Garage Crawl


Here's a few pics from a little jaunt Bob and I had. I met Stewart Campbell at the Rickshaw's Hot Rod Club 40th Anniversary in Newcastle earlier in the year. We got talking and discovered that he had a set of finned Offenhauser rocker covers. Before he could say another word I said "Sold! How much...?" Luckily (for me) the price was very fair, so I promised I'd keep in touch and organise a time to head up to his place.

It was probably two months before I got organised (lack of funds, plus a faulty brake booster delayed me a little) and headed up there for a bit of a road trip. Instead of just selling me the parts and sending us on our way, Stewart showed us around his rather impressive garage/workshop, took us both for ride in his roadster, then we all piled in and headed to a couple of his Hot Rod mates to check out their garages.

Here's the handful of pics I took... I ran out of film, Oops!


Here we have Stewart Campbell's Too Cool for School '29 Dodge roadster. Flathead 250 ci Dodge 6 and a Powerglide get this thing MOVING! On our little rap around the countryside we easily got up to 110 MPH! Thanks to a '55 Peugeot (Yep, you read that right) front suspension and a 4-bar coil over rear, this thing is as solid as a rock.

Stewart also made up a steel lift off top that matches the Duvall style screen beautifully... of course, the screen was made by Stewart too.
Here's the mighty flathead 6. Triple carbs and a custom exhaust really get this old girl going.

As you can tell, it's no show pony and has done over 20,000 miles in the last 6 years or so. Recently Stewart drove down to Melbourne for John's Rod & Custom Picnic, a round trip of almost 2000 km's!
... and here's the other side where you can see the Magneto and an upper cylinder lubrication system that allows the engine to run on this crap they now call petrol!
Here's Stewart's family hack. He bought it to make a quick sale, but his wife fell in love with it and now he's not allowed to sell it.

It's pretty much bog stock, just slammed to the ground, some whitewalls, spats and dummy spots... Instant sled.

Apparently Stewart went around to see the original owner, when the son saw the car he said... "See Dad, see what you could have done with a little bit of imagination!"
Here's a peek into Mark Brownrigg's shed. This is one of my all time favourite cars and many times it has been a screen saver on my computer. It was a real kick to finally meet the guy.
...and here's a close up of the mighty flatty.

Mark usually runs without a hood in summer to help the engine cool and to keep the heat out of the cockpit. In winter the hood goes back on to reverse the situation and heat up the occupants. Ah, technology!
Here's a peek at Mark's other shed, which is very large and very tidy. In fact Bob got more excited over the size of the shed than he did over what was inside the shed! I guess when you're a Pom you don't see sheds this big very often.

In case you're all wondering where those funny looking grilles come from that people put on '33 and '34 Fords, well here it is.
Now apparently this is a rare beast. It's a '38 Sedan Delivery and was an Australia only body style. I bet some of the Yanks out there would love to get their greasy hands on this one.

This one's pretty close to being on the road, but there's also a '51(?) Studebaker pickup that Mark's working on that seems to be distracting him a little.