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INSIDE THE MIND OF NZ’S FOREMOST MOPAR GURU

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FAULTLESS ’32 ROADSTER

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ISSUE 183 ∞ AUGUST 2020

AUGUST 2020 ISSUE 183

PRO-CHARGED BIG BLOCK EL CAMINO

PLUS: CUSTOM FORD GALAXIE NOSTALGIA RACING CARS AS INVESTMENTS DIY LACE PAINT

RAY EVERNHAM RACER

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contents AUGUST 2020

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60 The Cars

16: HARDCORE ’VETTE — NEW ZEALAND’S WILDEST C7 24: HAULING BOOST — BLOWN WORKHORSE 60: STARS ABOVE — CUSTOM FORD GALAXIE 72: FERGSTER — ONE MAN’S DREAM BUILD 106: MINOR TO MAJOR — HOLDEN HQ BELMONT 114: CLASH OF THE CODES — RAY EVERNHAM RACER

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The Other Stuff

Special Features

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36: BEST IN THE WEST — THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ERIC LIVINGSTONE 42: TOP DOLLAR — SELLING AT BARRETT-JACKSON 54: NOSTALGIA — THE EVOLUTION OF OLD-SCHOOL RACING 66: CARS AS INVESTMENTS — WILL IT WORK? 78: RUST ’N’ DUST 84: DREAM SHED — OUT ON THE FARM 94: LACE PAINT TECH — LEARN HOW IT’S DONE 100: TIG WELDING BASICS — THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE

04: SHORT SHIFT 08: NEWS 10: DAILY GRIND 12: JUST QUICKLY 14: IN THE BUILD 32: SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 34: STRAIGHT TALK 48: DRAGGED UP 50: NZ’S QUICKEST 52: AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 90: SOCIAL SCENE 92: CONCEPT CORNER 118: CMC NEWS 122: CARGO 124: A DECADE AGO 126: LOCAL SPECIALISTS 128: COMING NEXT MONTH

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FEATURE 1936 CHEVROLET SEDAN OUTLAW MODIFIED CONCEPT CAR

WORDS AND PHOTOS: MARCUS GIBSON

THE MEASURE OF A CREW CHIEF IS HOW WELL THEY CAN BEND THE RULES WHILE REMAINING LEGAL. RAY EVERNHAM WAS ONE OF THE BEST AT IT IN NASCAR, NOW HE’S THROWN THE BOOK AWAY TO BUILD HIS ULTIMATE VERSION OF AN OUTLAW RACE CAR

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DREAM WADE AND RENEE ROYCROFT.

SHED

WORDS: NZV8 PHOTOS: LANCE FARROW

ASK RENEE AND WADE ROYCROFT IF THEY’RE CAR LOVERS AND YOU’LL GET A QUICK, “NO … WE’RE MUSCLE CAR NUTS”

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f you go down to the woods today / You’re sure of a big surprise …” How many times were those words sung to you as a kid? Sure, they were referring to a mythical teddy bears’ picnic, but NZV8 has recently found there’s some truth to them. Out in the back blocks, miles from anywhere, we came across Wade and Renee Roycroft — custodians of that surprise find.

As dairy farmers, they’re a hands-on couple who, along with their four kids, run 1300 cows. The work begins in the early hours of morning but, being that it’s from home, leaves them with odd hours during the day that they can use as they please. Seeing

that they’re both self-confessed diehard muscle car nuts, they’ve been putting those hours to great use building the cars of their dreams.

Building cars is nothing new for Wade, who got hooked on the car scene at just 14 years old when he purchased a MkI Cortina. The natural progression led him to get behind the wheel of a MkIV Cortina and then a Valiant Charger. But it wasn’t till he was the ripe old age of 17 that he would get himself a V8. Having more ability than he had money, he purchased a six-cylinder-powered XF Falcon and, with the guidance of Graeme Blank — the local Ford wrecker — he shoehorned a 351 Clevo and C4 into it.

That was enough to keep Wade entertained for the next four years or so, until an HSV GTS caught his eye. The HSV was on a yard, so Wade managed to work a trade-in deal with the XF and score the HSV. Never content to sit still, though, he eventually traded the HSV for a Tickford TS50 XR8 Falcon.

When Renee broke the news that the baby she was carrying was in fact twins, something needed to change to accommodate them. So, as much as Wade would have liked to hold onto the Tickford, it was traded for an HSV Avalanche station wagon.

While these are rare in stock form, it wasn’t long

before Wade had slid a set of 22-inch wheels on it to make it stand out even more.

The next new addition to the family saw a brief exit from having a V8 as a daily-driver, as a Toyota Prado was required for the extra (third-row) seats. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before a V8powered Land Cruiser replaced that brief fourcylinder excursion.

