WE MEET THE UNDISPUTED King of Kustoms
OCT. 2016 ISSUE 137
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e Ths o Chao fr mm e o r Ch
KILLER VK Commodore
MEGA-POWER ‘33 Coupe
+ OUR PICKS FROM THE PALMY SWAPMEET + CUSTOM CHASSIS TECH
feature car
. ruiser ome c e c i as a n and then s w O T ’66 G iven him, s i h sg om ted fr rebuild ha n a w ll p dd Ha ground-u RKE o T l l A hat a OS: DUNCAN ROU w s ’ t a HOT Th ACE P AL GR N
: CON
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1966 PONTIAC GTO
ENGINE: 455ci big block Pontiac, 0.030-inch overbore, forged pistons, custom-ground camshaft, roller rockers, Pontiac cast cylinder heads, Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold, 750cfm Holley Double Pumper carburettor, mechanical fuel pump, new fuel tank, HEI distributor, 9mm ignition leads, Hooker headers, three-inch exhaust system, alloy radiator, electric fan DRIVELINE: Richmond six-speed gearbox, Center Force 10½-inch clutch, nine-inch diff, LSD head, 3.25:1 final-drive ratio, 31-spline axles, 1350 universal joints, custom driveshaft SUSPENSION: Helix tubular front control arms, Monroe front shocks, triangulated four-link rear, coilover rear shocks BRAKES: CPP HydraStop brake booster, Right Stuff front calipers, 13-inch front discs, Right Stuff rear calipers, 11-inch rear discs WHEELS/TYRES: 19x8-inch and 20x13inch Rushforth Livewire wheels, 215/35ZR19 Nitto NT555 Extreme ZR and 29x15R20LT Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R tyres EXTERIOR: New boot floor, new front floorpans, new rear quarter panels, new lower front guard panels, tubbed rear, smoothed firewall, de-loomed engine bay, Jet Black paint CHASSIS: Narrowed rear chassis, custom triangulated four-link pickup points, rear coilover mounting points INTERIOR: Retrimmed interior, Long shifter, Pontiac ‘Rally’ gauges, Auto Meter gauges, Sony head unit PERFORMANCE: Untested
This was a desire not helped by a trip up to C&M Performance in Auckland, where Carl Jensen was tuning Todd’s blown and injected ’69 Mustang. As fate would have it, Michael Franklin’s ’540GTO’ — a blown alcohol-drinking all-steel ’66 GTO — was sharing workshop space with the Mustang and that was enough to really tip Todd over the edge. The internet browsing began, with Todd frequenting sites such as Craigslist in search of his dream car. All he was looking for was a cruiser … The car you see here was purchased, rather fittingly, around Christmas 2014. It was located in Guilford, Connecticut, but Todd hadn’t factored in the massive port strikes across the US’s west coast at the time. As a result, it wasn’t until April 2015 that the Pontiac landed in New Zealand — a wait that could be described as nothing short of agonizing. Once in New Zealand, the GTO’s true condition was revealed. Todd knew it wasn’t perfect, as it had cost around half the average asking price for a GTO, and the base-spec car — with no power steering or vacuum-assisted brakes — would need a bit of attention to become the cruiser he was after. “I thought it would be fine to drive around for a couple of years before starting on a rebuild,” Todd explains. Of course, this plan would require that the car go through the VINing process, and it revealed a few rust areas in the floor that would necessitate body-off repairs. Even so, Todd wasn’t going to let that spoil his chances of enjoying his new toy before a rebuild that could take any length of time. An upcoming run with the Cam County car club sounded like just the ticket — road legal or not! “I put in two long, hard weeks just getting it ready to go,” Todd says. “I took the motor out to repair the rear main seal, rebuilt the diff, fitted new wheel bearings all round, and fixed the wiring.” Unfortunately, Todd’s efforts were for naught. On the car’s way to Upper Hutt to meet up with the club, the water-temperature needle soared into the danger zone, while the oil pressure one sank to alarming depths. The time for that big rebuild had come, so the GTO was rolled into the garage and stripped back for a complete overhaul. With a clear picture in mind of what he wanted to
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he fact that you’re reading an article about Todd Hall’s staunch-looking ’66 GTO is actually a bit of a happy accident. Todd never set out to build the masterpiece you see here, but the story of how it came to be is one that you won’t be unfamiliar with. It all started some three years ago, when, in Australia, Todd caught sight of a first-generation Pontiac GTO — one of the best-designed vehicles to come out of the US, period. It’s a design that makes an impression, irrespective of your automotive inclinations, and one of only a handful that, through its simplicity — stacked headlights, Coke-bottle hips, and a perfectly proportioned profile — can be classified as art. That look was all it took for Todd to realize how much he’d like to own one.
