Dirk Smal Snr has been a long time Rodder, his dream car a 1959 Chevy. He finally got his hands on one,
however, it was in really bad condition. He got started on the Chevy when he got a call from a friend in Bloemfontein who said that he had a complete 1959 Pontiac Strato Chief available. So Dirk Smal Snr and Jnr made the trip to Bloemfontien and picked up the car.
In 2012, Dirk Snr worked for the late Tom Bester, a well known Street Rodder. They were building a1955 Chevy 210 that was previously featured in SA Hotrods Magazine. Tom Bester knew what he wanted and my dad knew how to make that happen. My dad did most of the work on the car and it was a big success.
Every weekend and any spare time that they had free was spent working on the Pontiac.
In his son’s opinion, the car was not something to be restored as it had a lot of rust and dented panels but that did not scare Dirk Snr at all. He did all the bodywork himself whilst teaching his son along the way. Dirk is a perfectionist and everything had to be neat and perfect. Their plan was to build a Streetrod but to also keep it as standard as possible.
This story is from the Edition 89 edition of SA Hot Rods.
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This story is from the Edition 89 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.
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