Customiser: Brelan Sugahara
Country: Hawaii

I got into customising diecast a couple of years ago when my older brother bought a Kei truck from Japan. He was really into customising it at the time, and I wanted to make a replica for him.

My first attempt wasn’t great, but I had a blast figuring things out and tinkering with it. That’s how I got hooked on diecast customisation.

How did you get into customising?

Tell us more about this build.

The idea for the ‘Kombi Hauler’ came after seeing the ‘Fast-Bed Hauler’.

I liked the flatbed design but wasn’t a fan of the cab, so I thought a Kombi front end would look better. I measured up a ‘Kool Kombi’ and the ‘Fast-Bed Hauler’ and made cuts to both—the hauler was cut just in front of the bed, and the Kombi just behind the cab. Then I glued and reinforced the two bases with styrene.

I closed off the back of the Kombi with a sheet of styrene, used aluminium tubing for the smoke stacks, and then moved on to painting. I went with a semi-gloss black and dry brushed silver over everything to bring out the details and give it a metallic finish. The Porsche got the same paint treatment.