In the late 90′s i’d go hang out with my neighbour Daryel Blacktopp at his place and go through all his old New Zealand Hot Rod mags scouring for pictures of old cool hot rods and the possibility of a lowrider. I struck it once finding an image of the late Christchurch tattoist, Steve Johnsons ’56 Bel which i’m sure is the first lowrider to hit New Zealands shores. Here are some pretty rough images sent from Kenny from the Carnales from the magazine. I went and found Steves son Kelly at his Tattoo shop in Bromley ChCh to find out more about it. He remembers his Dad buying it Pomona in about ’86 off a Mexican gang member. The car was built in the late 70′s. Kelly remembers how noisy the hydraulics were as a kid and cruisng around Chch with his dad hitting switches was blowing peoples minds. There are a few more stories that Kelly had to share which i’ll post when he finds some photo’s from his Dads collection, and maybe some old VHS footage. Here is NZ’s first lowrider?
My old mate Neil and I became friends in the mid 90’s. We worked together in a skate shop and had a mutual interest in old cars and skateboarding. We often mixed both, having fond memories of rolling around to Christchurch skate spots in ‘Smokey’ his old ’55 oval beetle, slammed and primered, Eric Sermon bumping with 2 x 12” subs some how squeezed behind the back seat.
Neil has always been down for Vee Dubs. From memory it was Tre’s beetle in the movie ‘Boys n Da Hood’, which inspired him. Most were probably feeling Ice Cubes more obvious juiced ’64 Impala.‘Smokey’ was the first slammed and narrowed beetle that I saw cruising the avenues of Christchurch, and we used to cruise hard back in those days. Neil was and still is a VW trendsetter inspired by ‘Boys n da Hood’, and moving towards the look from the So cal VW club the ‘German Folks’. Moving on and selling Smokey was hard but a VW Bus was always on the cards.
Neils ’61 Kombi was going to be our first feature on Committed Few, but the van had an unfortunate accident having the hand break fail on his steep driveway whilst he was shutting the gate. Neil watched in shock as his pride in joy rolled down the hill backwards and crumpled into a tree which saved it from crossing the road and taking a dip in the Heathcote river. I got a phone call to hear the bad news, it was devoing! Whiskey helped Neil that night. Lucky for Christchurch and Neil pre the earthquakes, Marc from Das Vintage Werks (now in Timaru) was there to perform the surgery. Marc hand made about two thirds of the roof using gas only to weld with a hammer and dolly, no filler wire and he did a brilliant job. The Kombi was repaired better than she was pre crash, finding a few rust spots to fix along the way. Being a cabinet maker by trade Neil fixed all the old cabinetary in the rear damaged by the accident.
This ’61 VW Kombi is a genuine New Zealand assembled black plater. It was built with imported panels having unique to New Zealand interior and paint scheme added. The original owner of 30 years converted it into a camper in the 60’s where it lived in sunny Nelson. It passed through a few owners before being restored by McGuiness Motors in Wellington including full interior repaint but this bus still sports the original upholstery except for a new headliner and carpet. Since Neil has had ownership he has built a 4″ narrowed adjustable front beam with 3.5″ drop spindles. An upgrade with type 3 VW wagon box with new brakes and adjustable spring plates in the rear. Rolling on 15” BRM’s with 185/55/15’s on the rear and 165/50/15’s on the front she sits nice. Powered by a 1600 mystery motor that runs strong but likes to spill a bit of oil were ever its parked up, it ironically could be named ‘Green Peace’? No joke this van is very, very clean!
4Q aint underground anymore, which is cool. Motorcycle culture hasn’t been this hot since I don’t know when…? We’ve always backed Max Schaaf’s bike building style. Good Oakland, 1960′s style. There is something about 1960′s styled custom cars and bikes that is just too good.
Anyway, here is just another blog posting about 4q
A cool ad for one of Max’s recent Vans shoe. And Max’s section from Reals, Non Fiction.
Its been hard to get around of late and keep up with regular posts with a new addition to the family, its great having people helping out. A few shots from last weekends Frankton Roadster Show. I’m sure there were way more roadsters in attendance, but nice to see a cool selection of cars. New Zealand has some great cars and great people behind the wheel.
Its hard to bring a tear to my eye, not because i’m tough, thats not at all the case. Watching this I came close…
COMMITTED FEW
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Making original clothes with original designs and ideas for people actually into old cars, skateboarding, and the culture that is built around us.