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feature car
our,
col e l b a t ic
a pred e b y a ! ore m r the hood d o m e K Com rking und V ’ s m u illia e is l Dale Wasty surprAiDsAM CROY S: n but a WYLIE PHOTO D : TOD
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ot that you’d know it now, but, back a bit — more than a decade ago, in fact — Dale Williams was a rotary fan. Actually, he was more than just a fan; his cars were well known the length and breadth of the country, both for the abuse they received on the burnout pad and the awards they won in the show hall. At any given stage, Dale’s overpowered RX 323 could only ever be found with melted rubber dripping off the back of it, and his candy-coated RX-3 was always polished to perfection. However, that all changed when Dale moved his attention back to the racetrack. It turned out that, thanks to his years of karting as a kid, he wasn’t a half-bad pedaller, either, working his way through open wheels and into production-class racing before stepping his racing up a gear to the NZV8s, in which he campaigned a Falcon. But that all came to a sudden end at the Hamilton street race, when a major accident left Dale with a little less racing ‘motorvation’. Although Dale stepped aside from cars for a few years, there was still petrol running through his veins and a desire to own, once again, something in which he could have a bit of fun. That fun came in the form of a VK Commodore, purchased with a 308 and Celica five-speed. It wasn’t long before Dale was up to his old antics and having a blast doing it.
As a panel beater by trade, looking at the lessthan-perfect finish on the car started to agitate Dale. So, just a few months into his ownership, the VK had its panels massaged to perfection. While the panel side was done at home, it was good friend and PPG employee Luke Cosford who was given the task of spraying the car, using a spray booth borrowed from Austin Autobody. With Dale having grown up in the 1980s watching Bathurst and the like, there was only ever one colour the car would be and that’s the familiar — to VK fans, at least — Formula Blue. Fortunately for the budget, when Dale purchased the car, it had already been equipped with an SS bodykit, albeit badly fitted. The finishing touch to the paint job was a set of Brock graphics, created by signwriter friend Clint at Headcase Designs. Any Commodore lover will know that when you’ve got a Formula Blue VK, there’s only one wheel choice and that’s a set of three-piece gold Simmons FRs. However, for Dale at the time, the price was far too high, so he tried out a few other options. While they worked OK, they weren’t the ultimate, so when local Simmons Wheels supplier Heads Racing Supplies announced that it could offer a budget-friendly, one-piece option, Dale couldn’t get to local tyre retailer Cooper Tyres quickly enough. Measuring in at 20x8.5 and 20x9.5 inches, and wrapped in 225/35R20 and 245/30R20 tyres, the
HDT SUCCESS
The VK Group A SS Commodores, on which Dale’s car is loosely based, were produced in partnership with the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) and were originally intended to be ready for the 1985 race season. However, delays with parts for the road cars meant failure to meet the homologation rules that year, so they didn’t debut until 1986. In the hands of Peter Brock and Allan Grice, the cars were instantly successful in Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. HDT’s John Harvey was reported as saying that his own SS Group A road car was, in fact, faster and more reliable than the 1985 race cars.
