15.070 --> 00:20:17.470
And then the way that, you know, you accelerate and they lift,

00:20:17.710 --> 00:20:21.150
you know, and at the arse end when they've still got the reduction boxes in

00:20:21.150 --> 00:20:22.370
them, they're such a cool thing.

00:20:22.890 --> 00:20:27.870
And so, yeah, I instantly fell in love with the split-window combi to the point

00:20:27.870 --> 00:20:33.250
that I think it may have even been the next day that L-bug went on the market to sell it.

00:20:33.410 --> 00:20:36.250
Like it was that quicker decision that's like, right.

00:20:36.490 --> 00:20:41.550
Because I still had the 64 at that stage and the plan was that the 64 was going

00:20:41.550 --> 00:20:43.490
to be eventually restored when funds allowed.

00:20:45.810 --> 00:20:49.390
And so the L-bug was just a daily driver. It's like, well, I can get rid of

00:20:49.390 --> 00:20:52.010
that and I can buy a combi and drive the combi every day.

00:20:52.410 --> 00:20:54.690
And so, yeah, the L-bug went up for sale.

00:20:55.690 --> 00:20:59.790
It took me forever to sell the L-bug because I paid too much for it at the time

00:20:59.790 --> 00:21:01.870
and I was trying to recoup some of that money back.

00:21:02.290 --> 00:21:06.730
So it took a long time to find a buyer. And it was in that time that split screen

00:21:06.730 --> 00:21:09.590
combis went up in value ridiculously over here.

00:21:09.870 --> 00:21:14.330
I think the guys in the UK, some guys in the US I think as well,

00:21:14.530 --> 00:21:17.730
found that, but particularly the UK because of that right-hand drive market,

00:21:18.230 --> 00:21:20.070
they found that Australia was

00:21:20.070 --> 00:21:24.930
a good dry environment to get split screen combis and they just shot up.

00:21:25.130 --> 00:21:30.310
And within six months, they were out of my price range. I did find one and I

00:21:30.310 --> 00:21:32.590
remind my dad of this all the time and stir him up.

00:21:33.030 --> 00:21:36.870
And it was sitting just down the road from where I live now in a place called Selby.

00:21:37.070 --> 00:21:41.410
It was $2,500, this split-screen combi, and I hadn't sold the L-Bug yet.

00:21:41.910 --> 00:21:45.990
And it wasn't a bad bus. It just had little rust bubbles in the nose,

00:21:46.130 --> 00:21:51.230
but otherwise a pretty good – it would have easily passed a road where they had been drivable.

00:21:51.950 --> 00:21:54.490
And so I said to mum and dad, listen, you know, I haven't sold my car yet.

00:21:54.510 --> 00:21:57.010
Can I borrow the money and I'll pay you back? Oh, no, we haven't got the money.

00:21:57.690 --> 00:22:02.490
And then, yeah, by the time the L bug had gone, splities were just unattainable.

00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:07.010
And then they haven't stopped going up until probably – oh, what,

00:22:07.010 --> 00:22:09.090
the last six months I think they've dropped a little bit here,

00:22:09.090 --> 00:22:12.230
but they're still well out of where I can justify spending.

00:22:12.650 --> 00:22:16.750
Yeah. Especially with the family. Especially for the good German ones, you know.

00:22:17.190 --> 00:22:21.310
Yeah. I think the Brazilian market, even that has inflated pretty high,

00:22:21.350 --> 00:22:25.810
but I think through the Brazilian market, you could still get one for a lot less.

00:22:26.310 --> 00:22:29.630
Yeah. Over here, left-hand drive ones are a bit cheaper too.

00:22:30.010 --> 00:22:34.090
But yeah, I'd still probably prefer a right-hand drive one if I was going to get one.

00:22:34.410 --> 00:22:39.110
Sure, sure. But, yeah, they're just crazy money, really, for what they are.

00:22:39.230 --> 00:22:40.810
I know. As cool as they are.

00:22:40.930 --> 00:22:43.450
I know. They're just crazy. There's such a market there.

00:22:43.670 --> 00:22:50.290
Even for the non-VW people that want to get in classic cars or whatever,

00:22:50.470 --> 00:22:57.770
that's still a choice, very high on the list, even for non-VW.

00:22:58.010 --> 00:23:04.910
But back to this 65, was this the same Comby that ended up in your wedding?

00:23:05.270 --> 00:23:10.610
It was, yeah. So back in those days, I was very active within the Volkswagen

00:23:10.610 --> 00:23:12.310
Club here, the Volkswagen Club of Victoria.

00:23:12.950 --> 00:23:19.630
And so there were times where when I went away, I would often go with the car

00:23:19.630 --> 00:23:23.230
club going away. I'd go with those guys, with the Ermel family.

00:23:23.450 --> 00:23:28.710
And those guys, they were great to me. And I'd often be traveling with Andrew

00:23:28.710 --> 00:23:32.230
in Redbus. and there were times where I'd travel on my own in Redbus.

00:23:32.410 --> 00:23:36.290
I'd drive Redbus and they'd be somewhere else and we did a trip to Tasmania,

00:23:36.914 --> 00:23:40.934
for the, I think it was the 50th anniversary of Volkswagen in Australia.

00:23:41.234 --> 00:23:47.274
And some of that trip I spent with Andrew in his 52 Schwitter.

00:23:47.994 --> 00:23:50.754
The split window bug that's got the oval dash.

00:23:51.014 --> 00:23:54.054
He's got one of those. So we spent some time driving in that.

00:23:54.194 --> 00:23:57.074
And then the rest of the time was me driving Redbus as well.

00:23:57.294 --> 00:23:59.994
And we sort of floated between all the cars, all of us.

00:24:00.674 --> 00:24:06.694
And yeah, so I spent a lot of time in Redbus with Andrew. So we were saying

00:24:06.694 --> 00:24:09.074
before about how they don't stop, they don't corner and they don't go.

00:24:09.334 --> 00:24:13.334
We were on a road here in Melbourne called the Western Ring Road.

00:24:13.354 --> 00:24:15.374
It's a notorious road, lots of accidents.

00:24:16.754 --> 00:24:20.534
And we're driving along the ring road. I can't remember where we were going

00:24:20.534 --> 00:24:24.814
or where we were coming from, but some dude had all these pallets in a trailer,

00:24:25.294 --> 00:24:29.594
and the pallets started falling out of the trailer. And I'm in the splitty.

00:24:29.794 --> 00:24:33.174
I'm driving, Andrew's sitting next to me and I'm trying to, with this splitty,

00:24:33.554 --> 00:24:38.874
go round all these falling pallets and trying to stop as well.

00:24:38.974 --> 00:24:41.294
And, of course, with that four-wheel drum brake, no booster.

00:24:41.734 --> 00:24:46.454
And I'm only a little bloke. I'm a skinny little runt. And just about standing

00:24:46.454 --> 00:24:48.594
on the brake pedal trying to get it to stop.

00:24:48.834 --> 00:24:52.694
Wow. Yeah. So, yeah, when it came time, when Nicole and I got married,

00:24:53.272 --> 00:24:58.532
We had two 59 Cadillacs as at the girls' car.

00:24:58.632 --> 00:25:04.572
So Nicole was in a four-door convertible and the girls were in a Coupe de Ville, I think it was.

00:25:04.912 --> 00:25:08.852
And I said to Nicole, well, I've got to have a V-Dub. So we said to Andrew,

00:25:08.972 --> 00:25:10.692
look, could you bring Red Bus?

00:25:10.792 --> 00:25:15.852
Because obviously I'd spend so much time in Red Bus that Red Bus was the car.

00:25:16.032 --> 00:25:19.752
And it worked out really nicely because the two Cadillacs were both red,

00:25:19.892 --> 00:25:23.452
red or a very dark pink. So the photos are really cool.

00:25:23.612 --> 00:25:27.272
You've got Red Bus sitting in the background, the two caddies sort of nosing

00:25:27.272 --> 00:25:30.812
into each other, and then the bridal party in front of all the cars.

00:25:31.032 --> 00:25:34.332
So it's really cool because cars are a big thing for me.

00:25:34.632 --> 00:25:39.272
It's like obviously Volkswagens are the ultimate, but I just love anything.

00:25:39.452 --> 00:25:43.472
Like I love old cars. Like, yeah, those caddies are a cool thing. Yeah.

