Working Classics – The Surgery – Classic Car Restoration Wellington

VW Beetle – The Museum Art Hotel Wellington

The Surgery — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:00:13 +0000

For every person we meet and every car we feature in NZCC there is a special story – whether linked to the owner’s past or simply the tale of a burning passion to own a particular classic car. However, this story
is particularly interesting because not only does the owner of this fairly radical VW Beetle, Chris Parkin, have a keen interest in classic cars and motorcycles, he is also passionate about art and the Museum Art Hotel which he owns. Late last year we were invited to stay at the Museum Art Hotel in Wellington and spent some time talking to Chris, the man behind this unique establishment.

Chris was born in the UK and immigrated to New Zealand when he was four years old. He grew up in the small rural town of Otaki where he attended the local school, and went on to study at Victoria University in Wellington, graduating with both MSc (Hons) and BCA degrees.

Chris spent the early part of his working career in the banking industry before he started operating the Museum Hotel (formerly the Michael Fowler Hotel) as a result of a bet with the Secretary of the Internal Affairs Department. He was also the driving force behind an extraordinary engineering feat – this involved saving the hotel from de- molition to make way for Te Papa in 1993 by, quite literally, moving the entire hotel across the road on railway tracks; it is the largest building in New Zealand to be relocated. This rescue mission led to Chris being named Wellingtonian of the Year in 1993 and, in 2006, he completed a $29 million nine-storey expansion of the hotel to a mix of hotel rooms and apartments.

It is located in the heart of Wellington – New Zealand’s arts and culture capital – and Chris Parkin’s creative influence is felt throughout the luxurious Museum Art Hotel. The hotel houses an extensive, private collection of contemporary New Zealand art – over 80 pieces – collected by Chris over the past 17 years.

Chris commissioned New Zealand artist, Lynne Sandri, to create a Museum Hotel Art Guide cataloguing the art. Guests may use the guide and take their own leisurely tour of the diverse art works on display throughout the hotel.

In February 2010 Prime Minister John Key launched The Long Gallery – an external gallery display area exhibiting changing contemporary New Zealand art work.

The hotel also offers a highly personalised service that includes beautifully furnished suites featuring sumptuous, yet modern décor, characterised by attention to detail and an intimate feel.
For those wanting to indulge in the very best fine-dining experience in Wellington, Hippopotamus – the hotel’s award-winning in-house restaurant – features authentic French-style cuisine by Laurent Loudeac. Chris established the French-themed and Versace-inspired Hippopotamus Restaurant in 2007, and it has since grown to be the most successful hotel restaurant in New Zealand, with the major- ity of its business coming from outside the hotel.

The hotel is on Yahoo’s list of the world’s top 10 hotels.

When Chris is not busy running the hotel, or travelling far off the beaten track (usually on a motorbike – a recent trip saw him heading out in the northwest frontier provinces
of Pakistan, in Taleban territory, on his way through the Karakorum mountain range to China and eventually Tibet; a journey of 6000km), he is consistently serving the arts community through sponsorship assistance to many organ- isations, including a $100,000 donation to the Wellington Sculpture Trust, and for the past 11 years he has been sponsoring the top student at Toi Whakaari/New Zealand Drama School.

A Wellington City Councillor for nine years before retir- ing in 2004, Chris has also been involved in Wellington’s art and cultural scene for many years, and the Museum Art Hotel is a significant sponsor of visual arts, film making, theatre, music and dance, as well as having sponsored a number of motorcycle racers over the years. Currently he is chairman of the New Zealand Affordable Arts Trust (which runs the New Zealand Art Show for emerging artists each year), chairman of Wellington Venues Ltd (which operates all the large Council venues, including TSB Arena), chair- man of Te Whaia Services (which operates the schools of dance and drama) and is a director of Te Papa and trustee of the Hannah Playhouse (Downstage). Chris is also a lead- ing proponent of a new convention centre for Wellington, as well as a national art gallery, both of which would add significantly to Wellington’s growth prospects, and was recently awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday honours list.

You’re probably wondering by now how on earth Chris has time to enjoy his classic cars and motorcycles. To be honest, even Chris admits he doesn’t get to spend nearly as much time as he’d like behind the wheel of his Aston Martin DB7, BMW 535M (as featured elsewhere in this issue) or this stunning VW Beetle, which is used primarily as a promotional vehicle for the hotel.

