Dirk Smal Snr has been a long time Rodder, his dream car a 1959 Chevy. He finally got his hands on one,
however, it was in really bad condition. He got started on the Chevy when he got a call from a friend in Bloemfontein who said that he had a complete 1959 Pontiac Strato Chief available. So Dirk Smal Snr and Jnr made the trip to Bloemfontien and picked up the car.
In 2012, Dirk Snr worked for the late Tom Bester, a well known Street Rodder. They were building a1955 Chevy 210 that was previously featured in SA Hotrods Magazine. Tom Bester knew what he wanted and my dad knew how to make that happen. My dad did most of the work on the car and it was a big success.
Every weekend and any spare time that they had free was spent working on the Pontiac.
In his son’s opinion, the car was not something to be restored as it had a lot of rust and dented panels but that did not scare Dirk Snr at all. He did all the bodywork himself whilst teaching his son along the way. Dirk is a perfectionist and everything had to be neat and perfect. Their plan was to build a Streetrod but to also keep it as standard as possible.
This story is from the Edition 89 edition of SA Hot Rods.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Edition 89 edition of SA Hot Rods.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
“My Pretty One” 1972 Opel Manta 1900
Owner: J.S Orlandini
Twin Turbo 350 Small Block Chevy
Designed and built by Nico at RS Performance
Building A Cal Look VW Beetle Part 1
There are few cars quite as cool as a souped-up VW Beetle that can easily kick the asses of more expensive car during a street race or on a drag strip.
Sema Battle Of The Builders
2020 Winner Brady Ranweiler 1963 Chevy 2 Door Wagon
Behind The Scenes At Disc Brakes Wildwood
Wilwood's new facility adds an additional 100,000 squarefeet to its manufacturing arsenal. The barrage of CNC machinery is run for two shifts each day, up to six days a week, with tooling designed in-house. That adds up to 10 tons of shavings spit out of the CNC machines each month!
The 100 Horsepower Upgrade: Cam Only 5.3L Test
What’s a cam swap really worth?
THE HISTORY OF RODDING SOUTH AFRICA THE FIRST GENERATION PART 3
In this issue, we follow the story of Eddie Jardine and friends during their rodding days.
Custom autosound
JAYCE’S CLASSICS SPARES OLD AIR PRODUCTS
E-STREET 2 EFI SYSTEM AFFORDABLE UNIVERSAL THROTTLE BODY ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION
Convert your V8 from a carburetor to the E-Street 2 EFI system in a single day with only basic mechanical skills and minimal tools.
AEROMOTIVE RELEASES NEW TRUE VARIABLE SPEED FUEL PUMP CONTROLLER
The state-of-the-art speed controller is designed to improve overall fuel system efficiency, reduce fuel temperatures and is compatible with Aeromotive’s line of brushless gear pumps.
