‘Milkbar cowboys’ of the ’50s are now into hot-rods

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 17

‘Milkbar cowboys’ of the ’50s are now into hot-rods

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Respectable Christchurch citizens used to tut-tut at what were known in the 1950 s as the "milkbar cowboys.” and wonder as they watched them stropping their motorbikes and old cars around Cathedral Square, what on earth they would turn out like when they grew up.

Well, some of them, at least, have turned into the hot-rodders of today. They still get a few tut-tuts and disapproving glares, but they get admiration as well, especially from old-timers who see the work they have put into old cars and are taken back to a different, golden age of motoring. Grahame Ott is typical of t the hot-rodders whose loving care for American cars of • the 1930 s is grounded in ££ nostalgia for the 19505. He was a milkbar cowboy then - not in Christchurch ' but in Napier, where he used to ; terrorise the town in a 1937 ’ ' Ford coupe. f •

He looks back on it now as a beautiful car. In the intervening years he has left his old cowboy ways behind, married, produced a son, and became a self-employed taxidriver.

But a few years ago, when he was restoring a small English car for his wife’s use, a friend said; "Why don’t you get an old Ford again and put the work into that instead?” •; So he renewed his love affair with Fords of the 19305, and through restoring a 1935 Ford V 8 sedan has been able to indulge his » nostalgia for his milkbar » cowboy days. £ "The 1950 s were a great ? era,” he says. "If I could 1 have the 50s over again, I "§ wouldn’t change a thing.” * Oddly enough, considering that he and his fellow "cowboys” were regarded with some alarm at the time, he looks back on the period as a time that had “none of the violence of today,” when you could safely go out and leave your house unlocked.

Graham Ott used to race stock cars, including a 1937 Ford sedan which he would never race in that way today. “When I think of the cars I’ve wrecked as stock cars,” he says, “I lie down on the ground and cry.”

As a hot-rodder, he has a number of choices. He can restore an old car to its original condition, just like a vintage car; or he can make a lot of changes to it instead, and use it for drag racing; or he can let his imagination go and turn it into some weird looking machine that expresses his personality. Grahame Ott has done a bit of both of the first two options. He has faithfully restored his 1935 V 8 to the point where he qualifies for membership of a vintage car club as well as the Kustom Car Club. His aim was to rebuild it to look just as it

did when it rolled out of Henry Ford’s factory on March 20, 1935, to be sent out to its first New Zealand owners, the Sisters of Mercy at Hokitika.

As a hot rod, his car wears “mag” wheels (for better handling, "more rubber, on the road"), but he can replace them with the original wire-spoke wheels in a matter of five minutes, turning the car back into a genuine vintage model.

To make a real hot-rod, Grahame Ott took another car, a 1935 Ford V 8 coupe, and he and a friend cut up the chassis to turn it into what is known as a street rod. When he has finished, it will look like a low-slung vintage Ford, but it will be very different from the original in both power and performance.

“It will be a modern car in an old body,” Mr Ott says. "It will have a 400 cu.in. Chevrolet motor, a hand-built drop-tube front axle, a 1957 Chevrolet differential, 1966 Valiant springs and shock absorbers, a Leyland P 76 master cylinder and booster, front disc brakes and steering box from an HQ Holden, and an American tilt-column steering wheel.” The third hot-rod option is the "chop and channel.” That means introducing such individual touches as lowering the roof, raising the rear end, lowering the suspension, and distorting the shape in various individualistic ways. “It was an early fashion when cars were plentiful,” says Grahame Ott, “but now that they are harder to come by, the trend is to build the car in a stock body. The day’s when you could find an

early Ford sitting in a farmer’s paddock are long gone.

“But just lately several cars have come out chopped and. channelled. Some of them keep the bits they chop out, though, so that they can put it all back again.”

Whichever road the hotrodder chooses, his sport is going to cost quite a lot of money. Depending on the owner’s mechanical ability, he can spend anywhere from $2OOO to $lO,OOO completing his hot-rod. Steve Taylor's 1926 Model T coupe, a'“Grandma Duck” style of car which won the “best car” award at the 1980 national show, is reputed to be worth about $15,000.

Never really finished - the owner can always think of some further improvement - the work can go on for years. Grahame Ott spent three years and a half restoring his V 8 sedan, and there are still a few things to be done. “A chap around the road has spent 10 years making a Model A ‘tub’ (phaeton),” he adds. Because the time and money involved eats into family life and budgets, hotrodding has become a family sport. Grahame Ott's wife, Gloria, is actually the owner of their V 8 coupe, and has been known to work on it

well into the small hours of the morning. Now that the original bits and pieces are so hard to find, it is sometimes necessary to use reproduction parts instead, and some

Christchurch firms fill the need. Some specialise in modifications to drive-shafts, axles, differentials, etc. and one New Brighton fibreglassing firm turns out complete reproduction bodies for early Ford models, as well as parts and accessories for other “rods.” The firm built a 1932 Ford roadster for Traffic Officer Les Platt, who is a hotrodder in his spare time. It seems that with hot-rod builders, it is better to travel than to arrive. They are never happier than When making some change or improvement to their pride and joy. But once they are completed, or nearly so, they take them on runs.

“We’re proud of our cars and we like to cruise,” says Grahame Ott. “A lot of people stop and look at the cars, particularly older people who used to own these models years ago. Hot-rodders had their big chance to show off their cars at the New Zealand Street Rod Nationals in Ashburton at Easter, and more than 200 turned up from all over the country. Owners really splashed out for the occasion, chroming up everything possible, and putting their best into paintwork and upholsterv.

Many do their own painting, building up coat after coat of lustrous enamel - and if they don’t like it they don’t hesitate to scratch it all off and start again. Hot-rodders are perfectionists.