Australian Kombi Commercial

Another nice kombi commercial, this time with a beautiful Australian surfer bus. The earl bays do grow on me. Just this little bit more of a classic car than the late bays. Below a snapshot and the YouTube video. Thanks to Tony for the link!

Melbourne Coffee and Juice Van

Week of the Early Bays – here comes a coffee and juice van spotted at the arts center in Melbourne. Looks like a single cab pickup truck with the food van unit built on the cargo platform. Big thanks to our local correspondent Campbell for the photos!

Two Late Bay Crew Cabs

Here are some photos of two Late Bay double cabins. The first one is from Geelong, Australia, photos taken in 2012. Painted in a cool matt black, including front and back bumpers and rims around the headlights. Boards around the cargo bay removed and cargo area covered with a wooden deck. Wheels could be Porsche Fuchs wheels. Not the most practical van but a very cool looking one.
The other one is from Hamburg, photos from 2005. Except for the improvised paintings, it is probably relatively close to original condition, just a bit run down. Color could be ivory white (color code L567). This paint was used for vehicles of rescue services like the German Red Cross. Perhaps this van started his life as a transporter with one of them. I guess the metal frame on the cargo area in the back may be original and may have been covered by tarps on each side. Now replaced with wooden panels so that the cargo space is more solidly covered. Nice sticker from a VW bus garage in Hamburg which actually still exists (VW Bus Service Mamèro).

Beautiful Australian Late Bay

Another late bay spotted a year ago in Geelong, Australia. Looks like it just got a brand new paint job. Could be reef blue (L57H). Comes with one of the heavier versions of the various roo bars, with attachment points for the spare wheel in its center. The pop-up roof is none of the European standards (Westfalia, Devon, Dormobile) but a conversion one sees often over there.  Electricity inlet in the right rear corner at head height, again something common only down there. Stands on non-Volkswagen steel wheels. Tyres also look slightly larger than the standard bus tyres. Sport exhaust with two outlets, so someone has worked on the details already. Comes with Victoria Club permit on the registration. Apparently this means the car is at least 25 years old (classic or historic), the owner is member of a club, and the car is driven for only 90 days per year, with an obligatory logbook over those days. I hope in exchange one can drive the car without further taxes. Still quite some effort. Sliding window in the rear left section – need something like that for our bus for next summer. What a nice bus!

Beautifully Restored Sydney Kombi

A beautifully restored T2b bus spotted a few days ago in Sydney. The color scheme looks like our Taiga Lily, taiga green and creme white. Unusual variation on the front: White around the head lights and air inlets. Note the minature model of a T2a kombi on the dashboard, with the same unusual paint job at the front. Thanks to Adrian for the photos!

Australian T2b Campervan

We are back in Australia, after our three week kombi trip through New Zealand. In a week our 3 months of parental leave down here will be over and we will be flying back to Germany. Before returning to the German winter, Australia spoils us with real summer, today 36°C, tomorrow even predicted 38°C.  Here is another Australian kombi, photos kindly taken some days ago in Geelong by DrJ. Not sure what kind of campervan conversion this is. But cool bull bars – does one also call them bull bars when they are on the back? Certainly protects the body from parking incidents.

All Around Australia in a Campervan

About eleven years ago, and around the same time when I met my lovely wife in Berlin and she started her life as a campervan co-driver, her brother Clayton met Megan, his future wife, in Australia. And as things go, she also owned a T2b VW campervan. Together with their two dogs, Dragon and Maudie, they started on a road trip all the way around Australia which took them about a year and covered 36000 km. The journey went from Geelong in Victoria via Adelaide in South Australia, Perth and Broome in Western Australia to Darwin in the Northern Territory, and then via Mount Isa, Cairns, and Brisbane in Queensland and Melbourne in Victoria back to Geelong. Except for defect cylinder heads (replaced in Port Lincoln, quite at the beginning of the trip) and the regular oil changes and valve adjustments, their faithful kombi, a white 1976 2L/70 h.p. T2b bus, needed no further work and brought them safely from start to end. To avoid new problems with the cylinder heads, they did the whole trip at a friendly speed of maximum 80 km/h and with regular breaks to avoid engine overheating. Below are some photos from along the way. Check out this cool kombi in full travel gear, including water buffalo horns at the front of the roof rack and a trailer for more equipment (and lots of dog food).
Sadly, they had to part with the kombi in 2006, but the bus is still alive and kicking in the Geelong area and the new owner seems to have given her a full restoration, including a new blue-and-white paint job and a new engine.

