K
eep it real — real is real, bullshit is bullshit,”
states Neil Surtees.
As a man who has made it a personal mission
to churn out a new hot rod roughly every
two years, each finished to a greater standard than the
last, it should go without saying that Neil understands
the concept of ‘real’ better than most. A great deal of
that is the result of his preference to do almost all of
the work himself. As impressive as that is on its own,
his cars also possess an inimitable character resulting
directly from Neil’s refusal to comply with any sort of
rule book.
Neil doesn’t copy, and he doesn’t follow trends. He
simply builds what he thinks looks good and has been
lucky enough to be blessed with an artist’s eye — as
you will see from the three hot rods featured here.
There is something deeply satisfying in how perfectly
balanced and proportioned his builds are.
A boilermaker by trade, Neil built himself an alloy
boat in his garage back in the early ’90s. Before long,
demand for his boats was so great that he made the
call to build boats full-time. As the business expanded,
Neil grew Surtees Boats into the boat manufacturer it
is now.
Years of hard graft meant that he was able to retire
early — although, as you may have guessed, he’s not
the type of bloke to potter around a vegetable garden.
“I had some classic cars when I had my boats —
American classics — and, when I sold my business, I
got into building cars, which was something I always
wanted to do,” he explains.
The cars Neil speaks of are primarily hot rods, although
that is by no means the extent of his taste.
“I’m pretty flexible, but Model As are my little buzz.
They used to be kind of affordable, but they’re getting
pretty crazy prices now — still not as much as a ’32,
though. However, if you just collect panels, you can
piece shit together. It’s sorta my goal to build a car
every couple of years.”
That comment leads us neatly to the focus of this
article — the three Model A hot rods that represent
Neil’s most recent builds, and which reflect a shift in
Neil’s methods of building cars.
“I’ve built rat rods [and] more ’60s-style kinda stuff, but
then I started painting my cars,” he tells us. “I painted
my ’49 Ford truck and surprised myself. I’m not a
painter! The white coupe was the second paint job.”
To find out more about that white coupe, and the
subsequent hot rods Neil has pieced together, we’re
going to need to flip the calendar back a few years.themotorhood.com^69