00:25:44.432 --> 00:25:48.972
And looking and talking to the guy who owned the business, That was funny too

00:25:48.972 --> 00:25:52.672
because he had a 59 Beetle was his first car.

00:25:53.192 --> 00:25:59.272
And so we were comparing notes about how a 59 Cadillac and a 59 Beetle are completely different beasts.

00:25:59.732 --> 00:26:02.932
You know, the Beetle, you've got a Speedo and two idiot lights.

00:26:03.212 --> 00:26:06.652
The Cadillac, everything's electric. You know, the roof was electric.

00:26:06.812 --> 00:26:10.712
The seats could be electric. You had air conditioning and, oh, just crazy.

00:26:11.172 --> 00:26:14.872
Yeah. Just crazy. Whereas the Beetle, you were lucky you had a seat really.

00:26:15.412 --> 00:26:17.952
No seat belt. Yeah, that's right.

00:26:18.712 --> 00:26:21.932
No seat belt so once you're hooked i

00:26:21.932 --> 00:26:24.712
know you you're you're feeling the combis now

00:26:24.712 --> 00:26:28.012
just in the in the in the you know the yeah of life

00:26:28.012 --> 00:26:30.692
but we talked about it they were out of your

00:26:30.692 --> 00:26:33.812
price range at that so after after months of searching

00:26:33.812 --> 00:26:37.232
i know you ended up with a bay window tell me

00:26:37.232 --> 00:26:40.112
tell me a little bit about that bay window what made you pull the trigger

00:26:40.112 --> 00:26:43.172
on that one yeah it was actually quite a few years later

00:26:43.172 --> 00:26:45.832
too it was i actually sort of gave up on a

00:26:45.832 --> 00:26:49.652
combi for a while because initially i didn't want to buy window initially

00:26:49.652 --> 00:26:56.512
i was the that i'm a six volt guy late adopter yeah yeah i was you know i had

00:26:56.512 --> 00:27:03.432
that 73 and yeah the padded dash and and it's it's like they're the saying that

00:27:03.432 --> 00:27:07.132
they're fat chicks and i'm just like nah not interested in in it's.

00:27:08.072 --> 00:27:10.892
Got to be six volt stuff it's got to be six volt yeah

00:27:10.892 --> 00:27:13.732
and anyway and i'd started working as a

00:27:13.732 --> 00:27:17.372
v-dub mechanic by then and i remember a

00:27:17.372 --> 00:27:21.132
very dear friend of mine michael my boss at the time he saying

00:27:21.132 --> 00:27:23.932
to me nah matt bay windows they're they're awesome i'm like

00:27:23.932 --> 00:27:27.172
nah nah nah he's like no they are drivable they're

00:27:27.172 --> 00:27:30.052
they're much better than splitties and it was as i

00:27:30.052 --> 00:27:34.472
worked at volks care and we did a lot of bay window services whether they be

00:27:34.472 --> 00:27:40.632
campers micro buses a few utes a couple of twin cabs we i started to discover

00:27:40.632 --> 00:27:44.772
geez hang on a minute these are these are a cool car these are a really good

00:27:44.772 --> 00:27:48.492
car and so yeah so then the it was a few years,

00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:54.820
I'm trying to think what happened. That's right. I broke up with an ex-girlfriend

00:27:54.820 --> 00:27:59.020
and dad said to me, I said, you know what? You could probably go buy a Statesman,

00:27:59.180 --> 00:28:02.940
which over here is a Commodore, a long wheelbase Commodore.

00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:07.600
So I had a breakaway from Volkswagen for a moment. I had a crisis of conscience

00:28:07.600 --> 00:28:11.800
and went and bought an Australian car and a big,

00:28:11.800 --> 00:28:18.800
big luxury car and had that for about 12 months and started seeing my now wife.

00:28:19.320 --> 00:28:21.460
And that was when I decided, no, I need a copy.

00:28:22.740 --> 00:28:30.240
It's time. I just left Volkskirch. I'd moved into the railways and thought,

00:28:30.340 --> 00:28:31.960
no, it's time. So I sold the Statesman.

00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:37.060
And once the Statesman was sold, I started looking for a bay window. And it took a long time.

00:28:38.420 --> 00:28:43.220
And it was, again, Andrew. I rang Andrew Ermel in the car club,

00:28:43.360 --> 00:28:45.240
and he was on the committee at the time.

00:28:46.040 --> 00:28:48.540
And he said, oh, look, this one's come up.

00:28:50.580 --> 00:28:55.260
And I got into contact with them and said, listen, I've heard you're selling

00:28:55.260 --> 00:28:57.420
a combi. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, okay.

00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:02.100
And I think even Michael and Julie had said, oh, this particular one might be

00:29:02.100 --> 00:29:06.960
coming up. If you hear about it, grab it. Because they still own Volkscare at the time.

00:29:07.500 --> 00:29:10.680
And so, yeah, when I saw what the car was, I rang them, asked to go see it.

00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:14.060
And they're like, yes, you can come and look at it, but we've got someone else

00:29:14.060 --> 00:29:15.100
coming to look over the weekend.

00:29:16.003 --> 00:29:22.783
I went, okay, well, look, I can only – I started work at like 20 past four in

00:29:22.783 --> 00:29:23.823
the morning that particular day.

00:29:23.903 --> 00:29:27.023
It was nine o'clock. I'd got the email from Andrew saying these are their contact

00:29:27.023 --> 00:29:28.683
details. So I rang straight away.

00:29:28.923 --> 00:29:31.103
Sure. Organized to go look at it that afternoon.

00:29:31.463 --> 00:29:36.763
And from the moment I laid out, oh, there's on this bath. It was just – the

00:29:36.763 --> 00:29:39.043
outside's been resprayed below the gutters.

00:29:39.703 --> 00:29:44.603
The roof's still the original paint. And at the time, it was really sweet.

00:29:44.603 --> 00:29:47.503
It was in really good nick. It was an amazing bus.

00:29:47.723 --> 00:29:51.823
And then I looked at the interior and, yeah, it was an incredible combi.

00:29:52.643 --> 00:29:57.703
Owned by the second of the original owner's daughter, so it was only a two-owner car.

00:29:58.023 --> 00:30:01.443
He had a logbook of every time it had been filled up with fuel.

00:30:01.943 --> 00:30:08.423
He picked it up on the 15th of March, 1976, from Leo Motors in Ferntree Gully.

00:30:09.023 --> 00:30:12.603
And so, yeah, I looked over this thing and it was just too good to pass up.

00:30:12.603 --> 00:30:16.523
And I had a budget. I had a budget of 10,

00:30:16.723 --> 00:30:19.803
$10,000 back then and I

00:30:19.803 --> 00:30:22.603
knew as soon as I took it for a drive this

00:30:22.603 --> 00:30:25.983
bus I'm like right well it needs a motor there I don't know if you know with

00:30:25.983 --> 00:30:30.823
two litre combis the the cam gear goes the rivets go in the cam and they get

00:30:30.823 --> 00:30:36.763
that really rattly cam noise it had that and I thought okay well there's $2,000

00:30:36.763 --> 00:30:41.743
for a rebuild I got to knock off so I think from memory I offered them eight on the spot.

00:30:42.303 --> 00:30:44.543
And they're like, no, we've got this other guy coming to look.

00:30:44.763 --> 00:30:49.263
We owe it to him. We need to have him look at it first.

00:30:49.403 --> 00:30:52.163
I'm like, okay, fair enough. You know, I'd expect that as well.

00:30:52.783 --> 00:30:57.203
So that was Friday night. And if you ask my now wife, I was like a bear with

00:30:57.203 --> 00:31:04.203
a sore head all weekend because I'm like, I didn't offer enough money. I want this bus. Oh, man.

00:31:05.703 --> 00:31:09.983
And I think it was Monday they rang me. They said, right, the other guy's made

00:31:09.983 --> 00:31:12.783
an offer. I said, oh, no, it's gone.

00:31:13.423 --> 00:31:16.063
And they said, we're not going to tell you what that offer is,

00:31:16.103 --> 00:31:19.303
but before we talk anymore, we need to know what are your plans.

00:31:19.963 --> 00:31:25.063
And I said, well, it'd be to drive it, just maintain it. It's a grouse bus.

00:31:25.183 --> 00:31:27.623
I just want to enjoy it. It's pure and simple. Preserve it.

