The Tiki Van!

Tim Humphrey discovered his love of tiki not by going to a tiki bar or seeing a tiki mug on a shelf at a thrift store but by buying a Volkswagen camper van. Tim’s original idea for the van was to give it a good cleaning. Tim bought a bamboo window shade and a tiki mask for the van and the tiki transformation went from there. Here is the story of The Tiki Van!

What came first, your love of Tiki or VW’s?

Tim- Hard question! I’ve always been an admirer of tiki. I was first exposed to tiki as a kid going to Damon’s Restaurant in Glendale, CA. It’s a great tiki themed restaurant that’s been around since 1937. I also remember as a kid seeing my first VW camper van and thinking how cool it was to have a sink and running water in a car, so it’s hard to say which came first.

What year is your van? How long have you owned it?

Tim- It is a 1982 air-cooled Westfalia Vanagon. I’ve owned it just over a year. The interior was very plain and all original.

When I drove it home I passed the recently closed Don the Beachcomber’s and had to stop and take a picture. Maybe it was a sign of things to come.

What brought you into the ‘Tiki lifestyle” and how long has it been part of your life?

Tim- I have to admit tiki wasn’t really a part of my life before buying this van. Again, I admired tiki and loved going to tiki bars like the Tonga Hut or the Purple Orchid, but it wasn’t really a lifestyle.

Can you give a little history of how you turned your van into a tiki van?

Tim- This is where it gets interesting and where the tiki all got started. It actually happened by accident. My original plan was to just clean it out and remove all the grunge and grime that had accumulated over 37 years. The first thing I did was remove all the old bubbly window tinting which meant I had to remove the cabinets. There’s a part of the back of the cabinet that can be seen through the window from the outside and to me it was an empty canvas that needed something done to it before I put the cabinets back in. I don’t know how I even got the idea, but I went to Home Depot, bought a bamboo window shade, found a tiki mask on Amazon, added some LED lights and voilà! My first ever tiki project.

It all snowballed after that. There was no turning back after I had a bamboo headliner and flooring installed by BamboomWagens.com. It’s been a whirlwind of fun since then finding things to add. I have a close friend, Sean Mason, who has been the real inspiration behind all this. He’s been collecting tiki for years and has an incredible collection of mugs and tiki artwork. He’s graciously passed on some of his treasures to me to add to the van. He even made me bamboo license plate frames!

Is there a name for your tiki van? If so, any story behind the name?

Tim- I have a confession to make that certainly won’t earn me any gold stars. I find giving a vehicle a common name is kind of creepy. There, I said it. I know a lot of people do. I just never have. Currently I just refer to it as the tiki van but I think it does probably need a cool tikified name like some of the bars out there. It just hasn’t come to me yet.

What has been people’s reaction to your tiki van?

Tim- The reaction has been unbelievable. So far, I’ve entered it in two car shows. The first was a VW Classics show and to be honest, the Vanagon has always been the ugly redheaded stepchild among diehard VW collectors, so a lot of people just walked by without looking. I did get some good comments from those who did look. The second car show was in Burbank and that’s when I realized I might have something here. I was surprised by the hordes of people coming by trying to get pictures and how excited they all were when they saw the inside.

But the real surprise for me is when I got brave enough to post a picture on “I Love Tiki” Facebook page. The positive response has been overwhelming. To get that kind of reaction from “real” tiki people is very gratifying.

What does the future hold for you?

Tim- I think the van will always be a work in progress. I still want to add bamboo paneling to all the door panels. And I’m sure I’ll always find things to add or replace. I’m embarrassed to say how many pillow covers I’ve purchased before finding the perfect ones.

But most definitely in the future I’d like to enter more car shows. I’d also like to find a way to have it on display at tiki shows. Sharing it with people and seeing their reaction makes all the work I put into it worth it.