The VW Beetle wasn’t actually planned as such, the idea only materializing when Chris decided to employ a sales and marketing person. After offering the position to the successful candidate, the subject of a company car came
up. Although a company vehicle wasn’t initially being offered with the position, not wanting to start a new working relationship on a bad note, Chris suggested that he’d sort something out, but made it quite clear that the car had to be something distinctive and representative of the hotel. After consulting a friend, the idea of a beautifully restored VW Beetle was considered. It all sounded too easy, they reckoned it would take about three months to complete and wouldn’t cost more than $20,000 – less than a good used car.

Unfortunately, the person contracted to build the Beetle turned out to be not as competent as they’d hoped, and Chris was forced to retrieve the basic car and all the bits and pieces which went with it – everything was loaded onto a trailer and taken to the team at The Surgery.

With a design brief to rebuild the Beetle as a combination of custom and retro styling with an artistic edge, The Surgery began work on the worn-out 1972 1302 Super Beetle, quite a rare semi-automatic model. The initial idea was that another company in Wellington would project manage the work while The Surgery was contracted to carry out bodywork and painting. However, as things turned out, The Surgery ended up completing all the work, including the project management.

The first task was to completely disassemble the Beetle, starting with the interior, dash, engine, transmission, glass, and chrome until it was just an empty shell. The bare shell was then acid dipped and sand-blasted back to bare steel.

Old battle scars and rust meant cutting out damaged sections from all four guards, floor pan, heater ducts, doors and quarter panels, these being replaced with fresh panels. To give a lowered appearance without turning the Beetle

into a hot rod was a difficult ask for The Surgery’s skilled team. They eventually opted for a retro look by cutting the complete roof off from the bottom of the screen pillars and waistline of the doors. Fifty millimetres was then removed from the pillars to lower the roof-line and a complete roof from a 1960 Beetle was then fitted. This model of Beetle was chosen because of the higher ‘crown’ in the roof panel and lower roof gutter line, thus enabling The Surgery to give the VW a ‘chopped’ roof look without sacrificing interior head-room. The Beetle’s glass was then either remade or cut down to suit the new opening sizes and shapes.

The end result makes you give the Beetle a double take – is it modified or not? It certainly looks different.

With all the panel work prepared and ready for paint – and with handmade period-style bumpers fabricated and installed – the next thing to consider was paint colour. The Museum Art Hotel’s official colours are black and gold,
so PPG two-pack high gloss/high solid jet black paint
was chosen. A retro-twist was added with the addition of hand-painted gold lace-work inserts on the car’s flanks, while specially-designed gold wheels completed the overall theme.

Mechanically, the Beetle wasn’t in the best shape so the engine was fully reconditioned with a few performance enhancements, including an electronic ignition system. Final detailing of the engine bay included gold-plating some items, whilst all the exhaust components were replaced with new parts, all of which were HPC ceramic coated.

The ‘bling’ needed to stop, so the Beetle’s brakes were upgraded to four-wheel discs and a completely new suspension set-up was installed and lowered using factory conversion kits.

The next item on the agenda was the electrical system – including the fitting of a new wiring loom with additional extra features including remote central locking, up-rated performance headlamps, interior LED lighting, remote interior UV lighting (for use at night when parked) and engine bay LED lighting.

The final task was to contrast the interior with the rest of the car, so it was treated to a complete re-trim in white leather with gold trim (set off by ultraviolet lighting at night), gold embroidery on the interior panels with the Museum Art Hotel logo, black carpets with gold edging, gold plated interior fittings, a gold chain link steering wheel and a custom sound system to complete the picture.

Two days before Christmas, three years ago, the car was delivered to the Museum Art Hotel unbeknownst to Chris. It was the night of the annual Museum Art Hotel Christ- mas party, and when Chris entered the hotel, there was
the Beetle in all its glory. Today, his only regret is that the Beetle should get out and about much more than it does – and, of course, he’d like to be driving it himself.

Nevertheless, the end result is a vehicle that attracts attention wherever it goes – it’s a genuine ‘one of a kind’, much like the Museum Art Hotel.

