GO-FAST TEMPLE

TO SOME PEOPLE, HOT RODDING IS A RELIGION; JIM HANHAM’S SHED MAY AS WELL BE THEIR TEMPLE

SHED STUFFED FULL OF HOT RODS

Some things don’t change. Jim Hanham grew up making things with his hands; spent most of his life making things with his hands; and, now that he’s retired, finds himself doing the same thing! “I’ve been into [old] cars since I was a kid, ’cause my old man had them. We had no money, so I learnt from an early age that if you want something, you build it,” he explains of his approach to life. “I don’t believe in buying a chassis, buying a front end … anybody can do that. I’m not saying any of that is wrong — it’s the way it is now. But I was brought up with no money. When I built that [Model A] roadster pickup, I had no money, but I had all these bits.” The Model A he’s talking about looks the part, but that’s hardly surprising — even though Jim put it together 13-odd years ago, it’s far from the first hot rod that he’s built. That honour would go to a ’38 Ford ‘barrel nose’ truck that he built in the early ’70s when he lived in Auckland. “It was one I bought cheap. I put wide wheels on it, took the bumpers off, and hand painted it purple, but it looked good!” he remembers. “I was only a kid, but it was something I could cruise Queen Street in. That was a hot rod.” That got him interested in ’39 Ford coupes, but, when he had to sell everything to buy a house, he found himself driving a Valiant for many years. “Then I saw a ’39 [Ford] Deluxe sedan restored in Auckland — a really nice one — and I thought [that] I’d better get some money. So I wheeled and dealed until I could buy it, and then I sold it. And that started this off,” he recalls. What he refers to as “this” could best be described as some sort of hot rodding paradise. In among his staggering collection of neat old cars, he’s also got a hoard of cool parts and engines that would turn most hot rodders green with envy. Then there’re the projects he’s got on the go, the most obvious of which would be the big 6x6 truck chassis sitting outside — a genuine military GMC that he’s restoring with a big block Chev for power. “People come here, and some of them, they wonder how I got all of this!” he says. “This has taken me years. I’ve found stuff, and I’ve bought stuff at swap meets. I’ve sold a lot of stuff at swap meets, and I’ve sold good stuff, but now I’ve thought … nah, I’m gonna collect it.” Combine that with his hands-on approach to life, and it makes perfect sense as to why and how the Hanham shed has ended up stuffed chock-full of interesting things.

For that, Jim thanks Henry Ford — “if it wasn’t for Henry Ford, I wouldn’t be doing all this”. What does he mean by that? A few years ago, Jim went to the doctor with abdominal pains and was told he had cancer. “I’m not much into TV, so I’d go and work in the shed,” he says. “The tumour had taken over one whole kidney, and they cut the whole thing out. They told me it was 99.9-per-cent gone, but that I should go through chemo. Hell no! I wasn’t going to go through that shit. I was going to live long enough to finish the projects I’m working on and to see my grandkids grow up. I had things to do.” Of course, as well as Henry Ford’s contribution to Jim’s shed, he also has his family to thank. As he puts it, “I gotta thank my wife Robyn, my son Jason, and my daughter Stacey for the time I spent in the workshop building my hot rods. I’ve spent near half my life in the workshop! And there’s my mate of 30 years, Mike Watson, for helping me out at swap meets and running around picking up parts and cars.” Take that for what it’s worth to you. To Jimmy Hanham, hot rods are more than just cars, and when someone embodies the spirit of hot rodding in the way that he does, a collection like his is only natural.