Australia's hot rodding pioneers

rear mould off the ranchwagon and the front mould off the sedan?

 

Hey guys,

cool post, really enjoyed reading all this stuff. My old man had a pretty wild custom 53/54 cusso back in the sixties. Featured quad headlights and full oval mouth grille shell and grille, rolled pans front and rear, wild custom tailights, opened rear fender vents etc etc. From what he tells me (gotta remember lotsa beer since then, old age memory and all ) it placed fourth in the 1968 Vic hot rod show wild custom class. We have only found one pic of it in a 1968 Australia Street Rodding mag in the last few pages. Just a little pic showing the front end. Apparently someone bought the car, and the front fender clip was onsold onto other cars, not too sure where it is now, but I'm sure some of you vic guys are in the know. His name is Dave Whitehead, used to roll with Southern Beaches, and was one of the founding members of Confederates too. Still have his old Southern Beaches jacket (circa 1968) which is f'n awesome and club plaque, and one of the orignial confederates plaques and patches. Next time i'm at his place I will grab a pic of them and post em.

In recent years he built the "Golden Idol" custom 56 Victoria featured in Cruzin mag and seen traversing Oz towing his custom caravain "LovShak"...(I know, what a dork!)

Anyway, if someone has the mag, or any info on his old custom Cusso, would love to see pics.

Cheers,

Tall Paul

 

Kustom City, the one stop custom and performance shop.

And metalflake specalists

The CUZZO was on the cover of Australian Hot Rodding Review? twice that I know of, Once doing a burn out. Have photos of it at the Roselands shows. Blue Jay was actually an FX! and the last time I saw it was in the parking lot at the Bankstown Square show in the early 70's

Jim Leis did work there

Tony was an interesting guy with loads of ideas, have not see him for about twenty years. He had no idea where their cars had ended up.

 

The head of Adam's that you saw was from the 2.6l PAX engine of '61 - '62.

The engine before this was 2.25l and was used in Vauxhall Velox and, later, Cresta from late '52 to '60. About 1957 this engine got a 12 port head and was also used in the Vauxhalls with the wrap around 'screen from '58 to '60. This head evidently fitted the 'Grey' with relatively little modification.

It was from this series of engine that the crank was 'borrowed' to fit to the 'Grey'.
An interesting point is that the Vauxhall had a stroke of 3", whereas the 'Grey' was 3 1/8".
BUT all the Vauxhall's journals were 1/8" bigger than the 'Grey'; which poses a question: Were the crankpins ground offset to regain, or increase, the stroke of the 'Grey', or were they left stock to give greater strength and allow higher revs? Presumably the block would have been line bored to use the larger Vauxhall mains to lessen the chance of crank breakage, from memory, usually next to no.2 main bearing.
Does anybody know for sure?

 

Adam thinks they were made up, along with other strips, from accessory FE/FC side trims, and that one side was 'nicked' by a Queensland restorer for his car before we saw it.

Is that what you've heard, Smooth Customs?

 

...So does a warm Grey and a 7 Lb system doesn't help.

 

Thats the story I was told
Most or all of the side trim pieces were made up from locally (Queensland)manufactured aftermarket Flash Kits, found on FE to EK Holdens.

That have now become very sought after pieces, for restorers of late 50's and early 60's cars. Of different makes and models.

 

This guy has some interesting pics http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479523

 

I've been reading all these posts with great interest. It's great to read about early Aussie hot rodding , which brings me to my question ! I have what I believe to be a pair of "Mag Wheel Centre" wheels and am looking for another two. They are 5 spoke alloy centre mounted in chrome steel rims.The centres are very simular (could be copied from ) early Radirs or Mickey Thompsons with a single rib down the middle of each spoke.I have a 1967 Australian Hot Rodding Review ?? (have to dig it out) with an article on the Mag Wheel Centre featuring these wheels. The ones I have are 15" x 6" with 4.1/2" bolt pattern. Does anybody have a pair ( even just centres) stashed away in their shed ??? I think that they would be the perfect finishing touch to my Y-Block powered '32.

 

Can you post a picture of these wheels, then there may be a chance to confirm who made them

 

Cooling of Grey engines even to Appendix 'J' racing specs in the early '60's didn't seem to be a problem; a heavy duty (more tubes) radiator core was normally fitted, but I don't think that physically larger radiators, or tanks, were allowed.

These engines were relatively new then and didn't have the build up of deposits and scale in the water jackets that we find 40 years on. Even the processes of hot tanking, cold tanking etc used by engine reconditioners today doesn't remove it all.
A descaling chemical process combined with physical prodding out of the mud is about the only sure way to ensure maximum cooling efficiency.
Taking out the welch plugs and attacking the passages doesn't do a bad job either!

But yes, a WARM, Grey with a 7 lb cap - as they were from the FB on - works fine!
( Leo Geoghegan's Repco headed engine was a shade hotter!!!)

