Bernidene Fischer comes from a family of real ‘car people’. She has always loved the various cars, bikes and automotive projects that she has been exposed to growing up in a petrol head family.
Her personal involvement in this project only started halfway through its story.
Originally, the project was commissioned by her brother, Wayne, and undertaken by her father Ivan Slabbert from 031 Custom Rides.
The vehicle started as a project in Hermanus that was abandoned. The owner had it on the internet and Ivan snatched it up. Ivan had originally built the Hot Rod to her brother Wayne’s specifications and preferences, with a Cummins 5.9l turbo diesel engine and 5 ton Mercedes tip truck manual gearbox.
Unfortunately her brother Wayne was killed in a car accident when the project was all but complete. Wayne had even had the final fitting for the seat position.
After this happened, Ivan wrestled with the decision of what do with the car.
Bernidene made the decision to take over the arrangement between her dad and brother. From that point onwards, she worked on the car over weekends with her dad and learnt how to weld, grind and “swing spanners” under her father’s masterful guidance.
Together they made the decision to exchange the Cummins engine for a Chevy as this would be a more realistic setup for Bernidene as this car is her everyday driver. To accommodate this, the chassis had to be shortened, the interior altered, new tailpipes fabricated, to name a few changes.
The body was not in very good condition and there was about 5% that was totally rusted. Luckily there was no need to do any sandblasting. The bodywork took months to complete. Ivan chopped the firewall and roof by 100mm in addition to ensuring that the body was in the best condition possible to apply paint. The bin was also fabricated by Ivan and lined with marine ply and then sealed with polyacrothane. The name of the paint chosen for the car is Wimbledon white and is 2K. They searched for the perfect “creamy” shade of paint and this ticked all the boxes. Ivan did the paint application himself.
This story is from the Edition 103 edition of SA Hot Rods.
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This story is from the Edition 103 edition of SA Hot Rods.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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