Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i NZ Hot Rod

Treasure Hunt A FEW reports have trickled in saying this magazine is hard to find in shops, and to some degree, that’s right. There’s a lot of number crunching, soul searching, and juggling going on at our distributor, Are Direct. Here’s how it works. Each month, their allocations team reviews the number of outlets stocking the magazine, the number of outlets that have closed and gone out of business, and the number of new stores that have just opened. Once that’s decided, the number of NZ Hot Rod magazines they’ve sold last month and the past three months is reviewed. If there is a trend of a store selling out, then their allocation is increased. Conversely, if the trend is zero sales for five or six consecutive months, that outlet…

EX-PAT Kiwi Duane Jones has always been involved in hot rodding since he was knee high to a grasshopper. Well known in his “younger years” in Wellington, he built some nice hot rods, one of which was a Pink ’38 Chevrolet Coupe, which won the National Street Rod Nationals Award, Masterton in 1991. In 2001, Duane headed to the States and started his own business, specialising in vehicle sourcing, car inspections, and transportation. This involved Duane travelling mega miles, and apart from Hawaii and Alaska, he has been to every state in the USA, as well as across the border into Canada. In 2004, he hooked up with Squeak Bell at Kiwi Konnection. After working for Squeak for three years, Duane purchased Kiwi Konnection in March 2007, along with another…

THE ’47 Mercury Coupe seen here was advertised for sale in a motoring publication by New Plymouth-based Chris Tompkins. Chris had purchased the Coupe from Hector Arevalo in Perris, California, on 12th June, 2009. The car hadn’t been running since 1964, but the motor was all intact. The Merc arrived at Kiwi Shipping on the 12th November 2009 and was loaded onto the vessel Albert Rickmers at the Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles, on 18th March 2010. It landed at the Port of Tauranga on the 2nd April 2010. Doug & Gillian knew Chris, as they had looked at a few ’39 Ford Coupes he had previously advertised for sale, but none were in good enough condition. The body has to be in pretty good condition for the Hoopers…

SHAWN Williamson’s Austin Loadstar was not a barn find because it was never lost in the first place. It was in his late grandfather’s barn where it had been parked up for over twenty years. Shawn’s grandfather purchased the truck when it was near new to use on his Paeangaroa dairy farm. When his grandfather passed away, his uncle inherited the farm along with all the chattels, including the Austin. The deck of the Austin had long served as a workbench in the barn, and before his uncle passed away, he asked him if he could have the “family heirloom”. Shawn was gifted the truck, and he dragged it out of the barn and transported it to his home in Te Puke. The immediate plan was to clean it up,…

IF I knew this delivery’s New Zealand history, it would seem this rare 1955 Chevrolet was almost destined not to be built. It was imported in 2013 and unbelievably had 55 owners before Mark. Everybody who owned it had a plan or a dream, but for one reason or another, it never eventuated. When Mark purchased the delivery from Ritchie Sriggs in Rolleston (2019), he became the 6th owner and unbelievably did not have big plans for it. Initially, Mark would just convert it to right-hand-drive and put it on the road. Doesn’t that sound simple, obviously the easiest thing to do? Initial investigations in the United States regarding the RHD conversion led him to call Art Morrison Enterprises. He was told, “Sure, right-hand drive, no problem. Sir. How deep…

HAMILTON-BASED Rex Cullen’s working life was as a structural engineer; his ’35 Chrysler Coupe project has benefited from Rex’s engineering expertise and the years of time honed skills and craftsmanship. From the outset, Rex had a plan to build his Art Deco-style time machine. The ’35 Chrysler build began in 2012 with the barest of bones, consisting of a stripped-out body and chassis he dragged home from KatiKati. The chassis under the Coupe is stock, unboxed, with the chrome tube axle up front having once resided under ‘Black Tulip’ (for you young ’uns reading; Black Tulip was a prominent Chrysler from the ’70s show and street circuit). The steering box is ’36 Chrysler, hydraulic shocks soften the ride, and front vented rotors are Valiant pieces. The diff is another Valiant…

CHRISTCHURCH rodder Owen Welbeloved, affectionately known as Stork, has owned hundreds of old Ford V8s over the years. His first was a ‘35 Ford Coupe. Now a retired mechanic, he currently owns two Corvettes and a ‘64 Fairlane station wagon. Stork has been going through his boxes of old photographs from the sixties and seventies, and offered to share them with HRM’s readers. Enjoy!…

IF you are looking for a new rodding event to add to your bucket list, then be sure to add Northwest Deuce Days to your rodding calendar. Based in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, NW Deuce Days has been going for many years now and was the creation of Al Clark. Due to the awareness from the likes of Bill Lemon and other ex-pat Kiwis living in Canada, there are already many Kiwis who attend, with some also driving their own cars. This writer has visited the event twice and says, “there is simply not a more beautiful location to host a prestigious hot rod event in the world”. Held every three years, NW Deuce Days attracts rodders from all over the USA and the world, for that matter -…

NEIL Stuart is a bona fide legend in these parts. His motor racing career began in the late forties when he competed in his everyday work car, a ’32 Ford 3-window Coupe. By 1949, Neil and a mate, Johnny Jacobson, built a Flathead V8 Special which was entered in the Racing Car class, pre-dating the Sprint Car class. In 1952, Neil started building his own race car, the Stuart Special, which was known as the ‘white car’, built around a modified and narrowed ’28 Essex chassis with Ford V8 front suspension, engine, gearbox, rear end and wheels. He even cast his own finned heads. The body was a beautiful hand-beaten work of art made by Neil’s buddy Malcolm Cameron. Neil admitted that the Stuart Special was outdated by the time…

