Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i NZ Hot Rod

TO me, the soul of a hot rod begins with its history, who has owned it, the changes in its appearance, and its many adventures. Tim Kennedy, the owner of this 1932 Ford 3-Window Coupe, has made changes to it, had adventures in it, and will continue to do so. Since day one, the ‘32 has gone from an all-steel, stock-bodied coupe to a fully-fledged hot rod. There have been numerous builds, re-builds, and times when it was parked up and just sat around waiting for the right person to come along, take it out of its barn, and give it a new build and look. In 2017, it was shipped from Texas and arrived in New Zealand. Its new owner made a few changes and vowed it would never…

APPARENTLY, the Early Ford V8 Club of America declared that Sunday 16 June as Drive-Your-V8 Day. This seemed like a good idea, so the Southern Kiwi. Regional Group (some might say Antarctic Division), affiliated to the Early Ford V8 Club of America, decided to have their own Drive-Your-V8 Day on the same date. The Southern Kiwi Ford V8ers all met at Dave Warman's place, and 22 Ford V8s turned up. These guys are hard case, with many early rodders involved. John Gillman reckons “…with the Early V8 stuff, you don't have the hassle of compliance and cert. Because it's all original!” Which, of course, is the preference and the whole point of the Early Ford V8 Club, and the Southern branch has around 100 members. They also produce an excellent…

IN today's hot rod world, we're blessed with the extreme availability of parts to enable anyone to build or assemble a legally certified hot rod. That blessing comes thanks to a catalogue, and when it's accompanied by a tool chest and a modicum of engineering and/ or mechanical skill, the result is a hot rod that can be built at home or by a reputable hot rod fabricator. The one-trade-off is their ultimate similarity, and sure, each can be customised to the owner's personal tastes. Some are bespoke beyond the realms of linear thinking, but a certain sameness resides. That's in stark contrast to the bygone era because the sun seems to have set on our early days of one-off highly chromed show ‘n go wild roadsters, coupes, sedans and…

HOT rodding started way back in the ‘40s & ‘50s and slowly grew popular with young American males, and as word got around, it soon became a popular hobby down under, too. Looking back to its early days 75 years ago, it would only be natural to see so many changes in body and model styles, paint schemes, roof chops, fenders, no fenders, motor choices, and Speed Shops. Hot rod industry pioneers would become household names like Brizio, Pete & Jakes, So Cal Speed Shop, and Edelbrock; it's a long list. Then, changes started to happen in the sixties. Organised hot rod events like drag races, rod runs and hot rod clubs became the norm. Flathead motors made way for OHV engines like the 272 Ford (boat anchor) and SBC…

IF Henry Ford was alive today, he would have been blowing out 161 candles this year, but sadly, he is no longer with us. However, to honour this great entrepreneur, the Marlborough Ford Club chose the last weekend in July to celebrate his birthday along with their own 20th Anniversary. The weekend kicked off with a garage raid at Marlborough Custom and Classics, where everyone viewed the various projects under construction. After lunch, around 45 vehicles from as far away as Nelson, Westport, and Timaru were taken on a cruise through many of the backroads of Marlborough. The highlight was a stop-off at the Makana Chocolate Factory, and that night, around 100 Ford owners sat down to dinner at the Redwood Tavern. Sunday morning, with the threat of rain, almost…

Lost & Found ANY help on this one, Paul? We published it in Custom Rodder, Out of The Past section back in Jan 1986. We had no ID then or now, other than it was done in 1964. Looks like an older South Island location? Keep well, Eddie Ford, Editor, Custom Rodder (NLA) & Restored Cars, Australia. Hi Eddie, A quick call to Craig Stare in Christchurch confirmed this car is unrestored and in the hands of Allan Brookland in Invercargill. Ed. My First Mag HI all from here in Oz. Recently, I came across my first mag, which I bought in 1974. It was the first thing I got after arriving from the UK. I tracked Wally Pushkey down ten years ago, had a good chat, and he signed…

THE Palmerston North Hot Rod Club held this year's event under clear blue skies and a light, cool easterly wind. It's one of the biggest and longest organised Swap Meets & Hot Rod Displays on the New Zealand Hot Rod event calendar, and as expected, when the gates opened at 8 am, the public poured in. They're there to purchase that part or parts needed to finish a project or just to browse and catch up with fellow hot rodders. The car park area had the biggest turnout of vendors the event has experienced, but oddly enough, paying public numbers were down on the previous year, as were hot rods & customs on display in the “Paddock”. The Main Arena, which is inside under cover, is always full. There were…

NEW Zealand hot rodding kicked into gear in the sixties and a lot of guys were inspired by this very magazine. In the seventies and eighties, rodding grew from strength to strength, and today, we see many hot rodders returning to the scene after, taking care of family, business, and life. South City Cruisers member Marty Urban is doing just that. Together with his wife Wendy, they are enjoying participating again with an early Ford hot rod coupe - something Marty has always wanted all these years. Marty's first rod was a Ford Pop with a Zephyr six for power, followed by a ‘40 Ford pickup and a ‘39 Dodge sedan. For 23 years, Marty went karting with his kids and in 2019, he joined South City Cruisers. The coupe…