00:31:28.083 --> 00:31:30.743
And they went, okay, no worries. Well, we want eight, seven for it.

00:31:32.563 --> 00:31:36.623
And people always say to me, well, don't let them – I always say to people,

00:31:36.623 --> 00:31:39.183
Sorry, when they're looking at cars, don't let emotion get into it.

00:31:39.303 --> 00:31:42.963
You know, make sure you keep the emotion out. Well, I let emotion in because

00:31:42.963 --> 00:31:46.223
I just straight away, I didn't haggle. I just went, yep, no worries. I just bought it.

00:31:47.123 --> 00:31:50.443
I was like, yep, done. And so then when I picked it up, I went and I said to

00:31:50.443 --> 00:31:52.923
them, I said, oh, okay, what got me over the line?

00:31:53.023 --> 00:31:55.203
You know, you said the other bloke had made an offer.

00:31:55.543 --> 00:31:57.523
How come I got the car?

00:31:58.123 --> 00:32:01.503
And they said, well, he was a young guy who was going to drive around Australia

00:32:01.503 --> 00:32:05.083
in it and that's fine. He was going to pull the interior out and turn it into a camper.

00:32:06.047 --> 00:32:10.787
And I went, no, you can't do that. This is too good a car. Everything's there.

00:32:10.927 --> 00:32:12.327
And they're like, well, what do you think? You're getting it.

00:32:14.587 --> 00:32:19.407
Awesome. And then years later, I was driving it to work and I pulled into a

00:32:19.407 --> 00:32:22.867
service station and was getting fuel and filling up with fuel.

00:32:23.467 --> 00:32:28.347
And it was still my daily driver at the time. And I could hear across the service

00:32:28.347 --> 00:32:30.047
station, hey, Matt, Matt, Matt.

00:32:30.127 --> 00:32:33.087
I'm like, who's that? Who's calling me out? I don't know who you are.

00:32:33.367 --> 00:32:36.187
Oh, whatever. I kept filling up and she comes up. she goes you don't remember me do you

00:32:36.187 --> 00:32:39.267
and i go no i'm sorry i don't i'm the

00:32:39.267 --> 00:32:42.127
i'm the previous owner of the combi oh hi here

00:32:42.127 --> 00:32:45.067
you go so yeah she was wrapped to see it's still on the road at the time

00:32:45.067 --> 00:32:47.867
my kids were still quite young so it had kids seats

00:32:47.867 --> 00:32:51.587
in the back and and she was just wrapped yeah so

00:32:51.587 --> 00:32:54.547
sure because that's the best feeling that could happen

00:32:54.547 --> 00:32:57.327
to somebody that that sells it and and

00:32:57.327 --> 00:33:00.307
that's what they want you know they picked yeah because you said

00:33:00.307 --> 00:33:03.207
these were your plans you know it's just great it's

00:33:03.207 --> 00:33:06.527
great that that that that that came back like that moving past

00:33:06.527 --> 00:33:10.887
that this is where things kind of come back full circle for you in in your life

00:33:10.887 --> 00:33:17.867
line yep yes along because now you got offered this 59 beetle years later and

00:33:17.867 --> 00:33:22.627
i if i remember correctly you said it turned out to be the same car that was

00:33:22.627 --> 00:33:26.367
from the very first beetle that you Pat, when you were 12,

00:33:26.507 --> 00:33:29.727
13, that you were supplying parts to, right?

00:33:29.987 --> 00:33:33.707
So the first ever Beetle I got, yeah, was parts car.

00:33:33.967 --> 00:33:38.787
They purchased that Beetle to supply parts to this car. And there's quite a

00:33:38.787 --> 00:33:40.427
story to actually how I got it.

00:33:41.847 --> 00:33:45.987
So every time I ran into the family friend whose father owns the car,

00:33:46.087 --> 00:33:48.287
I used to say, what's going on with the Beetle? Where's it at?

00:33:49.327 --> 00:33:53.707
Noel, his dad's given it to his nephew, to his grandson.

00:33:54.067 --> 00:34:01.727
They're going to do it up to drive. okay cool no worries and anyway the i got a first phone call matt,

00:34:02.716 --> 00:34:05.656
Robin, which is the son-in-law of the guy who owned the Beetle,

00:34:05.936 --> 00:34:08.336
is going to get rid of the Beetle. He's going to call you.

00:34:08.556 --> 00:34:12.276
Okay, no worries. So he rang up, first phone call, didn't go and look at it

00:34:12.276 --> 00:34:13.956
or anything. It was just a phone call.

00:34:14.256 --> 00:34:17.556
Hey, we're selling the Beetle. Okay, no worries. How much do you want?

00:34:17.716 --> 00:34:22.816
They set a price and it was way too much for what it was, especially at that time.

00:34:22.916 --> 00:34:26.576
Beetles were still sitting at the, you could get a really good Beetle,

00:34:26.816 --> 00:34:28.596
really cheap without a problem.

00:34:29.116 --> 00:34:31.876
And they just wanted too much money. I said, look, The most I could give you

00:34:31.876 --> 00:34:33.396
for an unregistered car is this.

00:34:33.656 --> 00:34:36.356
He said, oh, that doesn't even cover the motor I put in it. I said,

00:34:36.416 --> 00:34:37.556
well, I'm sorry. That's it.

00:34:37.836 --> 00:34:39.936
And he's like, no, no, we'll sell it elsewhere.

00:34:40.496 --> 00:34:45.376
Okay, no worries. And I said to Nicole, well, that's it. I've lost that car. I'll never get that one.

00:34:46.056 --> 00:34:51.776
And then it was probably 18 months later, I suppose, maybe two years later.

00:34:52.096 --> 00:34:55.696
Wow. This time the actual grandfather rang.

00:34:55.816 --> 00:35:00.416
The owner of the car rang me and he said, Matt, I want this Beetle gone. I said, well, Noel.

00:35:01.016 --> 00:35:03.976
Robin wants too much for it i can't afford it it's out

00:35:03.976 --> 00:35:06.776
of my price range he said no i've told him he has

00:35:06.776 --> 00:35:09.876
to get rid of it and the price has come down and he distinctly said

00:35:09.876 --> 00:35:12.896
i want it to go to you because i know you'll do something with

00:35:12.896 --> 00:35:16.116
it and i'm like okay all right well i'll

00:35:16.116 --> 00:35:19.636
call him but i can't guarantee anything and so we

00:35:19.636 --> 00:35:22.516
rang him up and uh he's like yeah we want

00:35:22.516 --> 00:35:25.216
1800 bucks for it i think was the the price at

00:35:25.216 --> 00:35:28.096
the time um i'm like well look it's still a bit near but

00:35:28.096 --> 00:35:30.776
look i tell you what we're coming we're up

00:35:30.776 --> 00:35:33.476
that way for christmas holiday we'll we'll come up we'll look at it

00:35:33.476 --> 00:35:36.556
over christmas yep done no worries so we

00:35:36.556 --> 00:35:39.296
went and and drove up and looked at it the good we were

00:35:39.296 --> 00:35:42.116
camping in a place called beachworth which is about an

00:35:42.116 --> 00:35:46.556
hour and a half from albury wodonga so the girls ran real camping no toilets

00:35:46.556 --> 00:35:49.676
all that sort of stuff the girls wanted to go into town to do some shopping

00:35:49.676 --> 00:35:54.496
and and visit a real bathroom so i drove the girls all in and And then I drove

00:35:54.496 --> 00:36:01.816
out to Jindra to look at the car and looked over it and made an offer. I think I said $1,000.

00:36:01.956 --> 00:36:03.896
And they came back and they said, oh, $1,200.

00:36:04.716 --> 00:36:09.656
And I'm like, I need to think about it. And I went back to Nicole.

00:36:09.796 --> 00:36:11.676
It was a lot rougher than I remembered, the Beetle.

00:36:12.136 --> 00:36:16.276
Undercoat was starting to show through on the roof. All the seats had started to rip.

00:36:16.456 --> 00:36:20.736
They pulled the original 36 out and put a 1600 twin port in.

00:36:21.156 --> 00:36:24.856
And they'd put 1,500 taillights on, which looked awful.

00:36:25.016 --> 00:36:29.576
They hadn't put the little six-volt lights on. They'd put the big 1,500 taillights,

00:36:29.676 --> 00:36:32.096
not the elephant's feet, but the ones before the elephant's feet.

