Owner — Zeroflex Industries

How do you think the car-audio scene has changed from the early days?

That’s a really hard one. I guess, back in the early days, people were doing things to be different. Now, people are building cars more for a purpose — whatever that purpose may be. There’s more attention to detail these days, instead of slapping a screen in here, there, and everywhere. Some of the stuff we used to do was pretty impractical; now it’s more detailed and more thought goes into it, I guess.

What does the CNC machine work you do for places like Rapid Radio entail?

If any of my customers have their own customers who want to do something special, they’ll organize the system design and the build design, and I’ll do the finishing work and the detail stuff, such as cutting Perspex, that they require to build a showstopper. CNC and laser cutting give a finish that you can’t achieve by hand.

Is that service available to audio shops all around the country?

It’s open to all of my customers, and it allows them to do far more than just drop a sub in a prefab box in a boot. We can make it something special for them. We currently supply 12 shops around the country. We take a careful approach to who we supply, because just as important as the products you buy is the way they’re installed into the vehicle. I’m all about dealing with the best stores in the country, not all of the stores in the country.

All I do is assist my customers to make sure their customers get the endresults they are after. It’s really about providing a service that allows them to get a better result and allows them to make something really special.

Since you don’t deal with the public direct, how can people find out what your products are and how to get them?

They can check out zeroflex.co.nz if they want any info. If they enquire through that website, I can put them in touch with their nearest retailer.

You’ve owned a few show cars over the years — do you have plans to build anything else?

I’ve currently got one in the build. I had a red Nissan 300ZX that was well known in the show scene around 15 years ago. It’s now getting a full hot rod–style rebuild. It’s got 24x15-inch wheels on the rear, airbags, and a 408ci Mopar V8 engine. It should be on the scene late next year. I guess what I’m doing is styling it around what I’d call a ‘Japrod’ — taking a Japanese car, applying a chassis to it, and giving it a bit of a hot rod look. I guarantee there will be some haters out there, but there will also be people who can appreciate the engineering that’s gone into building it.

Is part of the plan for that to reinspire the scene a bit?

For sure. A good friend, Jarden Kelly, who is probably one of the most talented car builders in the country, has done some phenomenal work on the car that’ll blow people away.

Here’s hoping it works; we look forward to seeing it.