Australia's hot rodding pioneers

I just got the Larry O'toole book for my birthday.
Wow what a read-cover to cover.
A must for any one wanting to research REAL australian nostalgia.
I can't recommend this book highly enough(I have no affiliation with graffiti pub and I dont go much on asr anymore but....).
https://www.motorbooks.com/store/ProductDetails_39518.ncm

If you haven't got the urge to get a y block powered FED after reading this you havent got a pulse.

There is a few pictures of the seaward cusso in there that a mate of mine owns (pretty sad) and before I saw some colour photos thought it was ugly as sin but now it looks kinda cool seeing it in its original form.

Any body got any pics or memories of australia back in the 50's 60's and 70's?
Be it fe holdens with hot greys or zephers with Y blocks and some saw tooth poly's-lets see them.
Please delete if this has been covered.

 

Now you have this one, you will have to get the others in the series.

So you know Adam Chivers?

I found the remains of the Seaward custom and then tracked down its builder. Who allowed me to copy his collection of photos on the cars history and build changes.

These were originally published in an issue of the Newsledder, with a story i put together detailing the cars history
And two shots were also used on a cover, showing one of its earlier versions and the last.

Later I passed them onto Larry, who used some in his earlier History books.
In the current one Don gave him more, including some show shots.

 

Yeah I every time I look at those chrysler fins I start to like that car more and more. But got to say that fish mouth grille is interesting to say the least.

 

Got memories, lived in Sydney in the mid 60's, hung around The Shifters at Ashfield while still at school, then helped start The Phantoms in 1966 in Campsie. Remember spending weekends fixing the pits at Castlereagh drags, crewing a D/A Fiat altered with a hot grey motor in her, fooling around with a 34 Chev sedan, 28 Essex coupe, 41 Willys sedan, Morris Minor convertible, twin spinner sedan and 1953 'anniversary' Cusso ute.

I've also got heaps of colour photos and slides from the original Roselands shows, Castlereagh etc, if only I could convince my ex to hand them over. You'd think after almost 40 years she'd back off, but no.

Cheers, Glen.

Oh yeah, just found this. 1964 so still at school, paid $4 for what was an absolutely complete car and my stepfather drove it home after we pumped up the tyres and added a battery and fuel. Talk about schoolboy dreaming!

 

Wow $4 what does that come to in today's inflated rate?
My dad talks buying cars for "50 quid" remembering fondly of his old fe with a "stage four head and a 3/4 race cam"
Being a plumber he built his own copper exhaust under the drivers door!
My uncle was a prolific sedan racer at windsor and the showground speedways.
He had a few cusso's and was sponsored by fordham spares.
Ive seen pics of his 57 with edelbrock 3x2 and 8 slash cut pipes standing 3 feet through the bonnet !
Dad told me he would have 8 flames out the pipes at times.

 

Glen

I grew up in Kingsgrove, and have known Jeff Dellow most of my life.
Spent afternoons and weekends in his dad garage in the days when Dellow Automotive was an after hours buisness.

The amount of custom cars in that area at the time was amazing

The Roselands shows were great, and I am still looking for my photos from the mid to late 60's.

Am scanning and uploading some more shots of Dons Custom

Here is the Newsledder story, and a photo from the Roselands show

 

Unclechop, the price was actually '2 quid', pre decimal currency, so I converted it! I paid $20 for my 1941 Willys sedan in 1966, running beautifully and fully registered, then swapped it for the twin spinner sedan after blowing up every gearbox I could find for it. I paid $54 for the 53 Cusso ute, a registered driver complete with fibreglass canopy but one crunched front guard, and we bought a 53 sedan (from Fordhams) for the motor for a rod project and I scrounged a replacement guard from it for the ute.

I remember a bloke showing up at the Sydney showgrounds one night in the mid 60's in a hot Cusso sedan to race against the older 'stock' cars on the speedway circuit. He raced away from the old clunkers like they were standing still, but the Cusso body was almost stock with internal roll cage, and the old boys were running 36-40 coupes with enough external steel tube framework around them to sink a battleship. As he came around to lap them, they 'ganged up' on him and quite literally ripped the Cusso to shreds on their bull bars. It ended up in the centre of the field, spewing steam from a smashed radiator and not a 'straight' panel left on it.

Cheers, Glen.

