http://www.classiccar.co.nz | New Zealand Classic Car 89Garador.co.nz / 0800 427 236
If you’d like to let us in behind your garage door, send in a few pics
and a brief description of your project to [email protected]M
ike Hurrell, the co-owner of
Rustorations in Christchurch, has
a passion for working with other
people’s toys. However, some of the jobs that
he gets are more interesting than others.
For example, a customer brought in a very
sad right-hand-drive ’57 Ford Customline
sedan. His request to Rustorations was to
make it a more user-friendly boulevard
cruiser by doing away with the front drum
brakes and fitting modern power-assisted
disc brakes to it. It also needed a bit more
than some light bodywork.
Although the chassis was good, the body
was so rusty that it was only good for scrap.
After a bit of hunting around, the team
found another body, possibly brought in
from Canada, which was in much better
condition, but left-hand drive. Using a bit of
Kiwi ingenuity, fabricator Lionel cut out the
right-hand-drive firewall of the original car,
repaired the rust damage, and welded it into
the newly obtained body. The rest of theoriginal body was scrapped. Recently, Mike
prefabricated a set of exhaust header pipes
that allow the three-on-the-tree column
change from the original car to be fitted
in place of the Canadian car’s automatic
gearbox. Everything else is standard. The
Customline is now like a big Meccano set,
ready to be put together again.RHD TO LHD, AND BACK AGAIN
1957 FORD CUSTOMLINE