DOIN’ IT BIG
— TROPHY-HAULING PICKUP
Colin Pope is a regular, salt-of-the-earth kinda guy — a dairy farmer from Taranaki, with a few years’ life experience under his belt, if you must know. When a guy like that decides to get into the classic car game, you’d be forgiven for expecting him to be driving something a little less glamorous and maybe a little more utilitarian — and that was his original plan. When Colin decided to sell his road bike and get the next best thing, the arduous search online finally turned up a solid-looking ’51 Chev pickup on Trade Me. It hadn’t been complied and there was no price, but, after a few days, curiosity took hold and Colin rang the seller to have a look. “It looked pretty good, and I couldn’t see any visual rust,” Colin states. The truck’s background ran a little deeper than just its appearance. “In the States, the restoration had been started in Arizona by a serviceman, who [had] found it for sale on a farm but never returned from service in Afghanistan. His family had finished the restoration and sold it.” A handshake on the price sealed the deal, and the old Chev was transported from Tauranga to Taranaki a week later. “Driving it around was a major feat — with no power steering, it would wander a bit!” Colin recalls. “With a six-cylinder ‘Blue Flame’ and an old, lugging diff and four-speed box, it wasn’t fast, and had a hard ride due to the old springs.” However, Colin accepted all of that as part and parcel of owning a classic vehicle — until deciding to enter it into Americarna 2016. “The cruise to Opunake was real slow, with the old girl only doing 70kph flat out, and drinking fuel faster than the petrol stations came up around the coast!” he laughs. That’s where it all began. As Colin started to
entertain thoughts of giving the old Chev a touch of usability, he saw in the Americarna entrant package an advertisement for local business Walsh Auto Services and Custom Street Rides (CSR), promising to turn his dream into a reality. Colin wasted little time in meeting Kevin Walsh and having a chat about his Chev issues. “Kevin took it for a drive and was amazed that we could keep it on the road the way it was,” Colin chuckles. “He and Zarn asked us what we wanted in the build, and, after some discussion, we went for an all-out restoration job, modernizing it while leaving it a little original. We only wanted to do it once, so it had to be done right. We did say we’d love to enter it in Americarna 2018 — no pressure!” Picking up the brief and running with it, the Walsh Auto and CSR team started at the bottom, completely overhauling the antique chassis. While the rails are (mostly) original, Zarn has boxed them and added a whole lot of tubular cross members, including a Heidts independent front clip and custom four-link for the Currie Enterprises–built nine-inch rear. Zarn’s custom fabrication included mounts for the HSV-sourced LS1 and T56 six-speed combo, and the chassis was completed with the addition of Wilwood brakes and 20x10-inch Ridler chrome wheels. “Whenever we were passing by the shop, we would call in to see the progress, which was never a problem for the guys,” Colin mentions. “The first time we went and saw the pickup, it was
pulled to pieces, but Zarn had it all sorted, with everything tagged and marked out. Seeing the progress over the months as it got closer to finished, we couldn’t wait to get it on the road!” That progress included a bunch of changes to the bodywork. The firewall needed a recess welded in to clear the LS1 and was tidied up while that was being done, while a custom transmission tunnel went into the floor to clear the bulky T56. A subtle spine was worked into the bonnet and cowl panel, custom rear tubs into the rear, and the utilitarian running boards given an intensive refresh. What is immediately obvious is — obviously — the two-tone paintwork, which adds more of a modern touch than any of the other exterior changes. “We thought about leaving it in the original grey and black, but, after searching the internet, we found the colour we wanted — something a little more modern, reflecting the build,” is how Colin recounts that decision. “We went back to Kevin with a picture of the colour, and he came to our home with three big pieces of metal in different shades, which made it a lot easier to choose.”
The final choice was a custom PPG Deltron mixture known as ‘Cocktail Green’, paired with timeless Jet Black. It’s almost a shame that the flawlessly finished body had to be bolted onto the chassis — having been given a lick of the same green paint, that chassis is nothing less than a work of art. Such a standard presented flow-on effects too. Even though Colin didn’t need or want any more power than the stock LS1 would provide, it just couldn’t look as though it had been pulled straight out of a Holden — cue the addition of an aftermarket intake manifold, modified VCM Performance over-the-radiator intake, Hooker headers, custom coil covers, and a totally deloomed engine bay. “Time was running out for Americarna 2018, and pressure to get it on the road in time was down to the last hour,” Colin recalls. A major part of that concerned the empty space between the doors, but Dave Kindberg at Normanby Upholstery pulled through with that fantastically upholstered bench seat, door cards, and the rest! Things all worked out in the end, and, after a successful Americarna experience, Colin and Shelley joined their local Hyway 45 Cruisers car club, where they “enjoy the company of a great group of likeminded people and monthly cruises and events”. Oh, yeah, this old pickup gets driven just as often as it did before the restoration, if not more! It’s had its day in the sun as far as the show circuit goes, though, racking up the top Hot Rod Commercial prize at the 2018 Teng Tools Grand National Rod and Custom Show. So, what does the future hold now that old Chev truck is more than Colin and Shelley could ever have hoped for it to be? We think you’ll have read enough of these articles to know the answer to that already.
HAVING BEEN GIVEN A LICK OF THE SAME GREEN PAINT, THAT CHASSIS IS NOTHING LESS THAN A WORK OF ART