Home on the move

Shiny polished steel and chrome are what you expect at a car show, but a Dunedin couple has a unique approach to classic cars. 

 

At the Zone 10 Otago Hot Rod show at the Edgar Centre on Saturday, Kevin Patrick and Tanya Eastlake hitched up a 1955 Chevrolet to a small homemade caravan. 

 

Mr Patrick said the teardrop shaped caravan was built on the rear end of a 1949-50 Ford Anglia. 

 

It still had the differential and the wheel hubs but the front part of the car was cut off and a draw bar attached. 

 

The body was given a homemade look with corrugated iron and wooden slats. 

 

Mr Patrick said while the caravan was mostly completed when they purchased it, he spent time during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown adding space for a camping stove in the boot, as well as decorating the interior as a cosy ‘‘love shack’’ with just enough room for two to sleep. 

 

‘‘We have both been in it, it is comfy.’’ 

 

Unlike many hot rods in the show that feature glossy paintwork, the pair kept the ’55 Chevy with a patina finish, which looks part rust and part original paint, retaining a sense of a car that had been well used throughout the years. 

 

About 200 cars featured at the weekend hot rod show and organising committee member Gerard Perkins said the show recognised 60 years of hot rodding in New Zealand. 

 

The national body was the New Zealand Hot Rod Association, established in 1961, and local clubs were organised into 11 zones. 

 

Otago was zone 10 and encompassed eight member clubs from areas including Oamaru, Dunedin, Central Otago, Queenstown and Balclutha. 

 

Hot rodding clubs included a ‘‘vast diversity of cars’’ with different styles and shapes, Mr Perkins said. 

 

Even in the days of the Ford Model T there were people who would make ‘‘second-day modifications’’, straight after purchasing them from the showroom. 

 

‘‘They would put wider wheels on them or taller wheels or take the guards off them or make them a bit faster, and that is how hot rodding evolved.’’