00:36:33.596 --> 00:36:36.756
And I said to them, I said, look, you know, you've done this, you've done this.

00:36:37.196 --> 00:36:42.396
And so I got back to Nicole and said, I don't know what to do because I had a 65 beetle at the time.

00:36:42.996 --> 00:36:48.076
The 64 had long gone. Unfortunately, it had rusted away. So I had the 64 beetle

00:36:48.076 --> 00:36:50.256
that was now the plan to restore at some point.

00:36:50.816 --> 00:36:53.616
And and Nicole said bring Andrew talk to Andrew

00:36:53.616 --> 00:36:56.976
so I rang again Andrew and I said

00:36:56.976 --> 00:36:59.816
Andrew listen I've just looked at this car I don't know what to do he

00:36:59.816 --> 00:37:02.896
goes well what is it so it's a 59 Beetle so it's

00:37:02.896 --> 00:37:05.736
got the ice pick handles it's got you know this this this this and

00:37:05.736 --> 00:37:08.356
this and that's right I looked in the back so I said have you got the original

00:37:08.356 --> 00:37:12.696
taillights oh no no no they're long gone and I saw on the back seat there was

00:37:12.696 --> 00:37:17.516
this box under hold there was a guard there was a couple windscreens a few other

00:37:17.516 --> 00:37:20.876
bits and pieces in the back so I lifted up all that stuff and looked in this

00:37:20.876 --> 00:37:24.376
box and there's the original tail lights sitting there so it had the original tail.

00:37:25.136 --> 00:37:28.216
And i andrew said well what's it like for rust and

00:37:28.216 --> 00:37:31.876
i'd looked at all of the usual spots it's really good it's a dry car it's been

00:37:31.876 --> 00:37:36.536
up in you know he says buy it says you'd be mad get rid of your 65 it's a better

00:37:36.536 --> 00:37:40.976
car because it's that as as we discussed before the change over year buy it

00:37:40.976 --> 00:37:45.576
and so yeah rang him rang him back and said all right no worries 1200 i went and paid

00:37:45.596 --> 00:37:48.576
the deposit on the spot they gave me the original owner's manual for

00:37:48.576 --> 00:37:51.616
it so that's sitting inside it

00:37:51.616 --> 00:37:54.596
doesn't sit in the car that's sitting inside because it's it's even got

00:37:54.596 --> 00:37:57.316
fruit flies so over here there was fruit fly was an

00:37:57.316 --> 00:38:00.236
issue and you had to make sure that you didn't take fruit

00:38:00.236 --> 00:38:03.136
in certain parts of the country and all the

00:38:03.136 --> 00:38:05.856
stickers from back then are still in there and that from when

00:38:05.856 --> 00:38:08.716
they used to drive it around the you know country victoria and southern new

00:38:08.716 --> 00:38:11.596
south wales so yeah i was given that straight away

00:38:11.596 --> 00:38:14.276
and and then went back a couple of months later and picked the

00:38:14.276 --> 00:38:21.216
car up borrowed my uh brother-in-law's commodore youth and uh drove up to aubrey

00:38:21.216 --> 00:38:25.536
wodonga for a wedding which was actually the granddaughter of of the the owner's

00:38:25.536 --> 00:38:30.456
car as the guy who owned the car and then yeah picked the car up and drove it

00:38:30.456 --> 00:38:33.616
back to melbourne so yeah and then.

00:38:35.376 --> 00:38:40.876
And again yeah this is this is this is what you this is what you get you know

00:38:40.876 --> 00:38:44.416
when you when you You mix an enthusiast with the right timing and opportunity

00:38:44.416 --> 00:38:46.536
and, you know, absolutely.

00:38:46.836 --> 00:38:51.776
And it's a car I'll never get rid of. Like that's that all the classics that we've got now.

00:38:52.382 --> 00:38:56.202
We'll go to my kids eventually, hopefully. So that's the plan.

00:38:56.362 --> 00:38:58.822
They're not, the beetle particularly, it won't go anywhere.

00:38:59.022 --> 00:39:02.842
There's too, I was after it for too long. There's too much history with it.

00:39:03.162 --> 00:39:07.482
It's not going anywhere. Yeah. And like I said, I looked at it at 12 and always wanted it.

00:39:07.862 --> 00:39:12.702
Yeah. I love it, man. And it came back and it worked. So you restored it,

00:39:12.822 --> 00:39:14.322
right? You did a lot of work to it.

00:39:14.902 --> 00:39:21.822
Yeah. So, well, again, that's a bit of a funny story. So we bought our first house.

00:39:22.422 --> 00:39:26.142
When we bought our first house, our neighbours next door were talking to us

00:39:26.142 --> 00:39:29.822
and they'd seen the Beetle turn up and I owned a Kombi at the time and,

00:39:30.082 --> 00:39:33.142
oh, you're into Volkswagens. Oh, Graham over the back.

00:39:33.262 --> 00:39:37.162
So we've got a double-fronted property and on our back street,

00:39:37.662 --> 00:39:40.222
Graham's over the road. He's into old Volkswagens.

00:39:41.022 --> 00:39:43.502
He's doing up a Kombi at the moment. You should go talk to him.

00:39:44.022 --> 00:39:49.302
So I went over and I talked to Graham and had a chat with him and Graham's like,

00:39:49.402 --> 00:39:53.022
yeah, this is what I'm doing at the moment. He was doing a 75,

00:39:53.062 --> 00:39:55.902
76, something like that combi.

00:39:56.002 --> 00:40:01.102
Actually, I don't know if you saw the photo I sent through, but it's the one that's the blue camper.

00:40:01.122 --> 00:40:06.162
He was doing that up at the time and he was respraying it in two pack in his shed.

00:40:06.902 --> 00:40:11.342
And so he was showing me all of that. And as we got to know each other,

00:40:11.562 --> 00:40:14.242
I turned around and I said, well, what would you charge for a respray?

00:40:14.802 --> 00:40:22.042
And he's like, oh, fingers and toes out. and went, oh, about three and a half, $1,000.

00:40:22.322 --> 00:40:25.702
I went, okay, no worries, cool. And then I had a combi at the time that I'd

00:40:25.702 --> 00:40:30.722
bought for, well, originally I'd bought it because it was an auto and I was

00:40:30.722 --> 00:40:35.562
going to fix the auto so that my wife could have a combi of her own to drive.

00:40:37.282 --> 00:40:41.602
And the auto wasn't so much the issue. I knew I could get that repaired.

00:40:41.602 --> 00:40:45.602
But once I got it home and sort of had a look at it, it had lived where we live

00:40:45.602 --> 00:40:48.022
now in the Dandenong Ranges, but it had never been washed.

00:40:48.542 --> 00:40:52.762
So the whole bottom six inches had all rusted out because they lived on a dirt

00:40:52.762 --> 00:40:57.202
road and all the dirt had sat in the sills and everything.

00:40:57.582 --> 00:41:01.122
So once I got it and I started looking over it, I went, oh, this is a bit too

00:41:01.122 --> 00:41:05.202
much. But it was still too good a car to wreck for parts. Sure.

00:41:05.802 --> 00:41:10.522
So I decided that I'll sell that and finance painting the Beetle.

00:41:11.342 --> 00:41:14.602
Anyway, Graham and I got talking. I said, oh, you know, I've got this da-da-da-da-da.

00:41:15.122 --> 00:41:17.782
And then anyway, and he goes, how much are you asking for the copy?

00:41:18.543 --> 00:41:22.303
I said, oh, about three and a half. He goes, well, why don't I paint your beetle?

00:41:22.343 --> 00:41:24.983
You supply me the beetle, I'll paint the beetle, and you give me the combi.

00:41:25.623 --> 00:41:32.003
And I went, I like this idea. All right, no worries. So that was how the respray came about. Okay.

00:41:33.223 --> 00:41:36.083
And originally when I first did it, my first thought was, no,

00:41:36.103 --> 00:41:39.483
I'll just paint the outside, I'll leave the inside, I'll just make the outside look good.

00:41:39.743 --> 00:41:42.643
And then Graham's like, no, no, no, let's do it properly. Let's pull it off

00:41:42.643 --> 00:41:45.023
the pan. Let's do it properly.

