The Funkmobile – ’65 Adventurewagen

There's probably lots of people out there reading this that think working on VWs would be the perfect job - combining your hobby with earning money has to be the best of both worlds, right? Perhaps, but ask yourself how many cars you have seen owned by the guys who run the top VW restoration shops in the UK. Can't think of many can you? It's the classic story - the guy who runs the garage always has the knackered car, the builder lives in a building site and the plumber never quite gets round to fixing that leaky tap.

"We're all slaves to money at the end of the day," says Steve, caught in a rare moment of sensibility. "We've all got to pay the mortgage and the bills and put food on the table. I love working on Volkswagens, and I love restoring them, but things have changed in the last few years. You've got to spend 50 grand just to get noticed these days."

Perhaps then that explains why Steve has been so happy with this Bus. He's the first to say it's nowt special, but we disagree. Anyway, with cars like George Lloyd's '50 Cabriolet - universally recognised as one of the best restored Split Cabs in the world - and his own Fridolin - a car I still today hold up as one of the most influential custom VWs to ever come out of the UK - behind him, he's done the special bit. What this Bus is is Steve all over: dead straight, slightly modified, with a few neat tricks up its sleeve and a very personal, funked-up vibe.

"Your attitudes change over the years - that's not wrong, it's just how it is," he continues. "I'll never - with the emphasis firmly on the never - get out of the scene though. I'll always be totally into it. I'd miss it if I weren't doing it, but these days I'm doing a bit of everything, from MoT work to servicing, from patina rides to full restorations. As well as locating and supplying imported Buses from America. As long as it's air-cooled, I'm into it."

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the August  2010 issue of VolksWorld

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