Young Gun

WE HAD A FAMILY MEETING AND I SAID THAT I’D LIKE TO BUILD THE KOMBI AND I COULD WORK IN MUM AND DAD’S CAFÉ ON SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AND WEEKENDS TO PAY FOR IT

- Carly Dale

SAMMY SCHMIDT

> 11, NEWCASTLE, NSW

ELEVEN-year-old Sammy Schmidt may well be Street Machine’s youngest Young Gun. We had a yarn with Sammy and his dad Scott to find out how he came to be the coolest kid on the block with his patina-clad ’56 Kombi split-window ute nicknamed Rusty.

How’d you get Rusty?

SAMMY: In December 2015 we were contacted by a property manager in Longreach to see if we were interested in a Kombi ute that they had sitting in their paddock; if we weren’t interested they were going to crush it. They’d found Mum and Dad’s Café 53 VW Kombi coffee truck on Facebook and sent us a message. We knew it was one of the first Kombis to come to Australia, but it was a 4000km drive from Newcastle to get it. So, we had a family meeting and I said that I’d like to build the Kombi and I could work in Mum and Dad’s café on school holidays and on the weekends to pay for it. I was eight years old when I bought it.

With Rusty home, what was next?