IT’S finished! After more than six months of work, the Sidchrome Kombi van has been transformed from a rusted-out bucket of bolts, to a head-turning street machine.

The project was completed by the young people at Chisholm TAFE in Dandenong, Victoria, with the help of the lads from Australian VW Performance Centre who built the engine and completed the final fit-out. All of the paint, body work and most of the fabrication was done by the TAFE students and teachers.

The motor in this thing is still the same basic unit the old girl came from the VW factory with, but it has since been injected with some more ponies. It has been stroked out from around 1600cc to 2180cc, and it made 140rwhp on AVWP’s chassis dyno, which is a gigantic improvement.

The Sidchrome Kombi was also fitted with big brakes, some Porsche-style wheels and a monster sunroof. Inside, the team slotted in a sweet Clarion sound system, a Sidchrome tool set, Esky and bed. They also reupholstered all of the seats and dressed up the dashboard.

Once the Kombi was complete we took it to the Sidchrome headquarters to see what the employees made of it, and then we headed to the Saturday Night Live car meet at the Eastlink BP servo.

Check out the video to see the full Kombi build process and the public’s reaction to this cracking Kombi. Congratulations to Phil Watson from Wickepin, Western Australia, who ended up winning the car.