00:41:45.523 --> 00:41:48.523
And so, yeah, we did that. And then while we were doing that,

00:41:48.703 --> 00:41:53.383
it's not Volkswagen related, but it's still quite funny, is that that combi

00:41:53.383 --> 00:41:56.823
that he had, he ended up talking to a mate of his.

00:41:57.123 --> 00:42:03.803
And Graham had finished his combi and he'd now moved on to a 49 Willys hot rod that he was building.

00:42:04.043 --> 00:42:07.143
Very cool car. Yeah, cool car, cool car.

00:42:07.363 --> 00:42:15.543
And anyway, this friend of his had a Falcon ute that had a 253 V8. I think it was a 253.

00:42:16.183 --> 00:42:19.383
And and so he swapped the combi for the

00:42:19.383 --> 00:42:22.743
running gear of the ute so that he could get his hot rod going so no

00:42:22.743 --> 00:42:25.523
hands had changed and no money had changed hands but

00:42:25.523 --> 00:42:29.163
but all these different things had been organized to get all these cars back

00:42:29.163 --> 00:42:34.483
on the road so it was pretty cool and then and then yeah so so uh graham and

00:42:34.483 --> 00:42:40.583
and i we we i stripped the beetle uh we carried the beetle on his well he's

00:42:40.583 --> 00:42:45.463
got a four by six trailer we put the beetle body on the trailer roll actually no i tell a Sorry,

00:42:45.603 --> 00:42:47.743
we rolled the beetle over with no motor in it.

00:42:48.476 --> 00:42:55.416
And rolled it over the back and lifted the body off onto a saw horse's in his

00:42:55.416 --> 00:42:56.916
shed so he could work on the body.

00:42:57.296 --> 00:43:01.476
And then I rolled the floor pan back home. I got photos of next door's kids

00:43:01.476 --> 00:43:06.216
sitting on the floor pan pretending to drive and, you know, rolling it back

00:43:06.216 --> 00:43:08.156
over to the house and then stripped it all.

00:43:08.256 --> 00:43:13.436
Yeah, yeah, yeah, stripped it all out and poor 15'd it and painted all the floor

00:43:13.436 --> 00:43:14.716
pan up while Graham did the body.

00:43:15.296 --> 00:43:18.376
So and then slowly put it back together again.

00:43:18.476 --> 00:43:24.156
So I know you mentioned in the timeline after you had put some work into this

00:43:24.156 --> 00:43:27.476
beetle, you said you took it on a pretty massive road trip.

00:43:28.296 --> 00:43:34.276
Yeah, crazy. Yeah, what was that experience like? How did the beetle handle such a long journey?

00:43:34.416 --> 00:43:36.596
Well, 2,400 miles.

00:43:38.096 --> 00:43:41.996
So before we get there, it was pretty funny how that actually came about too.

00:43:41.996 --> 00:43:46.916
So one of Nicole's friends was getting married at a place called Fraser Island,

00:43:47.936 --> 00:43:49.656
which is up in Queensland.

00:43:51.316 --> 00:43:54.556
And they, yeah, they were getting married. And I said to Nicole,

00:43:54.876 --> 00:43:56.916
you know, you get sent to save the day. I said, you have to go.

00:43:56.976 --> 00:43:57.696
It's a good friend of yours.

00:43:57.836 --> 00:44:00.596
And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah. She goes, well, I want to take my mum and dad.

00:44:01.216 --> 00:44:04.156
I'm like, yeah, fair enough. Look after our two kids at the time.

00:44:04.556 --> 00:44:09.136
My eldest was, he would have been about three, I suppose.

00:44:09.616 --> 00:44:12.976
And the middle child would have been about six months old.

00:44:13.976 --> 00:44:17.396
And I said, yeah, no worries. Then they can look after the kids while we go

00:44:17.396 --> 00:44:19.876
to the wedding. And she goes, yeah, but mum won't fly.

00:44:20.696 --> 00:44:23.156
And I just started grinning because I knew it meant a road trip.

00:44:24.176 --> 00:44:27.436
And Nicole's gone, you're not, are you? I went, can I?

00:44:28.196 --> 00:44:31.716
And she goes, it better get there. It better get there.

00:44:31.976 --> 00:44:36.136
And anyway, at the time, to paint the picture, the beetle had just come back

00:44:36.136 --> 00:44:38.576
from Graham's place. The shell had just been painted.

00:44:39.476 --> 00:44:43.036
It was back on the floor pan, but it had no guards, no bonnet,

00:44:43.356 --> 00:44:44.816
no engine lid, no engine.

00:44:45.196 --> 00:44:50.376
The right gearbox wasn't back in it yet. It was just sitting as a bare shell.

00:44:50.476 --> 00:44:55.696
And we had 18 months, 18 months to get this car ready to take to Fraser Island.

00:44:56.136 --> 00:45:00.616
And yeah, that was the conversation. And I'm like, okay, beauty, right, let's go.

00:45:00.796 --> 00:45:04.056
And so it went from a, let's just slowly put this thing together,

00:45:04.176 --> 00:45:06.916
take my time to, I've got a time line now.

00:45:07.496 --> 00:45:12.236
So the aim was the wedding was in February. Our day of the Volkswagen is usually

00:45:12.236 --> 00:45:14.776
November, mid to late November.

00:45:15.016 --> 00:45:22.196
So the original goal was get it to day of the Volkswagen the day before the

00:45:22.196 --> 00:45:28.176
day of the Volkswagen before the wedding and then have it ready to drive to Fraser in the February.

00:45:28.656 --> 00:45:32.596
So the mad rush got it all back together. I did the hood lining myself with

00:45:32.596 --> 00:45:41.396
a Wolfsburg West kit, all that sort of stuff. and then found that, pulled a motor down.

00:45:42.921 --> 00:45:49.181
And found that that case was buggered so the motor that was going to be used that was running.

00:45:50.501 --> 00:45:54.341
Stayed in that we got it going but then decided i was going to have to pull it down,

00:45:55.041 --> 00:45:58.781
and i said well i'll have to pull it down i won't go to day of the volkswagen and boris

00:45:58.781 --> 00:46:01.521
who owns volkscare said no no no you get it to me the day after day

00:46:01.521 --> 00:46:04.501
of the volkswagen i'll measure it all up machine it and then

00:46:04.501 --> 00:46:07.241
you can put it together you'll be right so we drove today

00:46:07.241 --> 00:46:10.041
the volkswagen first time ever i'd had a car i'd

00:46:10.041 --> 00:46:12.801
actually pretty much restored it still didn't have

00:46:12.801 --> 00:46:15.701
carpet in it but everything else and the seats hadn't been

00:46:15.701 --> 00:46:18.821
done but you know all painted and outside looked

00:46:18.821 --> 00:46:24.761
really good and then came home disassembled the motor ordered all the bits got

00:46:24.761 --> 00:46:29.361
it all in and then boxing day so i remember the wedding's february boxing day

00:46:29.361 --> 00:46:35.981
michael my old boss came up and uh we started to assemble the motor and then

00:46:35.981 --> 00:46:38.741
found that the bearings we'd gotten from

00:46:39.041 --> 00:46:41.641
the us because we couldn't get bearings in australia at the

00:46:41.641 --> 00:46:45.021
time one of them was first oversized and

00:46:45.021 --> 00:46:48.461
the rest were all standard i was like oh no so michael's

00:46:48.461 --> 00:46:51.161
like no it's all right i'll go home i'll see if i've got any in

00:46:51.161 --> 00:46:53.821
my spare box of bits and he had a

00:46:53.821 --> 00:46:56.581
standard bearing that we needed i think it was a main or a big end

00:46:56.581 --> 00:46:59.401
i can't remember which anyway and then came back assembled the

00:46:59.401 --> 00:47:03.401
motor and then so the whole of january was spent every time we went somewhere

00:47:03.401 --> 00:47:07.861
was drive somewhere to run the car in to make sure that it was right because

00:47:07.861 --> 00:47:12.681
it had not been driven at all so it had literally got rego the thursday before

00:47:12.681 --> 00:47:18.361
day of the volkswagen on the sunday and yeah run it in bed it in and then yeah come uh.

00:47:19.048 --> 00:47:23.588
Come the day to go to Fraser Island, off we go, and Harrison,

00:47:24.028 --> 00:47:25.568
my eldest, sat in the back seat.

00:47:25.988 --> 00:47:30.708
We thought that, oh, he won't last all that long in the back.