 

heres some history yet to be put into a book, I think most of you joined after this was posted. Might be of interest to some. if you have seen 'custom rodder' number 1 theres a bit in there on it.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165160&highlight=1966

 

my dad grew up in the glory days in melbourne and tells me stories when he runs into old faces at swap meets or something jogs his memory. his hot rod bug bit when he was given a ride to school in peter eames homebuilt tbucket sometime in the mid to late 60's, him buying a cusso when he was 15 or so and parking round the corner so his parents didnt find out, he tells me about the illegal street drags at the age building and up at the moll factory in campbellfield, weekend away tin hunting excursions with his two younger brothers, blowing the doors off two xy gt's drag racing in the main drag of sheparton in his 327 powered f100 (rego PG.327) with a tray full of guns and kangaroo carcasses after a weekend hunting trip, out running the law in a hk monaro a friend of his had just bought but was unlicenced to drive so to avoid a ticket they simply left the cops for dead the police. the car was known as the general was powered by a imported keith black chevy (this was in the real early days too mind you). a trip to tasmania to buy his 34 ford pickup off the abdilla brothers which he still owns to this day. im trying to convince him that this year is the year the car needs to start making its way back from the dead (hasnt been on the road since the year i was born) (1981) there are plenty more stories but i cant recall them all right now.
my dad actually introduced me to Jim Walton (old fuel altered and funny car pilot) yesterday at a bike show and we chatted about the glory days of drag racing. wish i could have lived some of it, dad says they shit they got up to would have us locked up now everything was more inocent and fun then. we found out there was still the occasional street race up at the moll factory so my younger brother and i went to check it out one night it was more like a bunch of kids killing the tyres on their commodores, but while standing there a black 55 chevy with the plates ole 55 drove through the crowd of late model shit probably just crusing memory lane and reliving glory days that sure made my night.

 

Hey smooth customs, My father grew up on stoney creek road he is 59 this year.
Glen I would love to show some photo's of my uncles car- he even has some super 8 of it racing.my dad told me they used to handicap behind the field him to make it "fair" for everyone.
Apparently he also match raced bill warner in the mooneyes sprintcar a few times.
Sorry for kinda getting ot but its the closest thing I have to hot rodding roots.

 

I have been looking in here for a long time before registering.
And that was a fantastic post

 

Dean Moon was a special guest at a Romans club meeting in the mid 70's.
I still have the sheet of Moon transfers I bought off him that night

 

Wow
Ive seen some similar pics in chopped and ahr but wow

 

the good old days fri night at the burger joint on parramata rd @ granvile was it burger chief i forget then down to was it the brikkies @ homebush for the ileagl drags were alot of dollars changed hands kev in brisbane i still love the smell of burning ruber so mutch i will be buying condoms when i am 90

 

Your memory's not that bad! Yes it was Burger Chief, and Brickie's at the back of Homebush. There were lots of dirt/mud roads leading out of Brickies, and when the cops raided it everyone 'went bush' to avoid a ticket. I remember a few rides home in mates' souped up FJ's with mud half way up the sides of the doors from negotiating the goat tracks out of there in the dark!

Cheers, Glen.

 

Or down to The Cob &Co dinner at Tempie for one of their foot long Hot Dogs before going out to Bunnerong, near the power station for the street drags

 

I think you will find it was called Big Chiefs, & who can remember Beefies at the top of Taverner's Hill.
Cheers Dago

 

Sure was Big Chiefs, there is factory on that sight now.
It and Brickies were both used in the filming of the FJ Holden movie in the late 70's

Went for a drive around Sydney when we were there last year to see what landmarks from the 60's and 70's still remain, not many.

Beefies was later turned into a car yard

 

I notice all the posters in this thread are Australian, but American hot rodders are truly missing the boat if they don't discover this book!

Coincidentally, I just bought the book (and its companion) this week and I highly recommend them both. I'm an American Y-block lover who's always been disappointed with the lack of pics of Y-block powered hot rods and drag cars in our books and magazines. (In the 60s, in the part of the States where I'm from, there were some very strong running local Y-blocks that gave the "belly button" SBC's quite a run for their money).

Talk about eye candy! This book is chock-full of Y-block powered hot rods, altereds, dragsters, T-buckets, and everything else one could be shoehorned into. (Even if you think Y-blocks are crap, it is a great look at traditional Australian hot rods). And, if you're into flatheads (or sidevalves if you're an Aussie), there are just as many of them. Plus, the book content is from old personal snapshots, not professional magazine photos, and it's like the king Australian hot rodding from the 50s and 60s has opened up his personal photo album for you.

