Adaptation

Darryl Zerbel fills prescriptions, but not the kind that come in bottles.

Behind the white wall that separates the garage from Mr. Zerbel's office, employees of Adaptive Driving Solutions cut into the floor of a Chevrolet Astro van.

The sounds of saws rattle the showroom.

It'll get louder when they begin cutting off the roof.

When done two months from now, the van will have a higher roof to accommodate a quadriplegic rider who can't bend his neck. The lower floor will make it easier to get the wheelchair inside.

"We used to just cut the roofs off all the time and just put the new hard top down. Now we have to build a support cage in there in case it should roll," Mr. Zerbel said. "We have to move the gas tank around. The new floor will be welded in and then we'll cut in the new interlock system, power doors, carpet."

The company helps the physically handicapped drive again, doing something as simple as installing a wheelchair lift on a van to as complex as a set of hand controls that will steer, accelerate and stop the vehicle.

The company also installs wheelchair ramps at people's houses.

"We do very little of that. We try to focus on the driver," Mr. Zerbel said. "There are few people who can do high-tech drive systems in the area."

Mr. Zerbel and his small crew have been modifying vans and cars for two years in the small commercial complex in west Augusta along River Watch Parkway.

He, however, has been doing this since the mid-1980s, spending decades working for other Augusta-area companies that install wheelchair lifts until deciding that he wanted to be in business for himself.

The 44-year-old Army brat gets most of his clients from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The modifications come to him as "prescriptions" written by driver evaluators from the agency. He sees a lot of customers from the Georgia Department of Labor and South Carolina Vocational Rehab, too.

Wherever Mr. Zerbel has worked, veterans have followed him, said David Vaughn, the president of the southeastern chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, which is in Augusta.

"They like him, they trust him and they've always gone to him," Mr. Vaughn said. "Darryl is the kind of person that, if someone needs help, he's going to help them."

Mr. Vaughn said the only business Mr. Zerbel has ever lost is the business from people who don't know he's out there.

Aloha

Mr. Zerbel was born to Gladys and Richard in 1964 in Hawaii, the youngest of three children.

His father was in the Army Signal Corps during the Vietnam War era.

Mr. Zerbel spent three years of his childhood living in Thailand. Though he was young at the time, ages 6 through 8, he remembers it because the culture was so different.

"Its not like you see elephants running around here," Mr. Zerbel explained. "They had markets where clothes were optional. That's a little bit different for a kid."

He still had an American diet while living there -- no food from the street vendors.

"We had a Thai maid, everyone had one, and they would cook for you. They were Thai dishes but with American food, if that makes sense," Mr. Zerbel said.

His school was American-run, filled with sons and daughters of the military stationed there.

There was no winter, so it was baseball all year round, he recalled.

The Thai love of boxing prompted a shutdown of school -- and anything else -- for the Thrilla in Manila championship fight in 1975 between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

After the family's stint in Thailand, they returned to Fort Gordon to live in Martinez.

His father was sent to Germany, then his parents divorced.

"My mom ended up raising the three of us," Mr. Zerbel said.

Instead of opting for a college education, he joined a professional country band after graduating high school in 1982.

"Two weeks after I graduated, I was on a bus to Colorado. Times were hard back then, but we did it and had a ball," Mr. Zerbel said.

His uncle was the lead singer and they needed a drummer, so he spent a year touring with Frank James White Mountain Magic. Alabama was the big country band at the time and his band modeled its music to emulate, Mr. Zerbel said.

He remembers never getting a job back-to-back in the same state, touring New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Ultimately, the expense of touring and hotels killed the band.

Mr. Zerbel contemplated a military career of his own.

"I did ROTC for one year and I didn't think that was me," he said. "Being that I was a military brat, that never was something I wanted to do. I wanted to play in a band and be a rock star."

His next band played in Augusta for 16 years. And this time, he kept his day job.

It was a five-person band called Outer Limits.

"We always had a female singer, so we did the Pat Benatar, Heart style," Mr. Zerbel explained. "Then music changed on us. Nirvana changed everything. We tried to change with it, but it didn't go over."

There was an early dream of making it big, but that faded over the years. Mr. Zerbel wrote a few songs but never sold any of them.

"We didn't record enough to make it happen," he said. "It was more fun than anything else because we all had full-time jobs."

Mr. Zerbel admits that he was just an average drummer. He began doing tricks -- throwing the sticks in the air -- to at least look good.

"People remember more what they see than what they hear," he said.

He quit the band in 2000. He still plays the drums, though infrequently -- they are on loan to a friend's son.

The modifier

After his year on the road with his uncle's country music band, Mr. Zerbel came home to Hephzibah and went to work for a Dodge dealership doing paint and body work.