00:47:30.708 --> 00:47:34.048
He'll have to go into Nicole's car at some point because it was summer for us,

00:47:34.488 --> 00:47:36.768
our summer, so it was stinking hot.

00:47:37.168 --> 00:47:42.308
Up in Queensland, 35 degrees, 100% humidity, pretty warm.

00:47:42.728 --> 00:47:47.288
In Victoria, coming back, it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, very much.

00:47:47.288 --> 00:47:50.148
You know 40 degrees in melbourne sometimes so yeah

00:47:50.148 --> 00:47:54.588
it was pretty warm but no harrison stuck in the backseat of the the beetle the

00:47:54.588 --> 00:47:59.228
whole way he did complain i remember at one point there were twice he complained

00:47:59.228 --> 00:48:04.608
the first time was driving to up there the first day we're in sort of left at

00:48:04.608 --> 00:48:09.548
four in the morning and he's like daddy it's cold because i hadn't connected the heaters.

00:48:10.528 --> 00:48:13.368
I was like well put your blanket over you mate and then another

00:48:13.368 --> 00:48:16.488
time he got grumpy and he's like daddy turn

00:48:16.488 --> 00:48:21.828
the beetle down too loud yeah this

00:48:21.828 --> 00:48:27.108
is it mate get used to it but yeah it was a case of because we were convoying

00:48:27.108 --> 00:48:30.868
we had nicole in a separate car in a modern car with her parents and and lockie

00:48:30.868 --> 00:48:35.868
our middle child and it was a case of i'd leave first and at some point during

00:48:35.868 --> 00:48:40.768
the day they'd pass me because you know i could do 100 but that was about it with the 36 horsepower,

00:48:41.288 --> 00:48:44.328
and then they'd pass me waving we'd meet up they

00:48:44.328 --> 00:48:47.348
will have already had lunch here's your lunch quickly scoff some lunch and go

00:48:47.348 --> 00:48:52.228
again and i'd leave before them and then they'd pass me again and this we did

00:48:52.228 --> 00:48:57.488
it in three days i think for memory drove up there which is no mean feat and

00:48:57.488 --> 00:49:02.208
but the second day was horrendous there was lots of roadworks it was 12 hours

00:49:02.208 --> 00:49:04.228
of driving it It was a hard day.

00:49:04.988 --> 00:49:12.768
But, yeah, that was from Canberra to, I think, Port Macquarie for memory or

00:49:12.768 --> 00:49:15.308
something like that, sort of northern New South Wales.

00:49:15.488 --> 00:49:18.348
But, yeah, it was a horrible day. Lots of roadworks.

00:49:18.628 --> 00:49:23.688
It was not a pleasant trip. There was one funny part where we were driving sort

00:49:23.688 --> 00:49:27.468
of just out of Sydney and there's lots of road that sort of does this, you know.

00:49:27.788 --> 00:49:32.608
They call them the roller coasters because there's some steep hills and some big valleys.

00:49:33.048 --> 00:49:36.348
And yeah, going up the hills at one point, I looked in my mirror and all I could

00:49:36.348 --> 00:49:38.648
see there was my taillights, the engine lid in the back window.

00:49:39.108 --> 00:49:43.288
So what's going on here? And I was in second gear in the left-hand lane trying

00:49:43.288 --> 00:49:45.828
to get up the hill because the 36 has got no go.

00:49:46.388 --> 00:49:49.888
That was a truck sitting sort of right up my backside because he's trying to

00:49:49.888 --> 00:49:51.388
do the same thing I am, get up the hill.

00:49:51.508 --> 00:49:55.788
But I've run out. I've said, mate, I've got nothing. I'm flat to the boards. This is it. Yeah, yeah.

00:49:56.028 --> 00:49:59.808
And it's this poor truck behind me trying to get around me. So yeah, it's...

00:50:00.368 --> 00:50:04.468
It was fun. That second day was pretty horrible, but it was fun to drive all

00:50:04.468 --> 00:50:07.588
that way and then to get it up there. It went over on the boat.

00:50:07.788 --> 00:50:12.168
So Fraser Island, there's a ferry that you've got to go over on. Okay.

00:50:12.548 --> 00:50:15.628
And you can't get over on a bridge or anything like that. So the beetle,

00:50:15.908 --> 00:50:19.028
I've got photos of the little beetle sitting on this ferry with these four-wheel

00:50:19.028 --> 00:50:21.508
drives and what have you going over there.

00:50:21.548 --> 00:50:27.388
So we didn't go into the sort of the island along any of the four-wheel drive tracks with it. Sure.

00:50:28.228 --> 00:50:31.728
But, yeah, taking it over on the boat, that was pretty cool. And it didn't miss a bit.

00:50:31.908 --> 00:50:35.348
The whole way up there, the whole way back, it just ran like a dream.

00:50:35.488 --> 00:50:39.268
I did have to adjust the points, I think, in Canberra on the way back.

00:50:39.588 --> 00:50:42.908
And I thought, oh, it feels like it's lost what little power it does have.

00:50:43.028 --> 00:50:46.328
And then just saw the point gap had closed up, but quickly fixed that.

00:50:46.528 --> 00:50:50.088
And, yeah, that was the only thing I had for the sort of the week we were away.

00:50:50.268 --> 00:50:54.628
And like you said, I think for memory all up, it was 3,000 miles.

00:50:54.628 --> 00:50:57.448
So it had a service before i left and

00:50:57.448 --> 00:51:01.288
it needed a service when it got back so it um it

00:51:01.288 --> 00:51:04.108
was a cool trip really cool trip and really

00:51:04.108 --> 00:51:07.208
cool cool stories thanks for sharing that so no

00:51:07.208 --> 00:51:10.168
no worries somebody that grew up all about

00:51:10.168 --> 00:51:12.968
the air-cooled scene you know

00:51:12.968 --> 00:51:16.668
became a volkswagen mechanic you know obviously living

00:51:16.668 --> 00:51:19.748
the ultimate volkswagen life now you're learning

00:51:19.748 --> 00:51:22.508
about these cars and you

00:51:22.508 --> 00:51:27.288
start dabbling a little bit into water cool naturally that's what you're doing

00:51:27.288 --> 00:51:31.448
for work but a part of the story that you had mentioned that was interesting

00:51:31.448 --> 00:51:38.028
to me was you built a race car you built an mk1 gulp so i was this is interesting

00:51:38.028 --> 00:51:40.228
i want to hear how did this how did this happen,

00:51:40.748 --> 00:51:46.088
so in the combi one year went down to craig hughes the editor of volkswagen

00:51:46.088 --> 00:51:51.108
magazine or vw magazine Australia, organized an all VW drag racing event.

00:51:51.848 --> 00:51:56.368
My old boss and Andrew Ermel both had drag beetles, very quick,

00:51:56.688 --> 00:51:59.728
naturally aspirated drag beetles, very cool cars.

00:51:59.988 --> 00:52:04.268
And I wanted to be a part of the action, but budget wasn't sort of there.

00:52:04.588 --> 00:52:07.788
And so I went, well, what else is really good?

00:52:07.868 --> 00:52:10.728
And I remember when I worked for Michael, he'd said to me, he said, Mark

00:52:10.728 --> 00:52:13.928
1 Golfs are really good for modifying

00:52:13.928 --> 00:52:16.788
they're not they're they're like beetles they're really cool

00:52:16.788 --> 00:52:19.728
little cars and I thought well all right maybe we

00:52:19.728 --> 00:52:26.108
do a mark one and so I bought a very rusty mark one golf that like it was a

00:52:26.108 --> 00:52:32.268
Flintstones car you could see the road through the floor you know and but mechanically

00:52:32.268 --> 00:52:36.788
was really good so I drove that car for a while got a dodgy roadworthy on it

00:52:36.788 --> 00:52:39.128
and drove it on the road for ages,

00:52:39.148 --> 00:52:43.448
just making sure that mechanically it was all right, but I knew that it was not great.

00:52:44.128 --> 00:52:49.908
So I kept a lookout for another one and I found an auto Mark one that,

00:52:49.928 --> 00:52:53.028
but it had blown the auto. It could go backwards, but it couldn't go forwards.

