> 51rod began with a visit to Mac Speeds
trade display at the Kumeu Classic
Car & Hot Rod Festival back in 2015,
and a long chat with owner Graeme
McNeill. If you had stopped by their
trade display you might recall seeing
a rolling Deuce frame with a dropped
axle and 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe
rear end, brakes, wheels and a split
wishbone mounted on the dropped
I beam. It definitely caught Bert’s
attention, and a deal was done. The
wheels, brakes, differential and the
split wishbone came from a 1940 Ford
Deluxe Coupe (featured in NZHRM
September 2015) owned by Wayne
Gibbons. Mac’s Speed had recently
upgraded Wayne’s car, and the remnants
were perfect for the traditional style
build. Graeme had already installed
engine mount tabs suitable for a
flathead or smallblock Chev as well
as the RH drive Vega steering box.
A flathead dummy block with a Macs
Speed adaptor for the GM 5-speed
transmission enabled the running
gear mounts to be fabricated, and
Graeme also completed anything
else which required welding.
The flathead V8 is based on a brand
new 239ci French block which was
still being produced in France up
until 1990. They were manufactured
for the Simca Unic Marmon military
truck, and Bert’s block is date stamped
March 1988. Most of the internals are
new except for the late model 3-3/4”
inch stroke crank. Being a brand new
block, it has standard displacement
pistons. The crank came in an engine
which Bert found on TradeMe. Bryan
Thomas from Cambridge had listed
a sidevalve V8 complete with finned
alloy heads and twin carb intake.
Bert purchased the engine to obtain
the crank, heads and intake. Mac’s
Speed assembled up the engine using
these components and included a
Mallory electronic distributor. The
carbs are new Stromberg 97s, and
the air cleaner tops have “Berts” cast
into the tops, which was a personal
touch added by Graeme. Bert made
up all the brake lines, fuel lines,
sorted most of the wiring, mounted
the steering column, gauges etc.
Bert ordered a Brookville body from
Duane Jones at Kiwi Konnection and
set it up on the now rolling chassis in
his home workshop. The body features
a two inch chopped screen, cowl vent
and four-piece hood. Bert’s profession isa builder and a damn good one at that.
Old school perfection is how I would
describe Bert’s building skills, which
are reflected in the upmarket homes he
has constructed around Tauranga. This
same attention to detail is reflected in
the construction of his roadster. Bert
mounted the body on the chassis and
set about making sure that all the body
gaps were perfect. He then started
fabricating and assembling everything
in a manner which reflected a “clean”
finish. For example, the headlight
wiring runs through the front spreader
bar, inside the chassis and up into the
body. The Glide seat base lifts up to
reveal the fuse block, and the seat back
folds forward for additional storage.
The car was fully assembled and fired
up, followed by a sneaky test drive
to make sure everything worked as it
should. Bert then totally dismantled
it and prepared it for painting.
Colour choice is always a major
consideration, and Bert contemplated
a couple of options before settling
on the same factory Ford colour,
which the reproduction roof bows
just happened to be painted when
they turned up. The roof, bows and
curtains are from Rod Tops and were