The first incarnation of Baloo was built by Peter and the boys, following much scrutinising of hot rod magazines and that old adage — if it looks right, it will be. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case.
They acquired the steel body of a 1938 Fiat Topolino from Dargaville, courtesy of Pete’s flatmate, Doug, who knew the Fiat’s owners. It wasn’t in the greatest condition and would require major surgery to remove the rust that had invaded its core. Because of this, that first body was quickly thrown out as it was too far gone, and another complete car was purchased in Beach Haven, with a new (1948) steel body sourced from a gentleman in the area who had just restored the car. Pete only wanted the body, but on the owner’s insistence, bought the whole vehicle. He took it home and promptly hacked out its floorpan, later selling off the Fiat’s parts in dribs and drabs.
The chassis they produced to fit under the Fiat body was made from 38mm square box section steel — in Peter’s words, the chassis “evolved more or less by joining the dots around the constraints of the wheelbase”. The front end was a split wishbone Ford 10, and the back end ran an eight-inch Ford Salisbury diff. It originally had suspension from a Triumph Herald. “That was an indication of our knowledge then, you just didn’t run suspension on these things.”
THE JOURNEY WAS OFTEN SOLVING ONE PROBLEM, ONLY TO FIND ANOTHER
The Moon tank and blower manifold came courtesy of Janice’s uncle Wayne, in the States. Apparently, he had to write a letter explaining this gear was for use on some cutting-edge agricultural machinery, vital for the development of the farming industry. Such were the archaic import embargo laws of the day.
Surprisingly, some parts were found locally almost by chance, such as the early Wico magneto found on a flathead and adapted to drive off the cam. However, this would be troublesome and was later replaced with a Vertex magneto. Some parts, like the Hillborn injection, Isky cams, and that Vertex magneto, were discovered after successfully navigating the tangled import web via George Smith of Auckland, one of the few early specialist parts importers then starting to emerge.
It seems the wily old campaigner, Smith, had his connections and amazingly he could pull the right strings, for a price, of course! For the uninitiated, George had been a trailblazer from the ’30s in breaking local distance records, and was an early racing pioneer on the beaches, Western Springs and, later, on local circuits in the ’50s.
