February-March 2013 - American Classic Car Club Auckland

Established 1996
February-March 2013
www.classiccars.org.nz
Russell’s Ravings
Hi there folks, by the time you get to read this issue, Christmas will
be well and truly gone, and we’re right into great summer weather
(I hope). Kumeu had a good turnout of members who enjoyed the
shade of the new club gazebos, and you can read all about it
further on in the magazine.
For those of you who haven’t yet paid your club fees, these are now well overdue.
A membership renewal form is enclosed for you to mail off today, or direct credit
to the club bank account shown. If you do not wish to remain a member just don’t
do anything further, and we will remove you off the mailing list for future
Cruisepaper issues. If you have decided to not to rejoin, the committee wish you
all the best, and perhaps we might see you back again in the future.
Please welcome the following new members who have joined the club over the
last few months:Bill Tweed – 1949 Buick Roadmaster
Kevin Kaukas – 1964 Chevrolet Impala
Andrew & Linda Ridley – 1957 Chevrolet BelAir
Wayne & Anne Sullivan – 1963 Ford Fairlane 500
Mo & Tracey Toeke – 1964 Chevrolet Impala
Malcolm & Lilian Weiland – 1970 Chevrolet Nova
I look forward to catching up with you at our next club outing.
cheers Russell ☺
Committee Members
President & Cruisepaper Editor
Russell Wilson
5780868 [email protected]
021 1448222
Vice-President
Rob Milligan
4836615 [email protected]
021 795265
Secretary/Treasurer Dave Roper
8386800 [email protected]
Feature Writer
Rodger Scorgie 5764844 [email protected]
021 581285
General Duties
Chris Thompson
Graeme & Gwen Mackay
Liz Preest
Lloyd Beehre
Mary Sarten
John Bercich
Bruce Skinner
8174676
4161167
8135540
4446398
3600117
5340154
09 2334220
[email protected]
[email protected]
rs&[email protected]
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Freephone 0800 456 254 or
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for quotes
Members’ Gallery
John Bercich
My interest in American cars started around 1962 when I purchased a 1939
Chevrolet Coupe that was like brand new, from an elderly lady in Papakura. It
had very few miles, wheel spats, sun visor, and even the little blue light in the
centre of the roof to show you were towing a trailer.
I was only the third owner and by then had bad boy visions of what a car of this
vintage should look like. Green was not cool so the next 5 or 6 years of my life
were devoted to the upgrade of the car. What I ended up with was a full race
Chev engine running 3 x twin barrel Holleys, dual breaker point distributor, high compression heads,
Isky cam, flat top alloy pistons, with white rolled and pleated upholstery, and a red lacquer paint job, all
at an enormous cost.
I was an apprentice printer at the time and apart from paying board all my income was spent on the
Chev. I then sold the car, and waited for 40 years to do it all again with my Sting Ray.
Job No 2 was as a musician playing all over the country with the well-known bands of the day.
Apart from cars I also have an interest in boats and planes. I started sailing at a very young age, raced
speedboats and was a member of the Manakau Speed Boat club for a good few years that took me all
over the country in the 1960’s.The last one I built had a high compression Zodiac motor that I imported
from the UK. I would sail on the Saturday, hook the OK dinghy on to the car and go sailing as a member
of the Weymouth sailing club, then the next morning select boat No 2 and go speed boat racing with a
different group of great guys. Once I had completed my printing trade in 1967 I was off and did a season
on Green Island, on the Great Barrier Reef out from Cairns.
I played the piano at night and lived the gentleman’s life by day sweeping up the
odd speck of dust here and there. Later on that year I went south and joined the
crew of the second Trimaran to leave NZ., sailed the Coral Sea and found out
about sailing in the fast lane. Surfing over an ocean can be fun in your early 20s.
After that I ended up in Wellington working with a show band 7 nights a week as
a musician, and printing 6 days a week for U.E.B flexo printing out at Rongatai
close to the airport. Flying; been there done that as I was renting a house along
with 2 other guys who were air traffic controllers at the airport in Wellington.
Bags were starting to form under the eyes as they seemed to know every
airhostess at the time that was working for Air NZ. Upon my return from the deep
south and being back working as print manager for a large company, I needed
boat No 7 (or 8, I can’t be sure) that took me 12 years to build. It was 40 foot
steel ocean cruiser that is now in San Francisco USA.
While all of this was going on I was involved in model aircraft, and to this day I am a member of the
Auckland Model Aircraft Club and still fly radio
controlled models, and also have interests in other
divisions of the hobby. I have a 22 ft classic kauri
yacht in the drive calling out for water, and a 1976
Corvette Sting Ray. Once again I have a car with
the motor rebuilt by a race type guy, but the rest is
not up to scratch so I am nearly through a total
interior rebuild for starters.