00:52:54.373 --> 00:52:57.433
And uh and i i did i either did some research

00:52:57.433 --> 00:53:00.353
or michael had told me that it was was very easy to

00:53:00.353 --> 00:53:03.813
convert mark one from an auto to a manual and

00:53:03.813 --> 00:53:06.773
so in my grandmother's garage i didn't didn't

00:53:06.773 --> 00:53:09.913
own a house at the time we had a rental so i didn't want to do any mechanical

00:53:09.913 --> 00:53:15.413
work there so my grandmother's little single car garage um i hired an engine

00:53:15.413 --> 00:53:24.233
crane and and sat and converted basically made one good car out of two okay cars.

00:53:24.553 --> 00:53:27.733
And similar story, this happened all before the Beetle,

00:53:27.833 --> 00:53:33.253
but similar story to the Beetle in that I got this Beetle sorted and running

00:53:33.253 --> 00:53:40.073
and then drove it to Portland where the all VW drag meet was.

00:53:40.933 --> 00:53:49.493
Which is sort of probably 600, 700 kilometres away from home to do this all VW drag meet.

00:53:49.773 --> 00:53:53.013
And yeah, went down there in this little Mark I golf, dead stock,

00:53:53.193 --> 00:53:56.113
dead stock little golf, but had a great weekend.

00:53:56.313 --> 00:54:00.673
There was another Mark I and I that we just did pass after pass on the eighth

00:54:00.673 --> 00:54:02.973
mile drag racing circuit.

00:54:03.153 --> 00:54:06.013
We had an absolute ball. We were just having so much fun.

00:54:06.293 --> 00:54:10.653
And then it was hilarious because we did that and then I actually made it into

00:54:10.653 --> 00:54:12.533
the final, the water-cooled final.

00:54:13.153 --> 00:54:17.693
And yeah, unfortunately though, so it was bracket racing. where you dial in

00:54:17.693 --> 00:54:22.033
your time and then you've got to meet that time. You can't go any quicker than that.

00:54:22.848 --> 00:54:27.968
And I'd been doing, I think it was 11 seconds all weekend, the whole weekend,

00:54:28.108 --> 00:54:31.608
I think, over the eighth mile, I think. My figures might be off. I can't remember.

00:54:32.108 --> 00:54:36.008
And I thought, okay, well, I'll dial in that time for the final.

00:54:36.728 --> 00:54:39.488
And I went and I remember looking in the mirror and thinking,

00:54:39.708 --> 00:54:44.328
I was up against a Golf 3. I think for memory it might have even been a VR6.

00:54:44.908 --> 00:54:46.748
So really nice car.

00:54:47.908 --> 00:54:52.508
I love the way they were saying it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great note.

00:54:52.508 --> 00:54:55.668
And, yeah, I looked in the mirror and said, oh, yeah, I've got her beaten.

00:54:56.408 --> 00:55:01.608
Cool. Will I back off? No, I haven't gone under 11 all weekend.

00:55:01.608 --> 00:55:02.968
I'll be fine. No worries.

00:55:03.668 --> 00:55:08.188
Anyway, I got through and found out that I'd actually gone quicker than 11 seconds,

00:55:08.308 --> 00:55:11.808
so she won the race, and I was runner-up. But it was a great weekend.

00:55:12.248 --> 00:55:15.308
It was so much fun. Yeah, that sounds like it. It was cool.

00:55:16.288 --> 00:55:22.928
So at any time during ownership of this, do you ever feel for a second like

00:55:22.928 --> 00:55:30.368
you're betraying the air-cooled roots or was it just as cool and right on past it?

00:55:30.728 --> 00:55:36.628
I think it was just as cool because I still had a Beetle and I had the Kombi

00:55:36.628 --> 00:55:39.168
and I had the Beetle I've got now at the time.

00:55:39.368 --> 00:55:44.808
So the Beetle hadn't been restored yet. But so at no point did I feel like I'd

00:55:44.808 --> 00:55:46.568
completely left the air-cooled side.

00:55:46.768 --> 00:55:49.108
It was just supplementing it.

00:55:49.428 --> 00:55:52.888
Yeah. Yeah. So and it still had the right badge on the grill.

00:55:53.168 --> 00:55:56.128
So that helped. And yeah, they're all fun.

00:55:56.348 --> 00:56:02.408
The thing for me is I found that parts were hard to get a hold of,

00:56:02.668 --> 00:56:05.088
like particularly interior parts and that sort of stuff.

00:56:06.121 --> 00:56:11.541
So it became a little bit frustrating in that respect. So that was why I lowered it.

00:56:11.741 --> 00:56:14.921
It was lowered with a set of coilovers. Yeah.

00:56:15.241 --> 00:56:19.581
I would have liked to have put a Golf 3 injected motor in it.

00:56:19.681 --> 00:56:21.221
That would have made it go really nicely.

00:56:21.561 --> 00:56:27.521
But it was just becoming too hard with parts and rust was an issue and I'm not

00:56:27.521 --> 00:56:31.501
someone that my welding's okay, but it's not great.

00:56:32.301 --> 00:56:35.281
So i decided that yeah i'd let someone else

00:56:35.281 --> 00:56:38.601
take that one on and because too i had the beetle that

00:56:38.601 --> 00:56:41.741
i wanted to sort out it sort of it went

00:56:41.741 --> 00:56:46.321
but yeah the mark ones are a great little car and i still have a bit of a soft

00:56:46.321 --> 00:56:49.901
spot for them they're they're pretty they're fun they're funny story on that

00:56:49.901 --> 00:56:55.001
that mark one too i remember one night we had a set of there's three sets of

00:56:55.001 --> 00:57:00.281
traffic lights that are really close together and at the third set the left hand lane runs out

00:57:00.721 --> 00:57:04.181
and this guy pulled up next to me and I thought, I'm not going to let you get in front of me.

00:57:04.441 --> 00:57:09.241
Why are you trying to push your way in front of me? So I took off from the lights and did that great.

00:57:09.341 --> 00:57:12.341
And it was not long after the Portland drags. I hadn't washed the car yet,

00:57:12.341 --> 00:57:15.181
so it still had rubber up the sides of the wheel wells.

00:57:15.781 --> 00:57:21.661
And so I took off like a bat out of hell and grabbed second gear and thought, how cool is that?

00:57:21.781 --> 00:57:24.961
And over here in Victoria, we have what's called hoon laws.

00:57:25.441 --> 00:57:31.241
So if you drag race on the road or you spin your wheels or do donuts or anything

00:57:31.241 --> 00:57:32.921
and the police catch you, you can lose your car.

00:57:33.101 --> 00:57:36.101
They'll take your car or impound it for four or five days.

00:57:36.621 --> 00:57:41.401
Wow. And so I did this and took off and left the car for dead and I thought, how good was that?

00:57:41.481 --> 00:57:44.341
And then next thing, woo-woo, you know, the police pulled me over.

00:57:44.401 --> 00:57:48.661
There was a cop car behind me that I didn't see and he greeted me with,

00:57:48.701 --> 00:57:50.741
how would you like to lose your car?

00:57:51.281 --> 00:57:55.641
And I looked at him and I said, I don't really want to, but I've got a feeling I'm going to.

00:57:57.161 --> 00:58:00.761
And thankfully he let me off on a warning. But, yeah, they're great little car,

00:58:00.921 --> 00:58:02.161
Mark Lunds. They're very cool.

00:58:02.791 --> 00:58:07.271
So, especially those little, I never had one, but those little GTIs, those first GTIs.

00:58:08.151 --> 00:58:13.031
I never had one. I had two buddies that had the GTIs back in my high school days.

00:58:13.091 --> 00:58:16.331
And yeah, they were pretty cool cars.

00:58:17.931 --> 00:58:21.771
I've always, me and my circle, we've always been Volkswagen fans.

00:58:22.571 --> 00:58:25.631
So you got the three boys. Yep.

00:58:25.851 --> 00:58:29.311
You told us the stories about how, you know, they'd

00:58:29.311 --> 00:58:32.571
rather ride in the classic car than the nice new

00:58:32.571 --> 00:58:35.471
cars yeah do you think that your boys are

00:58:35.471 --> 00:58:38.391
gonna are gonna carry on the tradition i talked to

00:58:38.391 --> 00:58:41.711
a lot of guests that i have on the show and and

00:58:41.711 --> 00:58:45.371
and that's something that we touch on is it it's kind of up to us you know to

00:58:45.371 --> 00:58:52.391
to make sure to ensure these kids do your kids are they interested at the moment

00:58:52.391 --> 00:58:58.431
i think for them sport is everything they're they're into my eldest son is going

00:58:58.431 --> 00:58:59.811
to Japan playing baseball.

