In Our Garage Lindsay Smith's 1934 Chevy Sedan

Q. Tell us about your car:

A. I bought it as a vintage car and then we proceeded to chop it up and make it into a hot rod.

It's still a four-door standard car, the only thing we did to it to make it a bit different was widen in the mudguards two inches.

That’s because you can't buy decent wheels to fit the suspension you've got to put under it.

So, you've got to widen the cars to get the right wheels under it.

Other than that, we’ve re-powered it with a Commodore motor, it's got a Commodore Supercharged six in it, which I think for me at my age, it’s ample power to run around with.

The original car comes with the ordinary opening doors in the front and the back doors are suicide doors.

The roof is the original look of the soft roof.

Most hot rods usually put a steel roof in but I wanted this to look original.

That's why the spare wheels on the back and because I'm scared of getting a puncture.

 

Q. What condition was the car when you got it?

A. It was all good, really good.

It was registered driveable when I bought it from Maryborough.

What you do when you buy a vintage car to do up you’re only buying the body, you're not buying any of the mechanical stuff.

I bought it because it's pretty hard to find a car that age sitting on wheels and able to be moved.

So, when you see one that's altogether you don’t wait around to long because someone else is going to buy it.

 

Q. What made you want to by a Chev and turn it into a Hot Rod?

A. Well, I had been looking around for a good sedan for a while and this one happened to come up in a roundabout way.

I've always like Chev’s and the 34, I just like the look of them.  

I like the cars with running boards bumper bars and separate headlights.

This is what I call a retro rod, which is a car that you can drive every day of the week.

This one was blue when I bought it, I think the original colour would be black or dark grey or something.

Hot Rods have got to be bright, you’ve got to stand out.

So that's just the reason we went red.

Q. What do you love about the Chev and restoring old cars?

A. I like driving them, I just drive around and people wave to you.

When you stop somewhere, they want to take a picture of it or something.

It is just a hobby.

If you're retired, what else are you going to do? Go fishing or play golf or mow the lawn?

So, I just come to the shed and play in the shed all the time.

Q. What do you love about Hot Rods and being in a club?

A. I just like the look of them.

Back when I got my licence… I've always had old cars from then on.

And then when you retire eventually, you think, I’ll go back and do what I did when I was a lot younger.

I'm a member of the Rum City Rods and Customs, it's just a lot of guys doing exactly the same thing.

Occasionally we go for a drive, or we have a club meeting every second Tuesday in the month.

It's like people playing with the model train, they get really enthusiastic about that, or people who go fishing, golf, it's just another hobby.

We're always on the lookout for more interesting vehicles for In Our Garage. To have your vehicle featured contact us via email at news@bundabergnow.com