1955 FJ Holden Ute – Bangers From A Banger

The Surgery — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:00:30 +0000

At NZ Classic Car, we’re always enthused and fascinated by the incredible variety of classic cars that exist in this great country of ours. They range from Austins to Zodiacs, Lamborghinis and Ferraris to Morris Minors and Javelins – and all

of them come with their own unique stories and with owners who are equally enthusiastic and passionate about what their favourite marque means to them.

Every once in a while a vehicle comes along that we’d consider unusual or unique for whatever reason, such as our recently featured aero-engined Riley or perhaps the cute, lime-green Eastern European Trabant that
we featured earlier in the year. And that brings us to this stunning

FJ Holden ute. As you read this story it’ll become rather obvious what makes it so unique, and a stand-out from the crowd.

It all started when Export Meat Warehouse, a national chain of 23 franchised and independently owned butcher shops, decided to create a totally unique mobile BBQ.

The idea for this BBQ was sparked by the story of an adventurous fellow from Australia called Tom O’Toole, a baker from Beechworth in Victoria. O’Toole travelled all around Australia in an old Model T van, even going to
the very northernmost tip of Australia where people said it couldn’t go. Hamish Preston, managing director of Export Meat Warehouse, was so inspired by Tom’s story that he decided to create something similar in New Zealand.

The Export Meat Warehouse head office team scoured the country for a suitable vehicle, and in addition Hamish Preston also approached well-known vehicle restoration team at The Surgery, to discuss ideas on a promotional vehicle based on a 1930s-1940s pick-up truck capable of carrying a portable BBQ in the back that could be taken out and set up at shows and special events.

Both Hamish and the team at The Surgery kept an eye out on local auction websites and in the Cars for Sale section in NZ Classic Car, looking for the right vehicle to use. After some intense searching finally, an FJ Holden ute came up for sale on the internet and both Hamish and The Surgery decided to go to Nelson, where the ute was located, to take a further look.

The old FJ was the perfect solution for what Hamish wanted to achieve and, after a bit of haggling with the owner, a deal was struck and the project began.

The vehicle the pair had finally settled on was a 1955 FJ Holden ute, a classic vehicle in every sense of the word.

The FJ has indeed become a celebrated Australian icon and, in fact, the trusty FJ undoubtedly played its part in cementing Holden’s place as building Australia’s most popular car. Today, Holden lovers, restorers and those wish- ing to modify this iconic classic recognise that unmistakable, era-de ning chrome grille and stylish monogrammed hubcaps. Indeed, that distinctive front grille assembly has since made the FJ one of Australia’s most familiar faces.

Once the FJ ute was in the hands of The Surgery, work began on turning this old banger into a mobile BBQ, a restoration project that would last seven months.

The task in hand was to create a vehicle which a wide sector of the New Zealand population could relate to, plus it needed to have the feel of those old-time Kiwi golden summers – and so the task was to transform an old, retired icon into a genuine working classic.

Hamish’s requirements for the vehicle were quite specific and included such things as upgraded brakes, suspension, engine and gearbox, but the vehicle still had to retain its classic personality.

The FJ ute also needed to be user-friendly and reliable, as it was to be driven by a wide range of people and be capable of carrying heavy loads at times.

Another requirement was that the old FJ had to have a few creature comforts on board (for those long trips up country) and be capable of keeping up with the general traffic on the roads.

Last but by no means least, it needed to be self-contained with a complete BBQ that could be easily and quickly
set up and put away and, just as importantly, the ute still needed to look original to the untrained eye.

The first job on the agenda for e Surgery was to develop a suitable design that was not only practical, but that would also comply with the requirements set down by Hamish and his team at the Export Meat Warehouse. The Surgery produced dozens of sketches, working drawings and innovative ideas which ultimately came together to produce an end result which has since become a highly sought after (and very cool) marketing tool for Hamish. Basically, the result of The Surgery’s work ended up being a cross between a camper van, food catering vehicle, mobile marketing machine and classic car all rolled into one – complete with a bright red paint job and whitewall tyres.

In actual fact, the FJ Holden was in fairly tidy original condition, albeit a little worn, providing The Surgery’s team with a good base to work from. The first step was to completely strip all the mechanicals, interior, engine, gearbox, suspension and electrics out of the ute so that design work, mechanicamodificationsns engineering, upgrades and over- hauls could be carried out.

