KRUZIN KUSTOMS OPEN DAY
Who needs an excuse to visit a hot rod shop and drink free beer? We sure don’t, and this is one hell of a shop to visit!
As you can imagine, we get a lot of opportunities to see some pretty cool shit here at NZV8. You might even go so far as to say we are privileged — not that you’d catch us complaining. So, when the opportunity arose to have a bit of a poke and prod around at the Kruzin Kustoms open house, we leapt at the chance.
The population of little old ‘Noo Zillund’ may be a bit thin on the ground compared with those of other countries inhabited by animals blessed with the opposable thumb, but we sure know how to make the most of those ever-special thumbs when it comes to ingenuity and engineering skills! Kendal Smith and his talented team of fabricators and engineers at Kruzin Kustoms have been part of the furniture, in terms of the hot rodding scene, for a fair few years now. You’d be pretty safe in saying that these guys eat, drink (and, boy, do we mean drink!), and sleep all things V8. For the last few years, they have thrown open their doors on a Saturday afternoon for a good old-fashioned beer and bullshit session. Just as we’ve all experienced on more than one occasion, these usually involve a
BBQ; a half-finished car on axle stands; half a dozen mates — in mandatory uniform of work boots, an oily pair of ripped jeans, and a black T-shirt — and, most important, cold beer! That’s exactly the atmosphere that was created on Saturday, August 6 (the very same day as the popular Palmy swap meet) with a couple of subtle differences: there was much more beer, way more than half a dozen people, and more BBQ’d sausages than a deep freezer could ever dream of! With the swap meet in the area on the same day, the number of people crammed into the workshop came as no surprise at all, and being held bang-on lunchtime, there needed to be enough refreshments on offer to feed a small army. We’d hate to think just how many sausages were served on the day, but suffice to say it was plenty! As such, it was hard to tell if people came for a free feed, a catch-up, or to take a close look at what was going on in the workshop. However, in the grand scheme of things, why they were there was irrelevant; they were there, there was cool shit to look at, there was free food and drink to consume, and there were people to talk to — what more could you want? For most, this was the first time they’d have looked through the business’s new, much larger, and farmore-open premises. Taking a wander in and around people doing the exact same thing, it was great to see the varying stages of builds in progress, of which there were many!
In attendance from the tropics up north was Auckland’s Charlie ‘Chaz’ Allen — man, he must have loved the cold weather! Chaz had packed his paintbrushes and a couple of tins of paint and was striping away on Phil Mackley’s Pontiac. It’s pretty cool to stand back and watch the absolute concentration and skill required to pinstripe someone’s pride and joy freehand. When you tired of eating and drinking, watching, looking, and talking in the workshop, you could spend some time in the showroom, away from the crowd — although, it was actually just as full in there as it was out in the shop! Kendal was on hand to answer questions about any work you wanted done or the US tours he holds each year. At one point, he was asked whether he was happy with the turnout, to which he replied that he had no idea how many people were out in the workshop, because he hadn’t been able to get out from behind the counter! No doubt, when it came time to clear away the empties, boot the last person out the door, take a well-earned breather, and count the cash in the till, he’d have had a fair idea of how successful the event was. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon there — a great way to end a full-on day of all things cars. Keep an eye and an ear out for next year’s one — and make sure you pack an extra stomach and a spare liver!