He helped with van murals and did more of them on his own after leaving the dealership.

"I still try to do a few motorcycles here and there," he said.

After customizing vans for years, he went to work in 1987 for Adaptive Handicap Equipment in Grovetown.

"I was the creative kid. I made stuff look good. I wasn't afraid to cut into a vehicle and do all the welding. I knew I could fix it with the paint and body if I messed up," he said.

Duramed Medical Services lured him away in 1992, he said, to start a mobility unit. After five years, he went back to Adaptive in Grovetown until A-plus Mobility Inc. hired him in 2000.

"Darryl knows what he's doing. He's been to every school that you can go to," Mr. Vaughn said. "You name it. If you want it done, he can do it."

Mr. Vaughn has known Mr. Zerbel for more than 15 years.

"We talked for several years. I told him, 'Darryl, if you want to start a business and you want a partner, I'll come up with the money.' He went to get the corporation papers," Mr. Vaughn said.

Mr. Vaughn is the silent partner, letting Mr. Zerbel run Adaptive Driving Solutions, which opened in 2006.

"Most people don't know that he's the financial side of this business. I always said I wasn't going to use his clout to influence people to come here. Our work and our reputation stand on its own," Mr. Zerbel said.

After working with so many companies, he said he felt like he needed to work for himself. He was alone in the business for the first year, recalling how his voice echoed in the reception area as he talked to clients.

He now has two full-time employees and two part-time, including his wife, Melanie, whom he stole away from a bridal shop to become his bookkeeper. One of the part-time workers is his wife's son, Bruce, who helps out while not attending college classes.

Adaptive has two garage bays to handle the 10 to 14 vehicles it sees every week. Most of his clients come through the VA.

"Augusta is the spinal cord unit in the Southeast. Some of them want to have a vehicle when they leave here. They'd rather leave here in a vehicle rather than an ambulance," Mr. Zerbel said.

He said there is more computerization coming into the industry. In his early days, everything was hydraulics and mechanical lifts. Now computers control little motors that pull or push rods for the gas or brakes.

"Tractor technology is now aircraft technology," he explained.

The power wheelchairs in the lobby are for sale, but they are mostly used by the staff to check their customization.

A big part of the business is installing systems that help people with physical handicaps steer the car or van. People can control the accelerator and brakes through some hand controls, too.

"There are driver evaluators that write the prescription. We fill it," Mr. Zerbel said. "There are people who have the desire to drive, but they can't pass the test to drive. We don't set them up."

Adaptive has been growing in other ways. They are now stocking vehicles though the showroom for the pre-modified Chrysler vans.

"We're outgrowing ourself. Some days we look like we're spilling out all over the place," Mr. Zerbel said.

The work week is not nine to five, Monday through Friday. Because Adaptive has such a wide service area, it is common for people from other counties to need Saturday service.

"It is nothing for someone to call at 9 o'clock at night and out the door he goes," Mrs. Zerbel said.

"We don't advertise it, but if someone comes in there and needs some work on their van and they don't have any money, Darryl does it for nothing," Mr. Vaughn said. "He's that kind of person."

Family

Hawaii not only holds a special place in Mr. Zerbel's heart because it was his birthplace, but it is also the place where he got engaged to his wife.

He won a trip there in 2001, and took her with him, under the guise that he was also winning an award. He drew her on stage with him, in front of 150 couples, to accept the "award," and asked her to marry him.

"I just squeaked it out, I was so floored," Mrs. Zerbel said. "He had it all set up with champagne on the beach."

They were married in 2002 in Jamaica. She gave birth to their son that year.

To relax, Mr. Zerbel also enjoys fishing. With it, the question isn't when, it is where: either the lake or the river.

"He was trying to fish while we were riding bikes yesterday," Mrs. Zerbel said. "Off the greenway; someone had a string and a hook. And sent (their son) Brett over there; they were digging in the dirt, pulling worms out."

The rest of the crew at the business are also avid fishermen, Mr. Zerbel said.

He has time outside work to coach his son's T-ball team for Martinez-Evans Little League.

"She's the dugout mom, but I'm the coach," Mr. Zerbel said.

They've been doing that for the last three summers, since Brett was 2 years old.

"They start them young," he said.

Looking forward, Mr. Zerbel plans to remain on River Watch Parkway for another year. He'd like to move downtown to be closer to the VA hospital for the convenience of his client base.

He wants a site with an indoor showroom so that people don't have to shop around in the heat. If he stays, there is an idea of getting into a second building in the commercial complex.

"This is a humble beginning, and I'm proud of where we are right now," he said.

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.