FLASHBACK LAST month, we published Part 1 of our expose of our early Kiwi hot rod history in Wellington and the surrounding areas. We're still researching and investigating information or leads about the first hot rod club in Wellington: “The Charioteers”, so if you can assist us, we'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, here is part 2 featuring Wellington's scene in the mid-fifties and very early 1960s.…

WHILE many clubs the length and breadth of the country are celebrating their 50th anniversary (or more) there's also a brunch of Rodders celebrating 50 years of car ownership. One such gentleman is Sun Valley Roadsters Life Member Steve (Daisy) Day. Steve purchased his Customline on 5th June 1974. Currently powered by a 460ci big block, he can, however, proudly boast that in the last five decades, the car has only had three engines, seven gearboxes and two diffs. It's also changed colour three times from its original grey paint. He can also happily say that there has only been just the one speeding ticket – and one wife. The Customline was built in the USA before being stripped down and then shipped to Ford's Lower Hutt assembly plant in…

New from Macs Speed Designed and fabricated in New Zealand, the all-new MACs Speed Shop Flowmac's muffler has a mellow tone for that proper hot rod sound. Each muffler features a 304 stainless steel body, 2” OD slip joint inlet/outlet, 3-1/2” main body diameter, 22” main body length, and 28” overall length. In stock now and ready to ship. Get yours for NZ$350 each, GST included, plus postage. Send your order to Graeme McNeill graeme@macsspeed.com Bodyshop friendly Pro-grade Polish MEGUIAR'S has lifted the bar again when it comes to light defect removal while creating a high-gloss finish. This professional cleaner polish creates a deep, glossy finish on dark and sensitive paints that are prone to swirling or scratching easily. Meguiar's Professional Pro Speed Polish is created for professional body shops…

MANY years ago, a local Rangiora hot rodder, Reid Caldwell, owned a small North Canterbury auto parts store. He carried a good range of hot rod parts and became the New Zealand distributor for US-based Outlaw Performance, importing their high-quality fibreglass bodies. Only a few were imported, and this Roadster body was the last to sell. It was sold to a local hot rodder. Unfortunately, his workload increased, and he reluctantly sold it to Steve Allan. His Rangiora-based hot rod shop, Steve Allan Customs, proceeded to build it. Steve had a massive workload, and this was a sparetime project, so it took a while. Steve is a “top-end” car painter and chose a very understated Vanilla cream colour offset by a dark red vinyl interior by Andy Walker (A&V Auto…

FLASHBACK DICK Branks began his hot rodding lifestyle back in the mid-seventies, joining East Bay Rods in Auckland and building a ‘36 Chevy Pickup. By ‘77, he'd shifted south to Christchurch, joined East Coast Rodders and Pegasus Bay Drag Racing Club, and built a ‘29 Chevy coupe with a pretty hot 283 and 4-speed. As with the ‘36 Pickup, Dick did virtually everything on the ‘29, including fabricating the entire rear of the body from the doors back, engineering, engine building, bodywork, paint and interior. The ‘29 was on the road in less than a year. Dick worked fast. He was a carpenter by trade, although he worked in several engineering shops. In January 1982, Dick felt confident enough to go into business as Dick's Rod Shop, so he set…

AT first glance, the first thing that hits you is the colour Candy Brandy Wine. After the impact wears off you and take another look at this five-window coupe you soon realise that you have never seen one before as it is a very rare 1932 Chevrolet Confederate coupe. Of course, Chevrolet's biggest rival was Ford, and due to Chev's new six-cylinder engine and Ford's late (March) introduction of their new V8 engine that came with “teething” issues Chevrolet won the sales race for 1932. Things were different in New Zealand in 1932 after the great depression, where Ford sold just 37 5-window coupes. Ford was number one in our country, so I think it would be safe to guess that the number of 1932 Chevrolet coupes sold here would…

PETER Horne grew up and lived in Bedfordshire, England. As a young lad, his father took him to a show called the NSRA Hot Rod Supernationals. This event is the biggest pre-1972 Hot Rod, Street Rod and Custom show in Europe, and when Peter attended in 1992, the show was held at Knebworth Park. Then, in the years to come, Peter drove to the show in a daily car with friends. That was when he decided he wanted to be on the show field with his own Kustom car. The show moved from Knebwork Park to The Shuttleworth House/ collection (1900 -1945 historic aircraft), which meant it'd become even closer to home. Pete's first taste of American cars came from post-war designed sedans, coupes, Fleetlines and Aerosedans. As you can…

IN 1971, Maurice Gaskell, an early member of Pegasus Bay Rod & Custom Club (pre-Pegasus Bay Drag Club), built a chopped and channelled ‘33 Ford coupe, first with a Flathead, then with a 272 Y-block, and finally with a blown 327 Chevy. By this stage (1978), it was tomato red and cleaned up at the ‘79 National Hot Rod Show before getting a colour feature in the April ‘79 NZHRM. More recently, in our January 2009 issue, Craig Stare did a brilliant Flashback story on the ‘33, which is well worth a second look. It has quite a history. Maurice Gaskell seemed to fly under the radar after that, although employment at Auto Restorations in Christchurch meant he was deeply involved in the automotive scene; plus a stint of Jet…