I look forward to the next ACCC event to get
together with other like minded folk, and have a
natter about the thing that bring us all together,
American classic cars.
2012 ACCC Christmas Party
It dawned a fine sunny Sunday for the club Christmas party planned for the Wenderholm Reserve,
north of Orewa on the 25th November. This was the second time we had ventured north and the
again the weather looked like it was going to be good for the day. A bit different to last year when
we picked an eastern venue and we were washed out and had to retreat to Catherine and Dave’s
car barn at South Auckland. No such bad luck this year it would seem.
As planned the meeting point was the BP Service Station on the Motorway at Silverdale and by
10.30 a good muster of cars and drivers were fuelled and ready to roll towards Wenderholm.
Russell Wilson led the convoy with 26 cars strung out behind trying to keep up dodging the normal
city traffic. Down through Orewa and on through Hatfields and Waiwera before climbing the hill
and entering the Wenderholm reserve. Just to keep everybody focused there was a card game in
place for each driver with two cards issued as they left, a further two cards as they reached
Wenderholm, and two more on arrival. There was of course a prize for the best hand to the lucky
driver on arrival.
As usual it was a mad scramble for the best spots to park, closest to the food hall being the pick.
Not long however before everyone was set up and raring to go for the day.
Russell had the job of briefing all, just a few basic rules to follow to keep the venue clean and tidy,
the day’s programme, and those of the committee rounded up to start helping prepare for lunch.
After a while everybody had settled down and was anxiously waiting for the Christmas spread to be
laid out and what a meal it was. As is usually the case the food was sumptuous and more than
enough for all to have a good feed plus enough left over for those who could handle a second
helping. Even the deserts were spectacular, brought in by all members, some who had the magic
touch. As usual the barbeque trailer was on hand to add the hot touch to the meal with a few
dedicated cooks keeping up a steady stream of sausages.
The food slowed the group down for a while as people lay around in the sunshine getting over the
big feed and just catching up talking and chilling out.
For the more energetic few there were games on including three legged racing and tossing raw
eggs. As all these keen participants got more ambitious tossing the raw eggs the inevitable
breakages started ruling them out and resulting in a messy cleanup. A lot of fun and the eventual
winner was found holding the last remaining whole egg.
The final event was the arrival of Father Xmas, all decked out in his regalia, tossing lollies to the
kids and finally passing out the presents.
It had been a very enjoyable day, made especially pleasant because of the superb weather. Now
all that remained was to pack up the tents, clean up the mess and make our way home. Thanks to
the committee members who put in so much hard work to make the day a success and we all look
forward to next year.
North Shore Rod & Custom Toy Run – Saint Heliers - December 3
If you woke up on Monday morning, looked outside through the rain and wondered if the Toy Run would
get postponed until the following rain date Monday, you wouldn’t have been alone. But Auckland being
what it is, by lunchtime the rain had stopped and the afternoon turned out warm and sunny, although
very windy.
Vellenoweth Green in Saint Heliers is somewhat sheltered from the westerlies, and arrival just after 5pm
found the setting very pleasant indeed. With only a half dozen other cars there on arrival the Green
looked a little deserted, but within the hour it had started to fill up, but it seemed somewhat less overall
than previous years so perhaps the dodgy morning had some participants make other arrangements for
the evening.
Nine club cars turned up to enjoy a very pleasant evening chatting and drooling over some very cool
vehicles on display. The evening went very quickly, but when the sun went down combined with a cool
breeze the Green started to empty out, and most members headed for home around 8.30pm.
A nice start to the summer cruising and show season once again, and let’s hope that it turns out to be a
more pleasant summer than the last one.
1957 Pontiac StarChief 2 door Hardtop
The journey began after Christmas 2012 when I started looking on the internet for classic cars for sale in
the US, as you do. I had done everything I wanted on my much loved ’56 BelAir after 10 years of
ownership, and was looking for something new and different. Having long been a fan of most American
1950’s models, this is where my search began, but after a while your eyes begin to glaze over as there
is so much choice available, and it’s difficult to pick something that stands out at a reasonable price.
During my search I came upon a ’57 Pontiac Safari, which is the
sister to the famous Chevy Nomad, but they only manufactured
1292 that year so it was a very rare car. I really fell in love with this
vehicle, but after numerous phone calls to the private owner in
Davenport Iowa, it all came to naught as he was very reluctant to
sell to an overseas buyer and wouldn’t proceed any further.