 

Dunstan Rotary valve head .Where did you find that picture?


Given the interest in the racing Grey motor perhaps the DLRA should have a dedicated class or classes for those who want to break a few records with them,much like the Americans Flathead and historic engine classes. I know stuff is getting hard to find now for the grey motor but it's out there and some of the hoarders who have it will want to see it used. Just a thought.

 

Here's front & rear shots of the mags. As I said earlier they are alloy centre mounted in steel rims.Each spoke has 2 dome headed "drive pins" securing it to the rim ( they used 3 if for drag racing ) as stated in the article in the 1967 magazine ( yet to dig it out again ). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. these wheels came of the rear of an early hot rod that I believe originated out of Queensland or northern NSW in the sixties.It's an improved A on '32 rails , that still exists ( actually freshly repainted )in my home town today .I don't even know if the current ( 30 years) owner even knows that I have them !

 

I'm wondering whether these pix are of the same car. Silver one from Mannum Rod Run 7th of March- see thread in HAMB 'Event Coverage' Prefix.
The sectioned Jay with HQ grille elsewhere in this thread looks (S.A.) familiar.
I wonder how many of 'em performed as well as they looked. Really enjoyable thread folks- thanks !

 

See the link above the pics, it's from Wheels mag.

 

I spoke with some old circuit racing guys and they think the dunstan head in the car is a Dirt tracker,not the BBM special which was well known in OZ back in the day. A very rare pic of a rare bit of gear.

 

Berry and Chung ,made in New Zealand. I had a full set of those. They would have to rank among the heaviest wheels in the World...
http://www.restospares.co.nz/bc_equip.htm

 

I don't believe that they are B&C. B&C wheels had a circular centre. These are the opposite , having a radius between the spokes.

 

You may be right there,I owned mine close on 40 years ago and swapped them for something long forgotten because they had a Vuaxhall EIP bolt pattern.
I may have a copy of Australian Rodding World or possibly a mid sixties copy of Rodding review with a big article on all the known mag wheel makers in OZ around that time. There were quite a few and the article had a lot of pictures of some long forgotten wheels.
...I have far too much crap around here to start looking for it tonight though.

 

Will have to dig out the magazines with the wheel articles, to check.

Here are some cover shots showing two of Kustom Citys most remembered cars

 

I'll try & find the magazine that I referred to tomorrow & post a scan .Thanks for your interest.

 

I dont think so!
The second one had a V8, and the roof skin had been pancaked. That car was a topic of conversation with a couple of people I know about twelve months ago. A very interesting custom.

The one with the HQ Grill was a SA car, was painted gold (from memory)

 

The custom Ford of Dave Andrews on the cover of Rodding Review is going in reverse doing a burnout as the tyre smoke is going in the wrong direction.

 

A very different cover, for the time it was published

 

Just in case any of you Aussie guys are interested the New South Wales Hot Rod Association is holding a function on April 25 2009 to commemerate 25 yrs since the Last Race at Sydney's Castlereagh International Dragway on April 11 - 13 1984. The function will be held at the Drag - Ens Hot Rod Club 17 Childs Rd. Chipping Norton Sydney and all are invited to attend. Tickets are $20 per person and a light dinner will be included, a number of race personalities from the 60's and 70's will be in attendance. For tickets write to the NSWHRA Po Box 3068 Liverpool NSW 2170 include a cheque for tickets and your return address. It will be a laid back social night for all to enjoy, it will be BYOG. Telephone enquiries to 0414 645130.

 

I think this issue had a good story on the various manufacturers in OZ,plus how to widen wheels? . I used the info to make a bunch of wide rims for mates at work,some so damn wide there were never tires made to fit them ha ha .

 

Thanks Doc, something to consider on the next re-build.

 

I have a set of Keels Wheels alloy/steel composites (magnum 500 style) and they are HEAVY!
Looking at the assembly I dont think I would ever put them on a car-do they cast steel inserts into the mag and then weld to the rim?

 

B/C rims ( from memory) had cast in steel pieces which the rim was bolted too. A few years back I had a set of "minilite" look a likes for a AP5 valiant with steel rims which were similar but were plug welded . Neither one are legal in OZ and haven't been for years although I see them come up for sale every so often.
In fact I remember selling my Fury Hardtop with a set with what looked like Aunger hustlers with steel rims ....
These are not the sort of rim I would use on a car today unless it was for display in show or something. The thought of 40 year old alloy coming apart on a front wheel at 100k's is not one I would want to live out....or die doing it.

 

Keel wheels were made by the Leek Family if my memory is correct. I bought a set of ROH Pro Sprint wheels in 1971 for my then new Falcon and I never used them. They are 14x 7 and 14 x 8 and are still under the floor of my brothers house. I checked them out this afternoon