www.dsk.com.au

Hi good people of DSK. I've been lurking for a while, but thought I'd better say hello. First posts on DSK, but some of you may already know me off the SSVC forum or the samba. (mike1973)

I've got a March '59 Kombi, originally from Morwell. Last on the road in Australia in about '91. It was imported into the UK in 2004, and I bought it later that year.
At the time I was just looking for an small back window RHD bus, I didn't care where it came from. It was only while I was getting it back on the road I became interested in Aussie VW's. The dull beige colour really got under my skin, despite mates telling me I had to repaint it. I was also told I needed to fit a bigger motor and upgrade to 12 volt ... I decided as the kombi hadn't been modified since it was built, I wasn't going to be the first, so, it's still 30hp, still 6 volt.
I got it back on the road two years later, and have done over 30,000 miles in it so far.

I trawl on here occasionally, in my search for other elusive Boronia Brown buses. I've got a thread over on the samba where I list any I find.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=311485

Always keen to expand my knowledge of Australian VW's.

Regards,
Mike.



Waiting for the others by zombikombi1959, on Flickr

HI Mike, great looking bus. It looks just right all standard

Welcome Mike.
Good to have the mix of stock and altered buses..
Once painted properly you cant get back the character of originality..

Cheers guys.

I've had to do the usual repairs, and I've done my best to blend the paint into the original. It's covered in ankor wax, but I'm not convinced it's protecting the paint as well as it should. It's garaged of course, but rust stops for no man ...

As for being a stock nazi, it's definitely not for everyone. I just love 30hp motors, and am happy sitting at 45/50mph for hours on end on the motorways listening to it hum along. Most 'normal' people can't hack that though I didn't get a Kombi to keep up with the Rat Race. **** 'em, they can slow down to my pace.

G'day Mike,

That is a beaut original Kombi you've got there!

The colour is quite different but it grabs you, for sure. As for leaving it stock - good onya, I reckon.

It seems everyone in the UK and Oz likes to mod their Splits; only in the US are there lots of stock buses, still.....

Each to their own and your own looks pretty damn fine to me!

hey mike,
mate thanks for saying hi. love the bus... looks like uve done some great trips in her.
cheers matty

Welcome and that is a great looking bus mike!

Rusty.

Hi Mike, I absolutely love your bus. The colour "Boronia Brown" certainly reminds me of the colour of Chocolate Paddle Pop Icey Poles we used to have as kids.. Very yummy

Welcome aboard Mike. Cool bus

Thanks for the warm welcome fellas. As someone rather self conscious of being Pommy with an Aussie bus it is appreciated. If it is any consolation, your old bus is still very proudly 'Oz'. So much so I'd love to get a set of the old style VIC plates made up with it's new UK reg on them. And they wouldn't look so different to the old style white on black UK plates to be taking the michael too much. I just need to find somewhere that can do decent copies!

The roo bars were picked up separately in the UK for £50 several years ago. I just wanted to see what they'd look like on the kombi. I have to admit, they look bloody awful! I can understand why you all ditch them But I've never wanted a cool looking bus ... It is just a plain old bog standard Aussie Kombi. The roo bars are a sort of two fingers up at all the people who have told me the kombi will look so cool when I slam it on "insert whatever wheels are flavour of the week"

Yeah, the roo bar spoils the look of the front end IMO. I sold the original one off my Bay for that reason.....
Of course, they served (serve) a purpose with the amount of large marsupial road kill on Aussie roads.