In the meantime, the number of toys on the side had also been growing, Renee every bit as involved as Wade. Now that the kids are getting older, they’re also involved, making it a family affair.

INTERVIEW ERIC LIVINGSTONE (WEST AUCKLAND ENGINE RECONDITIONERS) WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO

IN 1990, ERIC LIVINGSTONE DECIDED TO HAVE A GO AT BUSINESS. WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WEST AUCKLAND ENGINE RECONDITIONERS, AND HOW THE PAST 30 YEARS HAVE BEEN

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t’s 5pm on a Wednesday when I arrive at the Henderson Valley Road premises to meet with Eric Livingstone. Before we can get to the chat that will turn into this article, though, there is a bit of housekeeping he and the boys must attend to.

“I won’t be long,” Eric says, as tools are returned to their drawers, fasteners are arranged, and the boys mop the floors.

No doubt the same thing happens at workshops across the country, but, for some reason, it strikes me that, at the end of every working day for the past 30 years, the West Auckland Engine Reconditioners shop has been tidied and reorganized. That singular attention to detail — the level of care being put into the shop — is clearly reflective of that put into the team’s day-to-day work, and no doubt part of the reason that Eric and his team are still practising their craft all these decades down the track.

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NZV8: Hi Eric, congratulations on making it to 30. Could you tell us a little about how West Auckland Engine Reconditioners started all those years ago?

Eric Livingstone: I started the business in 1990; it was an engine reconditioner that had gone out of business and a silent partner and I bought the equipment and started up. That was on Keeling Road [around the corner from the current shop]. In 1992, we bought this building, built the front section into a workshop, and moved all the equipment in.

Were you always in the engine-reconditioning business, or were you doing more general mechanical work back in those early years?

We’ve always specialized in V8s, and my background was always in the performance side of things — I used to build a lot of engines and

transmissions for friends, and in the [Putaruru] dealership. I started with Chrysler when I was 12 years old, in spare parts — just cleaning and putting stuff away and looking after it — and they offered me an apprenticeship when I was 15. I took the apprenticeship on, and they made me the foreman when I was 20 and then the service manager when I was 21. I was with Chrysler probably until ’81.

When Todd Motors knew I was after a change, they wanted me to stay within the Todd Motors network, which was Chrysler-Mitsubishi by then, so I had a lot of offers from people around the country. I ended up going to Waihi, and I was there for two years as a service manager for the Waihi dealership. I went from there to Papakura, where I was service manager in a Ford dealership. I was there for about eight or nine years before I came across here.

I was still working there when I bought West Auckland [Engine Reconditioners]. I was coming over here at night and building the shop up. I moved over to West Auckland when we moved it here.

I carried on building Chrysler transmissions and engines, but it was while a lot of other engine reconditioners were concentrating on diesels and all that. We were always doing V8s and the performance stuff.

You’re quite lucky, compared with many other guys in the scene, to have been offered an apprenticeship and formal training in a company like Chrysler, and a start from such a young age.

Were you into working on cars outside of work as well?

I learned a hell of a lot working outside of work. I built that little hot rod back in ’78, and I built a lot of other engines, transmissions, and stuff for a lot of friends.

Do you remember the first engine you built?

Not really, it might have been an old 225 Valiant.

Back in those days we used to do quite a few of those; those things are bulletproof — hardly ever rebored them, just put a set of rings and bearings in and did a head job on them and away they went for another 100,000 miles.

That’s carried through to now, in a way — you started off with Chrysler, and, even though now you’ll work on anything, Chrysler is what you specialize in.

We’ve always specialized in Chrysler. I have a guy, Jim, working with me who is an ex-Chrysler guy as well; he drives a ’73 Challenger. Martin drives a ’70 Challenger. Dylan’s a Ford boy, and he’s got a Ford Galaxie. Daniel has a Dodge and his partner has a Nissan GT-R that he has been modifying.

That’s a pretty cool garage between the lot of you working here, although the shop line-up isn’t bad, either.

I think the reason I’ve stayed doing this work for so long is because it’s enjoyable. We’re not doing the everyday, run-of-the-mill cars. It’s very rare to see a Jap car in, and, as you can see now, we’ve got a Triumph Stag that’s just come in, there’s a Marina over there we’ve just done the motor for, there’s a Buick over the other side, a Pontiac out the side. Because of our background, people come to us with just about everything — classic or muscle cars.

Does working on that range of cars help you to keep getting better at what you do — you and the boys will always need to think, since you’re not working on the same stuff every day?

Oh yeah, all the guys in this workshop have to use what’s between their ears. There’s no scanners in this workshop. All the cars we’re working on are from the mid ’50s to the ’80s, so diagnosing is done by experience and methods, not by plugging in a scanner. But, in fairness to the young guys these days, that’s how they are — back in our day, there wasn’t a thing on the car we didn’t do. We’d rebuild the motor, the transmission,

the diff, the suspension, the brakes, the starter motor, the alternator — you did everything. The older mechanics had a much broader skill range.

