BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR

Twin Spinner

Nick Williamson and his team at International Motorsport in Ponsonby, Auckland, are used to having some exotic machinery in their workshops, but it’s not always European sheet metal and internals that spark them up. The team recently completed a Twin Spinner, which featured in this magazine a few months ago. The project gave them the appetite to take on another one, and they currently have a ’51 Ford Twin Spinner in quite an impressive display of undress.

Before the work on some of the more mechanical aspects begins, the car has been stripped back almost to bare body. The chassis will be freshened up, the body made like new, and then the team will decide just exactly what internals will be plugged back in. Nick says that it is going to be something a little bit different.

The car was originally fitted with the often-used flathead Ford V8 of the era, which may or may not be upgraded to something more modern, but, for the moment, it’s a plain and simple ’50s Ford sitting in a workshop full of European sophistication. Whatever the team ends up doing to it, the car will come out of the workshop as an ideal boulevard cruiser. It’ll be time to crank up the radio, listen to some Nat King Cole, and head off to the bright lights of a strip somewhere.

More of the same

Across the road an IMS Panel and Paint, there’s a piece of Australian Ford History 20 years younger than its American counterpart, in the words of Nick Williamson, in for a “tidy up”. The 1971 Ford Fairlane is another seminal car design. The major manufacturers reduced rather than increased body size from almost this point on. This survivor was in “great condition” for the owner, a newcomer to the restoration game.

Nick insists that this is not a restoration, and, although such work may be a tidy-up for the IMS team, it still looks like a serious makeover to us. So far, some rust has been removed and the body is now straight and repaired. After repainting, all those kilos of 1970s trinkets and bling will be reattached, the interior will be refitted, and, according to Nick, the car will be a very period-correct original car. The motor — a 302 Ford V8 — transmission, etc. will all be back to original. At that point, this will be another very worthy boulevard cruiser; the AM radio on the dashboard will just play a slightly different form of rock ’n’ roll — 1971; it could even be playing folk rock.