Now that I had the Pontiac bug, and really only liked the ’57 as the ’55 & ’56 didn’t quite look right to my
eyes, and the ’58 was getting to long and wouldn’t fit in my garage, I was able to narrow my search
down. Believe it or not there were only two ’57 Pontiacs for sale in the US that I could find which were
desirable versions (discounting 4 doors, as I had already been there), a US$85k black Safari fully
restored and hot rodded, and a 2 door Hardtop, also rodded, but about a third of that price.
After numerous phone calls to the dealer in Georgia that advertised on behalf of the aging and ill owner
who was selling his collection, a price was finally agreed on subject to an inspection. The dealer was
very helpful and recommended three independent inspectors, one of which I chose because his
credentials stacked up better. His report was a little disconcerting in that there were a number of things
missing from the car such as horns, wipers, stereo, and various screws, etc. The body, boot and floors
were solid, the transplanted fuel injected 5.3 Chevy Vortec V8 and 4 speed electronic trans. were in
good order, the interior trim was good, but the paint was not that great but looked OK from 3 feet away.
A further negotiation through the dealer resulted in a better price, and the
deal was done. As you may have read in a previous article, the ’56 BelAir
was sold at the Beach Hop earlier this year, so we were classicless for a
number of months. It took about 8 weeks for the Pontiac to arrive in NZ in
May before all the fun started with compliance and registration issues.
I contacted a certifier direct and he came to my home and did the inspection, which was reasonably
comprehensive much to my surprise and agitation. He identified a welded steering shaft (from column to
power steering box) that had to be replaced, a welded brake pipe, engine mounts that he didn’t like the
look of (even though they had supported the engine for a number of years), fish plating of the chassis
where the Chevy Malibu front end had been grafted on (again because he didn’t like the look of the
welding), all brake and fuel lines to be secured to the chassis every 30cm, and rebalance drive shaft
(even though it had been done in US) as the major changes.
I took the StarChief to Lee at Diffs R Us in Otahuhu to perform the rectification work, which he undertook
admirably, and I would highly recommend him to anyone. After about four weeks the Pontiac finally
came home, and I could start all the jobs I needed to do. I had to import from the US an electric
replacement 2 speed wiper motor (same as Chev) which bolted onto the same linkage, a pair of horns,
an electronic converter which reads the signals from the transmission and changes them to drive an
electric motor for the original Pontiac speedo. It obviously hadn’t worked since the engine and
transmission were installed, so I was very lucky that Customs hadn’t found this because I would have
had a real headache on my hands. But what it has enabled me to do is set the speedo to read in
kilometres, so no more calculations to do in my head when driving.
Finally the day arrived in July to take her (it is a she I have decided as no male would cause me this
much grief) down for vinning. Apart from the usual wheel cylinder leaking, play in lower ball joint and
drop arm knuckle, rear brakes uneven and hand brake (a foot brake actually) not working properly, the
major issue was that the front rotors had been ground down to undersize in the US, and had to be
replaced.
Club member Ian Bloxham helped me out now that he is retired from running his garage, although he
still seems just as busy working on cars as before. The wheel cylinder, ball joint and drop arm were all
rebuild, and the handbrake freed up. However my search for new rotors came up against a brick wall, as
there were none on the country for the 1978 Malibu front-end graft. A Henderson based brake importer
identified the rotor and offered to import a pair in his next container due in 6 weeks, which would arrive
just as we got back from our US adventure, which was ideal. Upon our return early October a phone call
to him determined that they hadn’t arrived, and I suspect he forgot to order, but he did offer to airfreight
them for me at a cost of $500. This left me in a real pickle as I only had a few weeks left before it had to
return for the final vinning inspection, but a quick trawl through the internet found a supplier in the US
who had them airfreighted to me within a week for well under half the price!
A quick trip to Ian again to fit the rotors, and straight back to VINZ for the inspection, and Wahoo! we are
registered and legal on October 18th (also our wedding anniversary) so much cause for celebration.
I’m now just onto fitting a stereo, replacing window rubbers and felts, and a host of little enjoyable jobs.
Now that I’m at the blunt end of all the hard work, I ask myself if I would still have gone ahead and
imported the StarChief had I known that it would take 6 months to be fully legal and come with all the
dramas and worries, or just purchase something locally that was ready to roll. A couple of month’s ago I
would have said to myself that I had done the wrong thing, but now that all the hard work and pain is in
the past I am happy with the car and the way it looks. I have a vehicle that is very rare and unique, and
to my knowledge it is one of only two in the country, the other being a Super Chief with the painted side
rockets instead of stainless steel.
So yes, it was all worth it in the end. Now I’m just hanging out for some fine weather so we can get out
and about, and do some cruising.
