The Pemberton Kombi | Automotive repair centre
The Pemberton Kombi
Phone: +61 487 043 080
Reviews
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25.01.2022 BEFORE - We're starting with the outside bodywork... because, as you can see it needs it! Here's a few before photos of our 1974 VW Kombi Microbus. The first stage - New Paint.
21.01.2022 A Chance Encounter - Meet Billy. He's a panel beater / spray painter from Noosa QLD. He and his family are traveling around Australia and I happened to meet him in Pemberton - purely by chance. We got chatting after meeting briefly at a friends place. He asked what I did - Car Detailer (Easy Az Car Cleaning) - so he said he was a panel beater..... "Would you like a job? I've got this old VW bus I've just started restoring" I'd literally just finished the first 'final' re-sp...ray and the Kombi looked pretty good (so I thought). But I knew there was a couple of little spots of rust that would require cutting out and new metal being welded in. Having never welded before and not even owning a welder (yet) I knew this job would be one of the few best left to the experts. So I invited Billy to come have a look - he said 'yes' Now my freshly painted, beautifully blue bus is about to get hacked up with an angle grinder....... stay tuned - this is likely to get very ugly! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments and share this journey with your friends. Thanks for joining me on my adventure.
19.01.2022 New Steel - So the rust was gone. In it's place were more holes than a good Swiss cheese. Now time to weld in new steel. (And even I had a go!) Given most of the holes were in fact small spots, Billy was able to easily make the necessary patch from a sheet of steel. Most were quite flat and easy, however a couple around the windscreen were very complicated. Billy shaped flat pieces into complex curves and bends with little more than a vice, hammer and years of experience (an...d almost certainly the odd cuss word). But skill, patience and swearing will only get you so far and, as you can see from the photos, some bits are very complex. Fortunately, VW Kombis are very popular and lots of reproduction parts are made. A quick search online and we found what we needed. The drivers side floor and step (pictured) and the same on the passenger side, plus a long curved section that runs along the lower sill panel behind the drivers door. Lucky for me, when a panel beater travels for an extended time around Australia with his family, he packs his own welder! Which was great news - because I didn't own a welder.... Yet! Billy quickly got it all back together, making it look easy. It was about this time that Dad turned up and said... "I've got a welder like that (a Mig Welder) at home that I don't use - do you want it?" So my new tool arrived soon after. Billy got it set up correctly for me and he was even happy to teach me how to use it (because Dad's not a welder and didn't know how to use it - but who's ever let that stop them buying a new tool for the shed!). So I found a little rusty spot in the foot well - cut it out - made a patch and welded it in...... see that last picture - that's my first ever welding job! See more
19.01.2022 The Rush Job... It seemed like checking the forecast for a day suitable for working took up more time than the work itself. And given our rapidly approaching departure for our round trip of Oz, the desire to take my time and get the repair work perfect, soon became a case of get it done as quickly as possible. As it happens, I've discovered that I'm really not all that good at auto body repair. I've used the whole tin of fiberglass reinforced filler. I'd either mix up too mu...ch, sand back too much or simply didn't quite get it right and did a bit more.... and a bit more... Then the creamy coloured filler for finishing... same story. I tried a little blade putty too and think I should have tried that sooner. Then I didn't get the spray primer filler application in the quantity or coats I wish I'd had more time for. The final result is a blue bus that needs a few bodywork repairs to be done all over again... But now it was blue again and the time and effort that had been put into cutting out the rust and replacing the metal was now protected from the elements. See more
16.01.2022 There's many reasons why people love the VW Kombi. One has to be it's ability to go places many other vans simply can not go. Wow - what a jump... Splitty air!
