Modified Chev gets a big thumbs up

Lea and Willy Pelzers show off the latest additions to their trophy cabinet aboard their prize-winning truck. Photo/Stuart Munro

One man's junk is another's treasure and Wanganui hot rod aficionados Willy and Lea Pelzers can attest to that.

Their highly-modified 1948 Chevrolet cabover scooped the pool at the annual Beach Hop at the Whangamata beach resort last weekend.

And that was no mean feat, given they were up against about 1200 other customised motor vehicles and motorcycles. More importantly the voting was by the public and they turned out in their thousands on the weekend.

The Pelzers' truck started life as a 1948 Chevrolet cabover - a big US-built truck in the post-war years - and Mr Pelzer started modifications by dropping the cab onto a 1983 Chev Dually chassis.

But it didn't stop there. He then decided to shift the engine - a 454 cubic inch V8 - from the front of the truck to the middle, so the cab is mounted in front of the engine.

He shrugged off a question that that would have been mechanically challenging.

Last week was exactly five years after he went to the US and loaded up a "beaten-up old truck cab" to start his project.

"It's 100 per cent my design. I wanted it to look like it could have been a transporter taking a race car to the Bonneville salt flats back in the 1950s or 1960s," he said.

That's why the truck features white wall tyres and retro hub caps and a distinctive pale yellow paint finish.

There are some storage areas under the rear tray with the two nearest the front for LPG tanks because the engine can run on liquid petroleum gas.

Mr Pelzers only finished the build a fortnight ago so it could make it to the Whangamata in the Coromandel for one of the country's biggest classic car and hot rod shows.

On the Saturday there was parade of vehicles through the resort and the Pelzers reckon there were 100,000 people there.

"You wouldn't believe the numbers. It was wall to wall people," he said.

On he first couple of days the public are asked to vote for the cars they like the most and from that the top five are found.

"On the Sunday the top five are all put into an arena and then people vote a second time. We cleaned up everything," he said.

How much money has Mr Pelzers spent on the vehicle?

"I've stopped counting but probably less than half of what a lot of people would have spent because I've been able to do it myself. That's been the big thing. If I had to pay someone to do it there's no way we could've done it."

About the only thing he didn't do in the build was the paint but he said without the help from mates in the Wanganui Rd Rodders club it probably wouldn't have made the show.

He and his wife drove the truck to Whangamata and they said it performed like a dream. And fuel consumption wasn't off the chart either.

Mrs Pelzers is an ardent supporter of her husband's hobby.

"There have been many late nights getting this done," she said but added the effort was worth it.

"She's kept my tea warm for the last three months because that was a real rush to get it finished," he said.