00:59:00.131 --> 00:59:05.711
So he's focusing on baseball. My middle son plays baseball in summer and plays

00:59:05.711 --> 00:59:07.251
Australian rules football in winter.

00:59:07.631 --> 00:59:14.211
So he adores that. And my youngest, certainly he's probably the most vocal about

00:59:14.211 --> 00:59:17.151
going in the combi or the beetle or my wife's old Commodore.

00:59:17.451 --> 00:59:20.391
He loves the old carts. But I think the other two do too.

00:59:20.651 --> 00:59:25.091
Certainly Lachlan, And the other day we were at the zoo and someone was using

00:59:25.091 --> 00:59:27.771
a two-stroke post hole digger.

00:59:28.591 --> 00:59:31.671
And Lachlan turned to me and said, oh, geez, Dad, I really like that smell.

00:59:32.151 --> 00:59:36.531
And I said, yeah, it's a good smell, isn't it, mate? I love the smell of two-stroke in the morning.

00:59:38.451 --> 00:59:45.211
And excuse me. So, yeah, I think that they're interested. But at this point,

00:59:45.571 --> 00:59:48.231
sport's probably more interesting for them.

00:59:48.411 --> 00:59:51.231
But it's certainly, I don't push it. i don't force it

00:59:51.231 --> 00:59:54.651
upon them yeah but i i i nurture

00:59:54.651 --> 00:59:57.991
it is probably the best way to put it you know well well

00:59:57.991 --> 01:00:03.971
said well said same thing for me i don't you know like i'll i'll put them you

01:00:03.971 --> 01:00:07.611
know i'll take pictures with my kids and stuff and you know like just last year

01:00:07.611 --> 01:00:13.871
we did some graduation stuff and we took the 71 carmen guia out to the water

01:00:13.871 --> 01:00:16.011
and you know set it up yeah i'll clean it up.

01:00:16.091 --> 01:00:18.971
And, you know, it was like the background for a lot of these,

01:00:18.971 --> 01:00:21.031
these 16, 17 year old kids,

01:00:21.777 --> 01:00:24.617
it was their you know it was like the coolest thing ever for

01:00:24.617 --> 01:00:27.417
them and i'm like yeah so you guys think this

01:00:27.417 --> 01:00:32.037
is cool and they're like yeah hell yeah i'm like yeah you know my job i feel

01:00:32.037 --> 01:00:36.597
like it's you know yeah well played because that's what i'm hopeful for yeah

01:00:36.597 --> 01:00:41.917
100 but i'm not gonna i'm not gonna force it if they don't interested and they

01:00:41.917 --> 01:00:45.677
want something that's got ac and all that stuff Hey, man, we'll pass to you.

01:00:45.877 --> 01:00:49.537
Yeah, absolutely. I don't like driving like that, but I do now.

01:00:49.817 --> 01:00:56.057
I have a – both my classic cars are not my everyday drivers.

01:00:56.837 --> 01:01:01.577
No, I've fought it for a long, long time.

01:01:02.697 --> 01:01:09.097
You asked before whether I felt whether I was betraying the mark by going to a Mark I Golf.

01:01:09.537 --> 01:01:17.137
Yeah, it's probably the fact that I drive a 2017 – TDI golf now every day that

01:01:17.137 --> 01:01:20.077
makes me feel that that hurts a little bit.

01:01:20.237 --> 01:01:24.257
But the distances I drive from the Dandenong Ranges to the city every day,

01:01:24.317 --> 01:01:28.197
so it's about 50 kilometres each way, 100k round trip to my work.

01:01:28.337 --> 01:01:33.877
So my wife said, if you're going to do that, you are not to drive the Kombi every day.

01:01:34.097 --> 01:01:40.197
So I, yeah, I've gone to a modern car, but sometimes I've got to just go in

01:01:40.197 --> 01:01:42.657
the old ones to clear the head and have a bit of fun.

01:01:42.657 --> 01:01:46.037
Yeah let's touch on that let's touch

01:01:46.037 --> 01:01:48.957
on that the the ultimate dream I ask every guest

01:01:48.957 --> 01:01:53.797
that comes on this question and I love the answer so so much so money no object

01:01:53.797 --> 01:01:58.837
at all what's the ultimate dream what's the ultimate dream build for you yeah

01:01:58.837 --> 01:02:03.157
this is really hard because I think if money was no option I've got to be honest

01:02:03.157 --> 01:02:07.757
I think I'd be like Jay Leno I think I'd have hundreds of cars Like,

01:02:08.597 --> 01:02:11.657
yeah, you know, and not just V-dubs.

01:02:11.937 --> 01:02:16.017
Like, you know, money, no option. Well, I could get that James Bond DB5, you know.

01:02:16.117 --> 01:02:22.377
I could get, but, yeah, for Volkswagen, look, there's a couple. There's a couple.

01:02:22.537 --> 01:02:26.737
There's a 51 crotch cooler. I love those.

01:02:27.737 --> 01:02:34.357
You know, that would have to be an original as built, yeah, and if it's got a sunroof, even better.

01:02:34.697 --> 01:02:37.357
Yeah, that's sort of the ultimate Beetle.

01:02:38.157 --> 01:02:42.557
Then, you know, there's also, I'd love another mid-60s Beetle,

01:02:42.617 --> 01:02:46.077
but this time, you know, like a Cal Resto or a Cal Look Beetle,

01:02:46.157 --> 01:02:49.957
so the big two-litre motor in it, you know, that nice, yeah,

01:02:50.117 --> 01:02:52.577
that rate stance, something like that.

01:02:53.157 --> 01:02:58.377
You know, there's still the splitties in there as well, you know, That's up there.

01:02:58.877 --> 01:03:01.677
Okay. And then even you mentioned your 181 before.

01:03:02.197 --> 01:03:05.337
Even for me, we had something in Australia called a country buggy.

01:03:05.857 --> 01:03:12.057
And a country buggy was developed over here with leftover bits and pieces for

01:03:12.057 --> 01:03:16.637
the Australian government as a sort of like a Jeep. And they never took it on.

01:03:16.797 --> 01:03:22.217
And so Volkswagen Australia produced, I think, maybe 800.

01:03:22.417 --> 01:03:26.697
I might be off on my figures, but I can't remember. but they were very low production,

01:03:26.937 --> 01:03:30.017
but they're very cool, Australian-only thing.

01:03:30.297 --> 01:03:33.357
So, yeah, something like that. Yeah, I honestly couldn't pick anything,

01:03:33.457 --> 01:03:34.937
and that's the hard part.

01:03:35.177 --> 01:03:40.777
So, yeah, I don't know if I've answered it well enough, but there you go. You did.

01:03:42.117 --> 01:03:46.257
Everybody's able to envision what you talked about and what you dreamed about,

01:03:46.417 --> 01:03:48.977
and I think that's the best part. Yeah.

01:03:49.217 --> 01:03:52.477
I'm right here with you. Look, man, this has been awesome. It's been a blast.

01:03:52.717 --> 01:03:55.077
I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

01:03:55.377 --> 01:03:58.997
No worries. Thank you. I'd love to connect with you. And that's a wrap for this

01:03:58.997 --> 01:04:00.857
episode of Dub Life Diaries.

01:04:01.217 --> 01:04:04.917
Thanks for riding along with us and diving into these incredible stories of

01:04:04.917 --> 01:04:06.977
the people in the dub that drive their dreams.

01:04:07.237 --> 01:04:11.797
If you loved today's episode, don't forget to subscribe or hit that follow button

01:04:11.797 --> 01:04:13.117
so you never miss an adventure.

01:04:13.577 --> 01:04:18.077
Do you have a story to tell or know somebody else who's living the dub life? Awesome.

01:04:18.357 --> 01:04:23.417
Reach out to us. You can find us on all socials at Dub Life Diaries or shoot

01:04:23.417 --> 01:04:25.157
me an email. I'm not hard to find.

01:04:25.997 --> 01:04:30.957
Dovelifediaries at gmail.com. Until next time, keep the engines humming and

01:04:30.957 --> 01:04:34.337
the wheels turning and always follow the road that inspires you.

01:04:34.517 --> 01:04:37.977
This is Joe Person. I'm signing off. I'll catch you on the.

01:04:38.000 --> 01:05:36.033
Music.