THE SIZE OF THE WHEELS MEANT THE REAR GUARDS NEEDED PUMPING. WITH THE CAR RECENTLY PAINTED, THIS WAS A DAUNTING TASK 1986 HOLDEN COMMODORE VK
size of the wheels meant the rear guards needed to be pumped to accommodate them. Obviously, with the car recently painted, this was a daunting task. However, with his years of experience and plenty of patience, Dale managed it successfully. What made the task harder was Dale’s commitment to a proper ride height — and, by ‘proper’, we mean slammed. This stance was achieved thanks to Iain Wilson at Autolign, who came up with the perfect combination of Bilstein shocks and Dobi springs to complement the previously fitted Whiteline sway bars and adjustable Panhard rod. Dale, his wife Wendy, and son Troy cruised around with the car in this state for a few years, getting out and about in it almost every weekend, turning heads wherever they went. Dale wasn’t afraid to drive it hard, going so far as entering it in grasskhanas and partaking in the odd garage skid. Of course, the near-stock 308 soon became a bit of a bore, so the family started to look for alternatives. Wanting to keep everything under the hood, the thought of an LS engine began to appeal more and more, especially when combined with a turbocharger or two. That potential to add boost easily in the future was all Dale needed to make the decision, and, before long, the old running gear
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ENGINE: 5.7-litre LS1, high-flow oil pump, double-row timing chain, Kelford Cams camshaft, heavy-duty valve springs, custom pushrods, modified X-Air intake, custom drop tank, Bosch 040 fuel pump, Aeroflow fuel filter, Aeroflow fuel-pressure regulator, -6AN fittings, custom fuel rails, Pacemaker headers, twin three-inch exhaust, Flowmaster mufflers, Fenix radiator, Davies Craig electric fan, custom retune, Nolathane engine mounts DRIVELINE: Tremec T56 six-speed manual gearbox, Rip Shifter, Exedy heavy-duty clutch, hydraulic release bearing, VL clutch pedal and master cylinder, VK diff housing, VN LSD centre, 3.08:1 diff ratio, shot-peened VN axles, custom driveshaft SUSPENSION: Adjustable top camber hats, Bilstein shocks, Dobi springs, Nolathane bushes, Whiteline sway bars, adjustable caster arms, adjustable Panhard rod BRAKES: VX SS booster, VX SS master cylinder, VL pedal box, Wilwood brake bias valve, Wilwood four-piston front calipers, 330mm slotted front discs, VN rear calipers and discs WHEELS/TYRES: 20x8.5-inch and 20x9.5inch Simmons FR-1 wheels, 225/35R20 and 245/30R20 tyres EXTERIOR: VK Group A SS kit, shaved locks, shaved aerial, SS Brock decal kit, PPG Formula Blue paint CHASSIS: VN K-frame INTERIOR: Recaro front seats, Momo steering wheel, VX SS shifter, Auto Meter gauges, JVC/ Pioneer audio PERFORMANCE: 410hp at the wheels
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event report
MOTHERS Chrome Expression Session 2016
01 Dave Bail drove his sweet 1977 Holden Torana A9X up from Morrinsville, and it sure copped a bit of abuse over the weekend. Then again, with a COME Racing 388ci Holden V8 stroker under the bonnet and a bottle of nitrous in the boot, you can hardly blame him. Having run an 11.2-second quarter-mile, without the use of nitrous, this is one car that held its own down Chrome’s makeshift drag strip.
’ve got a dirty u o y r e h a Whet w car or wn o h s d e lo polish re into b taries, a , r e t a e ro old b eported g id r b r V8s o Chrome he s r e h t o t the M ession is S n io s s a drop h it Expre w e n r anyo s place fo heir vein t in l o r t of pe
02 Allan Norris didn’t come out here to muck around. He entered his tough little Ford Cortina Mk2 — powered by a 350ci small block Chev — in just about everything he could, from the cruise sessions to the drop-flag drags, and even had a crack at the burnouts. You’d be forgiven for thinking he’d gotten lost on the way to the burnout pad, as he flamboyantly warms his tyres up before each drag race. 03 The Rattla Motorsport team were enjoying a smoky debut of their freshly completed 2008 Shelby GT500 drift car. Despite the modern exterior, the power plant is decidedly old school in flavour — a massive 468 cubes of Dart-blocked Windsor, topped with D3 Cleveland heads — and is backed by a trick HGT five-speed sequential box and alloy nine-inch diff. The completion of the GT500 means the famous ‘RATTLA’ Falcon will be retired from drifting and reverted back to street-legal race trim, to compete in events like Targa NZ.
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04 Azhar Bhamji’s street-legal ninesecond Mazda R100 is one car you don’t want to see in your rear-view mirror — unless you’re Chris Green, that is. The ratty old Mazda 323 wagon is packing a turbocharged 13B rotary and is one of New Zealand’s quickest street cars, having run a best quarter-mile of 8.84 seconds at 154mph. Whether you love rotaries or hate them, you can’t deny just how awesome these cars are.