The next step was to test t the entire new drivetrain that included a fully reconditioned 3.3-litre (202ci) Holden engine with a modified sump and oil pick-up. e new engine also featured new standard 202 engine mounts, new heavy-duty 120-amp alternator and a Holden VK Commodore electronic pointless ignition distributor. A heavy-duty radiator with a thermostatic controlled electric fan was installed to take care of the cooling department.

e engine was then mated to a Holden Commodore ve-speed gearbox, and a heavy-duty clutch was added to take care of any extra weight. e next step was to install the ball-jointed (from original king pin) front suspension, but not before the front cross member was upgraded to

a Holden HR unit. New gas shocks and front sway bar
were also fitted, while the rear suspension received a set of adjustable heavy-duty gas shocks. e front brakes received a disc brake conversion complete with new callipers, brake booster, master cylinder and overhauled pedal box assembly, all courtesy of Holden VK Commodore.

Once the drivetrain was completely installed and fully

checked to ensure everything worked and operated as it should, the vehicle was completely disassembled again so the panel work and straightening could commence.

e bodywork on the FJ was fairly sound to start with for its age, considering that The Surgery and Hamish had spent some time looking for a good example. e Surgery discovered that the FJ ute was previously painted white, and there were visible areas of surface rust once the shell was stripped back to bare steel which required a small amount of cutting and welding operations before it was repaired and straightened.

When the body was perfectly straight and prepared for painting it was then fully sprayed in Export Meat Ware- house colours using PPG two-pack products, and the company graphics and sponsor logos were applied. e body was also fully rust-proofed and under sealed at this time.

Now the body was painted it was time for the reassembly of all the new and revised mechanical and suspension components, as well as a 12V electric heater/demister, remote electric central locking system, up-rated headlamps, 12V system and heavy-duty 12V starting battery. Originally the FJ didn’t have indicators, so an indicator switch was designed and fitted to the steering column and the indicators placed inside the front side lamps and tail lamps. e windscreen wipers were converted from vacuum to dual speed electric wipers and inertia seat belts and centre lap belts were fitted. To add the finishing touches to the ute’s interior, a CD player with iPod plug and two four-inch speakers were installed in the doors.

Once the FJ Holden Ute was fully restored and looking a mil- lion dollars, the hardest and most challenging component of this entire project had to be tackled – installing the BBQ.

After much research and countless design concepts, The Surgery created the overall effect for the canopy. e look was one of a stylised wooden ‘crate’ as seen back in the 1950s, complete with black boards on the sides for those special sale items. e canopy has exterior low watt- age lighting that lights up the black boards at night, plus red strip lighting around the underbody to highlight the flames which can be left on at night when the FJ is parked up in high traffic areas for maximum exposure. ey can be turned on and o using the remote central locking control. e canopy doors open upwards and lock together to create large signage areas.

They also have exterior speakers concealed inside which are linked up to a second sound and PA system located inside the canopy.

In a matter of minutes, with one quick action the entire kitchen-catering contents of the canopy slide out on a deck that carries a self-contained stainless wash hand basin (with electric water tap), a water tank with hot and cold water, a full six-burner BBQ, cook/prep top/storage drawer and 12V fridge. All ready for use straight away.

is amazing creation also includes interior adjust-
able LED lighting, a built-in electronic Intellicharge self-charging system with two storage deep-cycle ‘house’ batteries that allow the complete system to run under its own power for up to nine hours. e batteries can recharge while driving or can be plugged into 240V mains. There is an on-board petrol generator t , if required. In addition, there are inbuilt safety features such as an electronic gas extractor, re extinguisher and the main power switch that can use the ‘house’ batteries to start the FJ if the starting battery runs at. Full test and certification of complete vehicle and modifications were completed.

Called the BBQ Ute (registration IBBQ4U), the BBQ Ute is totally self-contained with its own fridge, hot running water, gas BBQ, workbench and sound system, all the equipment needed to cook a superb banger.

Export Meat Warehouse has selected KidsCan charity as its primary charity of choice, which provides disadvantaged Kiwi children with shoes, raincoats, food, and school books – it’s also supported by the All Blacks. But there is also room for local charities to be supported.

e FJ Holden BBQ Ute will be used at charity events right around the country, as it travels to members’ stores, and to special events. Whenever it is out on the road, the ute attracts a huge amount of attention – it really needs to be seen to be believed, as it’s one of those interesting, very unique vehicles that we can all appreciate and admire.