I, for one, would love to see more pics posted of Australian Y-block powered cars.

 

The reason the book is so full of Y blocks and sideys is because we just didn't have anything else to use in those days. Our locally produced GMH car was the Holden, and it only ran an inline 6 until 1968, and the few 'Yank Tanks' we saw on our roads were too rare and valuable to scrap even after a bad prang and many years on the road. The non-Ford powered rods in Australia in the 60's could probably be counted on one hand. Those 'other' V8's that made it into the wreckers were often snapped up by the speedboat blokes, who had a lot more spare cash than the rodders did.

Aussie rodding grew up on sidevalves, Y blocks and moredoor sedans. The body styles imported or locally built were also very limited, no coupes at all from Ford for example until 1933, only a few sports coupes and roadsters.

Cheers, Glen.

 

I guess speed equipment could be listed in the same vein as the imported stuff would have been thin on the ground.
Any one got some aussie speed equipment they want to post?
My camera is busted but Ive got stuff from:Tawco(3x2 y block manifold),wey,warnerford and speco(grey motor stuff) and a vintage chrome 3 su home made ram manifold(grey motor)
what are some other brands ? Hogan,waggot?

 

Great book,good to see the photo's of the Ron seaward ford used.
As for the car itself i spotted it forsale years back when i was a little wet behind
the ears. The mag that it was in was the Newsledder(great little mag),I rang the bloke who owned it and gave me an overall discription of the the car. I bought it sight unseen,iwas was pretty stupid, but i thught it needed rockers,inner sills and floor panels.
I was so wrong,It was delivered to Rebel restoraions which is Adam Chivers business and
he called me and gave me the bad NEWS.Well if we have a hiab and lift the old girl through the roof the rest of her would still be on the truck.
Well with that i kept in storage for a while at Adams and six months later i said
he could have the old girl.Adams said at the time the only thing saving is the chain shifter.
I allways wanted to own a piece of austarlian kustom history.
Way back then that kool little mag rocked,thanks to Adam ,Darren and Lazy J i think.

 

Here are a couple of other pictures of Dons Custom.

The guy you bought it off, found it beside a house down the coast. Was still pink, but with some pieces missing.

He didnt like the custom front, so it was removed and sent to land fill.
The pink was a little to much as well so it was painted flat black!

It was rusty, but no more than some cars I have rebuilt.
But with a better body as a starter, the parts and panels that made this custom different. Could have been grafted on.

Possibly one day, someone may build a clone of it. and some of our other lost Australian customs

 

Are there any pics of the car in black?
We talking about it last week and he mentioned he was puting the feelers out for a another shell.

 

Hey KSK did you have the blackberry 53 merc in sledder awhile back?
Did you also have a 3w vw beetle?
Ill have to dig through my collection of newsledder mags next to the toilet(perfect size for while sitting on the crapper).
Any more customs pics?

 

Sorry it was a 52 cusso with merc bits.
Newsledder #40 feb/mar 2003

 

I saw that Holden and a Cusso Custom at Adams a long time ago,both were seriously rusted. To me it looked as though the lead flux hadn't been cleaned off properly back in the day or muriatic acid had been used to clean them ,and that stuff never stops eating steel.


Larry o'Toole is a (to use a worn out expression) a cultural icon but to me Eddie Ford is a guy who should have AO after his name ,because of the history he has gathered up about Australia's motoring past. I don't there are too many historians in this country who could claim to have done as much as he has over the last 40 or so years for any subject.
I have a copy of the very first magazine he wrote for .I think it ( without digging it out,) was printed in 1962.

 

thanks smooth custums and dago forsetting the greymatter back on track
i will never foget one night atbig chiefs when this guy drove in with his fgy with a marmyk 2 jag moter and box in it was about 1967 wat a beast met jim rohly there a few years later i lived at liverpool and had a mean fgey my self .kev

 

Jag powered early Holdens were not a common thing to see. But a few were built. An extremly odd conversion for the day.
There were two in the surrounding suburbs, where I grew up.
A local servo owner had one in an EH sedan, that the front panels had been extended so no major firewall cutting was done.

The FJ could possibly be the one from Bexley North, was a super quick sedan. The owner was killed in an accidient in the late 60's (not car related) and the FJ dissapeared after that.

 

thanks agian for the memory flash back sorry to hear about the fj guy were are you in brisbane i am up near bribie like to give you a call sometime ihate the computers because i cant spell