Hot rod a labour of love for Nick Carston

FPS Fabrication Specialist Nick Carston is excited his hot rod won third place in the ‘Unfinished Projects’ category at the National Hot Rod Show held at the Trafalgar Centre in November.

He started building the 1930s Willys 3-window Coupe with his Dad about seven years ago and says taking part in the recent hot rod show has encouraged him to dedicate his spare time to finishing the car. Nevertheless, after an estimated three thousand hours on the car to date, he still reckons it will take another year or so before the car is finished.

Nick says his passion for hot rods began as a youngster. “Dad had a hot rod – I’ve been around cars all my life. I like the look of early style hot rods, particularly those without fenders. You don’t find that on ordinary cars these days because of all the regulations but we’ll be able to get a special permit for my hot rod to be road legal.”

Building the car from scratch, Nick says he’s been making it up as he goes: “Seeing what will look good and going on from there.” He bought the 1930s body for his hot rod off Trade Me, which came from a car that had been a Nelson hot rod in the early 70s. Nick also acquired the chassis via Trade Me.

A love of cars runs in the veins of the team at FPS, which sponsored and followed intently the Project 64 Mini campaign. Sales Engineer / Director Gary Allen has a 72 Corvette and Sales Engineer Owen Little’s pride and joy is a replica Cobra he built from scratch.

Nick says input from the FPS “guys” on the build of his car has been invaluable.

“I’ve had heaps of help from the guys at work. They’ve been giving their advice on different things and I’ve been able to do the odd bit of work here and there in the FPS workshop. It’s been really good.”