A Camper Called Honey

This is a tale that spans continents and generations, taking us back to the wild days of the sixties, free love, acid trips, Glastonbury, Sergeant Pepper LPs and the arcane VW world of Splitties, Bays and Wedges. Few vehicles seem to have such a nostalgic hold on the babyboomer generation as VW Campers and a whole infrastructure of dealers, restorers, books and magazines is thriving. To set off the opening spread we had Florida artist, Marilyn Sholin, paint Honey in her own vibrant style using the latest version of Corel Painter and Jonathan Brooks’ original.

Our tale starts some four or five years ago, when Jonathan Brooks’ brother-in-law, Michael, suggested that they should visit a VW show to unwind from wedding work. Jon found himself wandering around a green field in a complete daze, smitten by all the lovely show cars and vans on display.

Several shows later he had decided that it would be really good fun to own a van and has set his mind on a Samba! After a few weeks trawling the internet, one name kept cropping up in California and seemed to be offering the best looking vans, so Jon contacted the company, told them what he was looking for and within a couple of weeks, had an e-mail with a photograph of a Samba in blue and white, ready for restoration, the ideal one for his purpose. With considerable courage (he had never even driven one), he gulped and parted with the first slice of cash, down a pipe that exited (or was it overflowed) into the City of Angels.

Many months later he was on a plane to California, combining pleasure with work, as he visited WPPI in Las Vegas and then had with a week in LA to see the van. Despite the assurance that he might be even able to give it a drive, it only arrived while he was there – as a freshly painted shell, on the back of a trailer!

After some deliberation Jon decided on a classic look with white wheels and a modest 1600cc power unit, avoiding the temptation for a lowered chassis, supercharged V8, wide profile slicks and a bling interior!

Several weeks later Jon was back in California to drive his investment around and visit a few friends. With a tight schedule, he only had a few hours one Sunday morning to try out the van so he posed along the Pacific Coast Highway

from Laguna Beach up to Huntington Beach (this is the coast road where every Sunday all the classic cars, Cadillacs, Thunderbirds, Beetles and Vans, and beach buggies, cruise along showing off ). With a few teething problems to resolve he soon returned to the garage and next day, within an hour of the van being road worthy again, he was off down the sixlane freeways out of Los Angles.

After climbing up the San Bernardino mountain pass and into the Mojave Desert with temperatures around 90 degrees or more, he now began worrying about over-heating but she climbed up and over the mountains without a cough, even passing the slower trucks with their waving drivers. She flew pass them and when they reached the top they free-wheeled some 15 miles down the other side of the high mountains with the engine off so as to cool it down, this was now an adventure! (Readers please note that by now, the lump of restored metal has assumed the gender of a lady and is being spoken of with some affection!)

All VW campers have to have a name and when she was rolled out of her container via the docks, fresh from the USA, when she was given the registration HON and because she was such a sweet-natured girl, the Honey was an obvious and lasting choice.

Jon says Honey is a lovely vehicle to own and is fun to take to meetings and shows. However, with the costs involved in restoration she now has to earn her keep and, for the sake of matrimonial bliss, she is regularly out on wedding hire. She seems to love the weddings and everywhere she goes she’s admired and turns heads

Most of the restoration work was carried out in LA, by Robert Moen of Laguna Beach. Octavios replaced the seats and head lining, with some finishing off over here in the UK, in order to get an MOT. A period radio was purchased from Custom Auto Sound, in California. To complement the mood Jon has a colour-matched surf board, beach ball, period luggage and a roof rack as an optional extra.

For Jon, the acquisition and restoration overseas was a steep and expensive learning curve – well that’s a précis of the colourful way it was described to your editor, think lots of noughts! However, undaunted, he is looking for a companion to keep her company, thus ignoring the slogan on my mate’s t-shirt, “If it’s blonde on top or got wheels you can’t afford it!”

Jonathan can be contacted on jb@letsdoweddings.biz More Photographs of ‘Honey’s Adventures’ can be found at www.letsdoweddings.biz

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