Northern Street Rods Whangarei Northland NEW ZEALAND

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One of the many pre '49 street rods in the Club is Pete & Liz's black and flamed 37 Chev sedan - this is one of two 37 Chev sedan's in the Club.

There is a photo, dated 1989, from the Tauranga swap meet which shows the Chev in restored but unrodded form.  Sometime in the early 90's Terry Stack, a long time rodder from the Tauranga / Te Puke area, started the Chev's transformation into it's present guise as a hot rod.  In the old photo was the current Black Raven Dulon lacquer which is reputed to have been on the car from around 30 years.

Although the body and chassis is still original and has only done 80,000 miles, in the true hot rodding spirit the running gear has been completely updated.  It now runs a Chev 350 with an Edelbrock single carb tunnel ram manifold, 600 vacuum secondary four barrel Holley, and 280 degree Kenetics cam, all fired by an electronic distributor.  Spent gases go through homemade headers and twin 2 1/2 inch pipes while the horses feed through a B & M Mega shifted turbo 350 auto into a 8 3/4 inch Ford rear with 2.75 gears for effortless cruising.

To improve the ride and safety the favourite late 60's Holden independent front suspension has been updated with boosted HQ Holden discs.  The rolling stock are 14 x 7 chrome 12 slot rims with Firestones on the front and 245 / 60 profile BFG T/A's on the rear.

The interior is undergoing a "renovation".  Already fitted are bucket seats from a Telstar which were covered by Greg Nyhuis, along with the original rear seat, in grey cloth with a yellow accent stripe to match the flames.  The floor has been covered in black carpet along with the newly lined trunk, next on the list is new grey cloth door trims and a new head liner .

To cover the "road rash" (stone chips) on the front guards - a legacy of covering a few miles on New Zealand roads - Phil Marks laid on the yellow, red, to blue flames which are striped in blue to make them really stand out against the black.  Painting the flames caused Phil quite a headache as the modern lacquer paint reacted with the old black lacquer - his comment was, " if I did it again I'd remove the front guards completely and strip them back to metal".

 

A "new" car in the Club is Andy's Rambler.  This is a 1964 Rambler Classic 2 door - not to be confused with the more common Rebel.

Andy has owned the Rambler for several years but after driving the car everyday the condition got to be pretty scruffy, then one day in winter the heater fan packed up.  After climbing under the dash to remove the fan he found why all the water poured in each time it rained.  Over the last five or six years the Rambler has undergone a complete rebuild with new panels rolled up and welded in under the dash.  Then came more rust patches - floor, rear panels, wheel arches, etc, also from another car came a front cut from the towers forward due to lots of wrinkles from a previous owner.

The front end remains the same but was freshened up with power steering fitted - what a difference.

Power comes from a rebuilt Chev 350 with fuelie heads, performance manifold, HEI distributor, Hedman headers and a new exhaust system with HSV Commodore mufflers.  All this feeds a Ford 9 inch diff through a Turbo 350 automatic.  The original diff was another problem area due to clunking, banging, and pulling on the handbrake cables when you didn't want the handbrake on (scary when you're cruising along the road and not expecting it).  New four bars went in with an adjustable panhard rod, rear sway bar, new shocks and springs all to hold in the new narrowed 9 inch Ford diff.

The whole interior was completely redone in blood red cloth and chrome.  Everything is red.  Lots of sound deadening went in to help make the Rambler a bit more enjoyable to drive.  The paint was sprayed by Andy in VT Commodore Heron White with Spectron Red for the flames.  Only appearing back on the road in January 2002, Andy and Lorraine have so far cruised up to Opononi and Kaikohe along with a few "Sunday" drives such as the cruise we all made out to Tutukaka.  Last words to Andy - it's so much better to drive now, much smoother and quieter.