Dude, here’s my car | True love’s a Gem

But it was a 1982 TF Holden Gemini that looked exactly like the one she drove when she met her now husband, Nudge, at 18.

It wasn’t just the same model.

Nudge’s forward-thinking, careful planning and attention to detail in bringing the gift to life was meticulous.

Not to mention romantic as heck.

After three decades, the shine on many long-term relationships becomes somewhat dull, but it’s clear to see Nudge and Kylie’s is as sparkling as the fresh paint job on her new, old Gemini.

A couple of years out from his wife’s milestone birthday last August, he began his search for the little 40-year-old Holden.

It couldn’t be any Gemini; it had to be the exact TF model from 1982.

It took Nudge five months to find one.

When he did, it was in Western Australia.

Given the logistics, he had to make the transaction online.

One might be forgiven for believing projects like this are simplified these days with modern technology, but one might be forgetting this was a task Nudge was trying hard to keep hidden from his unsuspecting wife to create the ultimate surprise.

Not so easy to do with joint accounts, shared email addresses and a paper trail spanning the country.

Nudge had the vehicle delivered directly to a co-conspirator — his mechanic — before the months of restoration began.

He said the body was in good nick but it needed repainting, which he enlisted Ryan McDermott’s Paint and Panel to do.

He set to work finding Kylie’s original car’s paint code, the same wheels, the same tint shade and the same aerial.

But wait for it.

Perhaps the most impressive detail, even if small, he recalled from all those years ago when he fell in love with the literal girl next door — their parents built houses next to each other — was the exact air freshener scent she used to aromatise her little green beast.

“I was in disbelief,” Kylie said of the moment her epic gift was revealed to her last year.

“It looked the same, felt the same, even smelled the same.”

In the spirit of authenticity, however, this Gemini, like her first, doesn’t have air-conditioning either.

And although she hadn’t driven a manual in many years, this one also has a manual gearbox, as her original did.

“I waited for no-one to be home before I drove it for the first time,” Kylie said of her nervousness that she might stall or bunny-hop the beast.

“There’s no power steering either, so it’s a bit harder to get used to again.”

As so many of us do now our first cars have become sought-after classics, there’s some regret about ever letting her first Gemini go.

But, as the two neighbours’ romance had blossomed all those years ago and they tied the knot, along came their first baby and a pram that wouldn’t fit easily into the Holden’s boot.

(Never mind the little detail about it being slapped with a canary for being too low and tyres too wide.)

Eventually, a scrapper ended up with the car.

Nudge will join his wife in the half-century club in April.

Kylie is aware how grand his gift must be to come close to matching the time, dedication and dollars pumped into her own.

She’s already warned him not to expect a restored replica of his first car, but when they roll down the famous Las Vegas strip in a taxi — or maybe an American muscle hire tank — his trip-of-a-lifetime birthday present will be pretty damn impressive, too.

Ain’t true love a Gem?