Unfortunately for the young guys these days, things don’t get repaired, they get replaced.

Manufacturers these days are building engines that aren’t destined to be rebuilt, but replaced.

The young guys you’ve got with you are really quite lucky to be able to do the kind of work that you do here.

They’re very lucky because they’ve got enjoyable work. Most of the young chaps I’ve got with me were apprentices and have been with me for many, many years. Daniel has probably been here 13–14 years, Shane probably 15 years, and Martin has been here about 18 years. They’re all longterm guys.

In any industry that’s a long stretch to spend with the same employer, so you must be doing something right.

These boys have learnt the skills that we’ve had all along — the skills that Jim and Martin had. They’re guys who have a huge amount of knowledge on all these cars. We get people bringing their cars to us from all over — the Cadillac up there [on the hoist] is from Whangarei. I had two guys drive their Valiant coupe all the way up from Invercargill to get the work done — it took two days to get here. It took about 18 months to do the engine, transmission, differential, suspension, bodywork, and paintwork, and then they flew up and drove it home.

“THE OLDER MECHANICS HAD A MUCH BROADER SKILL RANGE”

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SPECIAL LACE PAINT TECH FEATURE

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WORDS: AARON MAI PHOTOS: DYLAN SMITH / AARON MAI

EVER SEEN LACE PAINTWORK AND WONDERED HOW IT WAS DONE OR IF IT WAS SOMETHING YOU COULD ATTEMPT YOURSELF? HERE’S THE ANSWER …

he 1960s saw a new and fast-emerging subculture within the automotive world in California. It was one that took quintessential American canvases and splashed a bright, vibrant Mexican twist across them.

Born out of Los Angeles, the low-rider scene was a visual feast, with all-American steel dressed with metalflake, candy, pearl, and lace paintwork that sparkled under the bright lights of East LA. These cars were not just a glitter ball on wheels but rolling works of art, complete with finishes that many have tried to replicate but few have truly mastered.

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While Palmerston North is a long way away from the streets of East LA, Dylan Smith teamed up with a good friend to bring a little sparkle of Los Angeles to Los Palmy. With a mix of bright colours, deep candy hues, and lines snaking through a sea of sparkling metalflake, there is only one way to describe a paint job such as those that adorn low-riders: art. Requiring an understanding of colour relationships, design, and style, this is no simple process, and never results in any two works being the same.

Dylan has a 1962 Impala and decided that the large roof was prime real estate for infusing a little bit of Mexican into the all-American legend. He partnered up with his good friend and fellow Union car club member Phil Mackley, and the pair kicked off the work on a Friday night hoping to end the weekend with a transformed roof. With almost non-stop work, and lots of Maccas and KFC to keep them going, they achieved a result that is simply stunning. For those keen to know how this work of art happened, here is a little ‘low down’ on the process Dylan took.

As the canvas was his own personal car, Dylan decided not to take the roof back to bare metal but rather just to a nice workable canvas. Starting out with 240-grit sandpaper, they masked off, prepped, and then sprayed the whole roof area in DNA silver basecoat — the first step of the journey from stock to sparkle. After the silver was laid, a binder was mixed up to hold the two different types of Painthuffer metalflake; one was a 50/50 silver mix made up of 0.004 and 0.008 micro-flake and the other was Painthuffer’s silver bullet, consisting of 0.15 and 0.025 flake. The two batches of flake were mixed together, and shot over the silver to give the incredible sparkle to the roof. Following this, a coat of clear was laid on top before being flattened back to receive the design stage of the artwork.

With a superb neutral base, the creative-licence stage was ready to begin. The initial design was laid out on the roof courtesy of 3M 3mm and 6mm masking tape. Dylan and Phil masked up 12 panels

— two that would retain the silver base coat and 10 that received a purple DNA candy with the fill comprising violet and then Purple Obsession to give some depth to the outer edge of the panels.

With the layering of different paint, consistency was key, so Dylan utilized DNA paint sourced through Complete Paints in Palmy. Having confidence in the product was paramount, and the quality result speaks for itself. Maintaining a DNAonly method would also ensure that there would be no reactions between layers, and a relatively quick flash time of 30 minutes allowed work to progress smoothly. Next up was the unmistakable lace patterning that would fill up two large panels of the masked-off silver base. The pattern curves seamlessly around the masked-up purple boxes.

When the lace — purchased through Spotlight — was tightly masked down to the Impala’s roof it was time to add another hue to the mix. A heavy coat of DNA Sapphire Blue was sprayed across the

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