14.01.2022 The Holy Bus. What happens when you 'fix' a rusty car? You cut holes in it! Billy was employed to fix some of the worst of the rust. And although I knew what 'fixing rust' involved, it didn't make watching someone (who I'd only very recently met) take to the body of the Kombi with and angle grinder any easier to watch. My first thought was two or three holes about the size of a drinks coaster, maybe smaller.... Unfortunately (or fortunately - I haven't decided yet) Billy, wit...h his years of experience and commitment to doing the job correctly, found about four times that. And BIG holes! I can't complain, as it's not nearly as bad as many vehicles that are 40 years old. At least the job is being done right! (which is why I'm not doing it.....) See more
13.01.2022 Step one - Full top coat respray.... This may seem an odd place to start. I basically did the last part of the paint process - first. Why? Our bus was a mess, with bits of half done cover ups, patches of surface rust, gray primer and old faded chalky paint. Basically, it looked terrible. The idea of doing a quick top coat was to make it all one colour again and add some protection from the elements as we continue the restoration. That and I'd never painted before! Doing the... final coat first was a great opportunity to get some experience painting before the final coat is sprayed onto the Kombi - forever! This paint will ultimately be removed during the process of repairing and preparing each panel. I'll be doing that one panel at a time so the Kombi should look 'blue all over' as I complete each panel (in theory at least). This is also because we want to keep the Kombi driving as we restore it. It's an 'On the Road Restoration' So over a week or so I gave the whole bus a quick rub over with sandpaper (600 grit wet sanding). Then I masked up all the windows, lights, wheels and even wrapped the bumpers in plastic. Then, with my air compressor (thanks Dad) and my new toy - the gravity fed professional spray paint gun - I did a quick 2 coats of factory VW flipper blue - no primer - just blue paint over everything... rust and all! It actually looks ok - and really was a great practice run with the the paint gun. Result! Please feel free to ask me questions in the comments and share this journey with your friends. And thanks for joining me on this adventure.
10.01.2022 ~ All Whittty Bumpers ~ The body work was now back to being blue. Painted and protected but hardly perfected. Next on the 'to do list' was to refit the bumpers. But unfortunately they looked as if they'd been sitting under a camelia for a year... because they had. The solution - back to Dad's shed to pillage yet another tool to add to my ever growing collection. This time - a sand blaster! ... It's a simple little gravity fed air tool, obviously for little diy jobs. So, armed with the kitchen sieve and a cardboard box, I gathered my aggregate from the kids sandpit. It's not the best material for sandblasting, with a very, very similar constitution to Windy Harbor beach sand. But the tool and the sand, combined with persistence and patience and soon the bumpers were stripped of old paint, cobwebs and other various abnormalities. Then paint. And with many minutes of experience under my belt, I felt confident that I would produce a praise worthy result... And from a distance of several meters - it is Fitted with the rusty bolts I forgot to paint and it's job done! Next up - interior installation.
06.01.2022 ~ From The Memory Bank ~ We're in the process of moving house (sort of) and while I was packing I came across this photo from about 1988. The two kids are my wife Kia and her younger brother. In the background is the Kombi. That's correct 'THE' Kombi, the very same vehicle this Facebook page is celebrating as I slowly undertake a restoration of sorts. Unfortunately it's going to be a long while before anything else happens in regards to the restoration project, as Kia and I... are leaving in a few days. We're taking off in a caravan for 12 months, all the way around Australia. Hence why we're packing to move out. But the Kombi is in good hands, being looked after while we're away. So this will be the last post for a while, but I'll have project updates for you again when we return. Until then, have a wonderful 2019 - Happy New Year Aaron & Kia
05.01.2022 I realise its been a long time since my last update, but not much had happened. Mainly because work on the Kombi's body work had stopped, for what seemed like a lifetime, due to the wet Pemberton weather... which has barely let up even now in December. Secondly - I simply haven't updated my profile. Firstly the Beetle was moved to the driveway so I could put the Kombi in the shed Then out comes the windscreen (this was before Easter) as Billy wanted to get at a couple of sp...ots of rust. More big holes, followed by some carefully sculpted new steel and job done.... Billy and Sheridan left shortly after Easter and I was left to finish off the patchwork Kombi. Each area where the rust had been cut out and replaced with new metal now needed a bit of filler, a lot of sanding and then paint. I was pretty happy with how the job worked out around the windscreen. Reinstalling the factory contour lines is more like a job for a sculptor. But unlike a sculptor, the goal is to have your work unnoticeable. With a little help from Jamie and Kia, the windscreen was put back in (definitely a three person job) and the Kombi rolled back onto the driveway. Then the Beetle (my first baby) was carefully put back to bed in the shed..... where the handbrake promptly stuck on and stuck the Beetle in the shed (that's another story). Then the rain set in and the Kombi project simply stopped.... until a few weeks ago.......
05.01.2022 Off The Road - "Just a quick tidy up" he said - "We'll still be able to drive it" he said...... Famous last words! It would seem that even an 'on the road' restoration is going to end up stuck in the shed - without any bumpers or windshield. Oh yes - and that's the drivers side door lying on the ground!
05.01.2022 Looks like a cartoon... but it's a real Kombi (sort of) that drives the streets of USA. Amazing!