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hink about the Australian car scene, then think about New Zealand’s. What’s the main difference? Well, Australia has a thriving show car scene, boasting builds that are consistently stepping the game up to the next level, with a huge automotive events calendar to boot — disregarding any economic factors, there’s a bit of a chicken versus egg scenario there. Do these cars get built demanding events to be shown at, or do the events these cars attend inspire people to step up the quality of their builds? The answer should be obvious … However, to be general, the Australian legal system doesn’t favour hot rodders, be they of the older or younger variety. That’s why they’ve got so many crazy builds taken to the extremes of car building — builds that don’t have to jump through
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legal loopholes, but will only ever get driven in anger during the safety of a controlled event environment. That long-winded introduction wasn’t to talk down the cars we’ve got over here in New Zealand — no, quite the opposite. We’ve got it better over here. We have a system in place that allows you to take whatever crazy automotive idea you might have, and gives you a means to build it in such a way that, within reason, of course, it can be registered and driven on the street — and, when you can drive your pride and joy on the street, you’re invariably going to experience the urge to drive in a less than socially acceptable manner. We’ve all been there. The Mothers Chrome Expression Session — more casually known as Chrome — takes this urge and packages it into a two-day event at
Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. The event is open to anything from high-performance Japanese imports through to tubbed and blown muscle machines, hot rods, drift cars, and all-out race cars. However, this year would be a little different. Held over the weekend of August 6–7, Chrome got to make full use of the new and improved Hampton Downs Motorsport Park facility. The way Chrome is run is awesome — uniting the Kiwi car scene through a shared passion for automotive culture, and this is done with a show formula that appeals to as many people as possible. For those who take pride in their ride, the on-track cruising sessions — in which you hit
the track with a bunch of mates in your car — and show and shine were clear drawcards. For those packing a bit of heat under the bonnet, the dropflag drag racing, powerskids, and burnouts are a clear winner, and those wanting to live on the edge could participate in the drifting sessions. There isn’t much more to it than that. While this article could go on and on about how great Chrome is, it doesn’t need to. It’s one of our favourite events on the New Zealand automotive calendar, and one we feel all Kiwi car enthusiasts need to experience. So sit back, enjoy flicking through some of our highlights, and start making plans to have that project ready in time for Chrome next year.
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tech FEATURE
HOW TO: Chassis Modification
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STEPS FRONT
01 The first part is the easiest — installing the boltin Porterbuilt front clip. The kit is almost entirely bolt-in, with a bolt-on drop member, tubular front control arms with airbag perches, bolt-on upper shock mounts, and a weld-in notch for steering rack clearance. The bolt-in stuff is reasonably straightforward — just drop the old gear out, and install the new kit in its place.
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Have you ever wondered what’s involved in chassis modification? Matt Gibson shows us as his C10 gets shortened, C-notched, four-linked, and bagged WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: MATT GIBSON / ADAM CROY
Before we get into this article, it’s probably a good idea to begin with a disclaimer: this is intended to give an insight into how chassis modification is conducted. It is not intended as a substitute for proper research, knowledge, and ability.
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t’s not uncommon, when talking to someone about their car, for them to mention, “It’s been four-linked” or, “I just Z’d the chassis” — making these sound like the simplest of tasks. While chassis modification isn’t necessarily a massive job if you know what you’re doing, the amount of work required may go over the heads of many car lovers. That old adage ‘measure twice and cut once’ is a very good one to follow — especially if you’re thinking about taking an angle grinder or welding torch to the vehicle’s chassis. In the world of custom vehicles, chassis modification is a common phenomenon, be it for converting to a different suspension style, improving the vehicle’s performance capability, or achieving a lower ride height. However, because any chassis work involves the structural frame of the vehicle, it’s not something that you’d want to do if your only measuring
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tools are a pair of eyeballs and a ‘She’ll be right’ attitude. So, when we heard that Matt Gibson from Pariah Custom Werks would be putting in some work on his own Chevrolet C10 pickup, it sounded like the perfect chance for us to take a closer look. The work Matt is talking about is probably a little more extensive than you may at first imagine. Starting with a long-wheelbase Chev C10, Matt plans to install a bunch of off-the-shelf Porterbuilt components — including a front drop member, rear C-notch, and four-link kit — and shorten the chassis to turn the truck into a short-wheelbase version. The purpose of the build is to turn the truck from a long-wheelbase cruiser into the essential short-and-slammed pickup / bike-hauler. Matt doesn’t mess around — starting at the end of June 2016, the build is completed in the space of a month.
02 Having the new front end installed on the chassis allows Matt to identify where the steering rack ends would foul on the chassis rails when the suspension is fully aired out. This is where the supplied notches must be welded in, to provide adequate clearance. As this is the first part of the chassis that will be hit with the angle grinder, it’s very important to ensure that everything is measured and triple-checked before cutting. Measurements are made and marked, and Matt cuts a section out of the chassis rail into which the notch section will be welded. This is done with a MIG welder, and it’s probably worth noting that these welds are meant to be strong, not pretty. Browse Instagram if you want to see ‘rolls of dimes’.
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03 With the notch welded in, Matt takes the time to close off the open chassis rail in front of it by welding sheet steel in place. While this part of the chassis only provides support for the radiator, radiator support panel, and nose cone, the additional rigidity will not go amiss. With the welds smoothed and the chassis painted, this will look almost factory.
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