GREG Horne from Ashburton’s Americars Club has always had a passion for cars. From dirt track racing at Waiuku and Meremere in a Mk2 Cortina, go karts for the kids, restoring an early Mini for his wife Lyn, plus other projects along the way, such as a ’58 Chevy and a replica SLR-5000. The dream was to one day rebuild a mid-’50s Chevy, but with a business to run, and Greg’s ‘other job’ as a volunteer firefighter (15 years and counting), finding time to realise the dream was becoming an issue. But it became a reality in 2012 when the opportunity came to import a ’56 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door Sports Sedan (or, in hot rod speak, a pillarless hardtop), from California. Not one to stare at a nag in…

Spirit of New Zealand Nine years of planning, construction and testing ended in heartbreak when Dave Alexander’s Spirit of NZ lost drive at the start of a licensing run as the result of a component failure in the trans. The dedicated team did not have time to source parts and repair it, so with heavy hearts, the decision was made to abandon the 2025 campaign. Full story in the next issue. Team Harris Racing Driver Lincoln Harris reported: “Absolutely gave it my best shot today and have never pushed a car so hard to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, the track didn’t improve for us and only managed 235 mph.” (the record is 242 mph - Ed) Walter Rands-Trevor Walter set a new record for Modified Production bike. Details…

Ridin’ Shotgun CHRIS Malcolm was about to head out to the 2024 California Hot Rod Reunion when he invited Kiwi Phil Murphy to “ride shotgun” in Wild Honey. Murf jumped at the chance, and Chris was probably unaware that Wild Honey had been a huge influence on his passenger. Murf never thought he would ever get the chance to ride in a car, or in this case, a tribute car, that he had admired as a young fella. Phil mentioned to Squeak Bell while wiring up his new Roadster that the journey was something he would never forget. So as a thanks for the wiring job, Squeak presented him with an A3-sized photo, yet to be framed, that appeared on the Contents Page of the January 2025 issue of NZHRM.…

THE Palmerston North Hot Rod Club held the Annual 53rd Swap Meet & Hot Rod Display on Saturday, 2nd August, on a cold winter’s day at Manfeild Park, Feilding. Attendance was similar to last year’s event, and unofficially, 4500 paid to attend.. This event attracts hot rodders to swap parts, display their vehicles, or see the event for all of the above and to catch up with people they have not seen since last year. The majority attending hail from the lower North Island region. Some Auckland & Waikato Clubs make it an annual weekend away, taking in organised visits to Hot Rod Shop business to view new builds and to visit some sheds with large displays of automotive memorabilia and private car collections as they drive south. The swap…

IT was when we were breaking into our teenage years that we would either look for an excuse or just ‘suck it up,’ as Mum & Dad would say after our family Sunday lunch: “It’s time for a Sunday drive”. Nine times out of ten, it was to one of our grandparents’ or an Uncle or aunt’s house for a visit every Sunday. I’m reflecting here for some, maybe even many readers from those days in the late ‘60s. But, as we became 17 or even younger, it just wasn’t cool to hang with the oldies or to visit other family all of a sudden. We had grown up, and people aged 40 or more were considered old. Some of us started apprenticeships. Some looked at a wider scope of…

TO get the complete story of how Fatbox 2 came about, we must go back to around 2010, or even earlier. By day, Adam was making towbars and doing amazing engineering at home in his spare time under the name of “Backyard Customs”. Many hot rods and race cars were constructed on the weekends and some very late nights. He built everything from my ‘rat rod” T coupe to his own show-stopping, very quick T-bucket powered by a supercharged small block. He still owns this car. In the early days, he had a very evil Ford Capri, a street legal race car, and been ‘bitten by the bug’; a full-on drag car was next on the list, the next step up. In another corner of the garage was his Anglia…

AT the last Zone 5 meeting (encompassing the four Taranaki Clubs), Zone Director Brian Atkinson asked why there was no hot rod breakfast in the area, as most parts of the NZ had active ones. A couple of Pubs in New Plymouth have tried to get one going over the years, but they never really took off for various reasons. Kim Theyers from Egmont R&CC offered to take on the task and found a suitable venue in Stratford. The 27th July was pencilled in as the inaugural shot at it, and the four NZHRA Clubs were notified. It was basically a test to see how the parking, venue, and food would work in the future, and it thankfully received a great response from all clubs. A good cross-section of vehicles…

PLENTY of dumb Thursday conversations have been documented over the years in The Garage’s annual newsletters. Here’s a selection…. Laurie: “Do you have a trolley jack Pete?” Pete: “No, mine’s got wheels on it.” Grazee: “A mate of mine got disqualified from Stock Car racing after he tried to run over the flag marshal.” Paul: “What other avenue of complaint could he take?” Shane: “I’ve been offered a T bucket as a swap for my F-100 Pickup.” Grazee: “You don’t need another open car. You’ve hardly got any hair left now.” Johnny F: “My second wife has got a 2-door Impala.” Paul: “Really?” Johnny F: “Yeah. I just haven’t met her yet.” Gordon: “Did you see those dogs on TV last night? They’ve been trained to drive cars.” Guy: “Well,…