Through the Nullabor Plain in the Great Sandy Dessert, on the way from Adelaide to Perth.

At the Coopers Beer Brewery in Adelaide, South Australia.

At the start of the longest straight road of Australia (in Western Australia, between Balladonia and Caiguna, on the way from Adelaide to Perth).

Camping in the outback just out of Madiura. Note the wire mesh on the kombi to protect the front windscreen from dirt and stones (and in one case a plague of locusts).

Another stopover, at Noble Falls, 50 km east of Perth. Cool buffalo horns on the roof rack.

The Australian “Bier Doktor”

Here comes something like a local celebrity of the Geelong kombi scene. A late T1 panel van in perfect condition, advertising “The Beer Doctor” in German. It seems most T1 owners in Australia have safari windows fitted at the front. Must be nice in the current very hot summer temperatures. Wind screen wipers not folded down but taken off for this sunny day. Air vents in the back located higher than with the T1 window buses. Probably panel van-specific. Seems the one set of air intakes supplies both the engine compartment and the cargo area with fresh air. The doors for the back section feature a depression that makes sense only if they were on the other side (would then allow door to fold over the handle of the front door). Could be that these doors were produced only for the left hand drive markets and then used “the other way around” for right hand drive models. Judging from the back lid (already same as with the T2s from 1967 onwards) this T1 is one of the last models, from between 1964 and 1967. What a fantastic vehicle!

1958 Rat-Look Splitty

A bit of a rat-look going on here. A T1 kombi from 1958, spotted in Melbourne three days ago. Thanks for the snapshot, Bill! Nicely weathered red paint job mixed with lowered body, new safari windows at the front, and shiny new wheels and front badge. The owner said it is one of the rare models with doors on both sides of the back section and with right-hand-steering fitted already in the factory (and not later rebuilt from left-hand-steering). Personalized number plate with the manufacturing year and a German iron cross. The wheels also seem to be iron-cross inspired. Not sure why the English and apparently also some Australians associate kombis with the iron cross, but this motif pops up occasionally in the English VeeDub scene. A pre-1960 kombi with semaphores in the B columns instead of indicators on the front. But when you look closely, it seems the head lights are modified and have a little yellow indicator bulb incorporated. Cool bus!

Australian Roo Bars

The likelihood of colliding with large wildlife on Australian roads is probably pretty high, most likely with kangaroos or wombats. That’s why a lot of people protect their cars with bull bars or kangaroo bars, short “roo bars”. You see these on many normal cars and pick-up trucks and also on campervans. It seems that in the seventies, the bay window campervans featured bars made from relatively modest steel tubes, such as these ones:

But even for T2s one occasionally finds more massive versions such as these ones – wonder whether they were added later?

In the eighties and nineties, more sturdy looking constructions seem to have become standard, such as these on two T3 buses. Note that sometimes the roo bar includes a reinforced front bumber which protects or replaces the original front bumper.

Finally, here is a T5 high-roof people carrier which features a more modern and shiny version which nevertheless is quite massive, too. In the end all of them will not help much if the kangaroo decides to jump and hits the car above the bar and in the windscreen. Best to drive slower and more carefully when travelling on country roads in the early morning, at dusk and in the night when kangeroos are active and accidents are most likely. Click here for a link to more information on kangeroo accidents and how to avoid them.

Added March 17, 2012: To complete the Type 2 generations, here is a T4 with a massive roo bar, spotted at the end of Fenruary in Geelong, Australia.