Russell Wilson
KUMEU CLASSIC & HOT ROD FESTIVAL– January 19, 2013
Isn’t it amazing what difference a day of warm and sunny weather makes. Wake up on the morning of
Kumeu and look out the window to see clear and sunny skies and you just know it’s going to be a great
day. And obviously a good number of club members felt the same, as we had 22 cars in our convoy from
Westgate to Kumeu Showgrounds, and although there was a small delay getting to the gate we were
soon inside.
However the usual Kumeu shambles then applied as our allocated space was taken over by both the
Corvette Club and Huapai Hot Rods, leaving us to scramble for somewhere else to set up, with no help
from the marshals who didn’t want to know. We headed off to the infield to find a suitable spot, and
incurred the wrath of another marshal who demanded that we move as we were stuffing up their parking
plans. Too bad we said, we’re not moving, so off she trundled muttering and cursing.
Within a couple of minutes we were all parked and set up with our new gazebos, and were ensconced
on our patch. The new gazebos worked out really well, taking literally a couple of minutes to put up, and
provided members coming and going all day with a shady rest spot.
The show itself was a bit of the ‘same old, same old’ with limited entertainment put on by the organisers,
and so so main shed displays with zero imagination, but all in all it was a good day out. Plenty of swap
meet sites kept most people interested, and there were multitudes of great vehicles to drool over in the
display car park. Although nothing much changes, it’s still a must to attend each year.
WOW Museum of Classic Cars
The next time you are in Nelson you must take a look at the World of Wearable Art and Classic
Cars Museum. It is a fantastic venue and well worth a look not only for the dozens and dozens of
classic cars but also the fascinating garments that have made the WOW Arts Show such a
phenomena.
The Wearable Arts show is now held in Wellington but it’s home is Nelson and combined with the
incredible cars it makes a very enjoyable stop off if you are travelling in the area.
The cars in particular form a great collection ranging from the very old to the not so old, and from
the oddball to the real classics of motoring through the 20th century.
There are many old American classics of all years through to a good collection of 50’s and 60’s
muscle cars, as well as a mixture of vintage and veteran European models. There are some real
unusual vehicles such as the DeLorean sports, and even Dell boy’s three wheeler from the TV
show “Fools and Horses”. All beautifully restored and in pristine condition.
Certainly enough to while away a few hours checking out all the different models, and then if it
takes your fancy you can enter the world of Wearable Art for a time and check out the bizarre
costumes that have made this event such a fascinating show.
CHECK US OUT TODAY!
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NZ Petrolhead/NZ Rodder breakfast at Bellagio, Plunket Avenue,
Manukau City from 7.30am.
NZ Junior Drag Champs, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Wheels Twilight Run, meet Kenwyn Street, Parnell for 3pm departure
Yank Tank Thursday, Botany Town Centre from 6pm.
Comp meet, 1/8 mile night drags, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Ellerslie Concours & Classic Car Show, Ellerslie Racecourse
Renegade Rod & Custom burger run, meet Catalina Cafe,
Hobsonville from 6.30pm, destination varies.
NAC Night Speed Drag Wars, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Mid West Street Rods’ rodders breakfast, BP Autobahn, Northern
Motorway from 8.30am to 10.30am.
Burger Fuel Henderson, Cnr.Te Pai Place & Lincoln Road from 6pm.
Galaxy of Cars Show & Swap meet, Western Springs Speedway.
ACCC run to show to arrive at 9.15am, details to follow.
Pukekohe HRC Cruise, depart clubrooms Franklin Road at 10.30 pm
Burger Fuel gathering, 652 Gt. Sth. Rd, Shop K, Manukau from 7pm.
NAC Night Speed Drag Wars, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Pukekohe Swap Meet, Franklin A & P Showgrounds, Pukekohe
NZ Petrolhead/NZ Rodder breakfast at Bellagio, Plunket Avenue,
Manukau City from 7.30am.
Comp meeting, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
ACCC run to Bellevue Auto Barn, Cambridge for lunch & museum
tour. Meet at BP Fuel Stop Papakura on Southern Motorway at 10pm
for 10.30 departure.
Renegade Rod & Custom burger run, meet Catalina Cafe,
Hobsonville from 6.30pm, destination varies.
NZ Nationals, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Mid West Street Rods’ rodders breakfast, BP Autobahn, Northern
Motorway from 8.30am to 10.30am.
Burger Fuel Henderson, Cnr.Te Pai Place & Lincoln Road from 6pm.
Beach Hop, Whangamata
NAC Night Speed Drag Wars, Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Burger Fuel gathering, 2/957 Gt. Sth. Rd, Manukau from 7.00pm.
Hot Rod Blowout, Rosebank Speedway, Patiki Road, Avondale
Refer to the latest issues of NZ Petrolhead & NZ Rodder for more information on dates
and times, or for a subscription phone Sara on 263 5305.