The Holy Trinity

When the time came to bid the patina farewell, Jim and Kelly Robinson decided to call upon the help of three trusted specialists

- Gordie Woollacott

If this Bus truly is the product of a rebellious youth, then it’s time to get your rebel on, people. As Jim Robinson trained as a truck mechanic at college, he had to listen to his lecturer drone on and on about how bad air-cooled Volkswagens are. Jim tells us: “He hated them. He would go on about them all the time. Until, in the end, both me and my mate went and bought one.”

After working his way through three Beetles and a Late Bay, Jim and his wife, Kerry, abandoned these shores in 2005 to try life on the opposite side of the globe – in Auckland, New Zealand, to be exact. Jim says: “My Mrs. is a nurse and so was able to take a career break. We spent 18 months out there and had a great time.”

Bored of the rings

In 2007, they’d seen enough of Middle Earth to last a lifetime and so returned to Sheffield. In amongst the list of things they needed to get back on their feet, such as a house, a job apiece, furniture and so on was something far more important than all of that: a VW Bus. Jim again: “If you’ve ever been without a Bus for any period of time, you’ll know the feeling. We just needed to get something and it was almost a priority.”

The search spectrum was fairly narrow— it had to be a RHD Split or Early Bay. Jim says: “I guess we just wanted something that had a bit of Britishness about it!” Well, there’s nothing more British than driving a German-built vehicle on the opposite side of the road to the majority of the world.

Show and sell

This particular ’66 13-window Deluxe revealed itself on the SSVC For Sale forum. Jim: “It looked alright, not great, but the advert said a lot of work had already been done. It was RHD, and with the 13 windows it gave it a bit of an edge, so we were really keen.”