4 minute read

Creating A Coupe

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In 2006, Nic decided to do some father/son bonding and thought building a project car would be the ideal way to spend time together with his son Terrence, whilst teaching him the fine art of car customising. Nic chose the HR Holden as it was the last model that Holden offered without the option of a coupe. The challenge to create his own custom HR Coupe was just too much to ignore. So, after tracking a suitable candidate car in Morwell, he sourced a second donor from Leopold Geelong. Apart from the obvious twodoor conversion, Nic has decided to widen the HR’s body by some 8inches, mainly to allow the fitment of the planned V8 engine package and extractors upfront with a little more room to move in the engine bay. Before any cuts were made to the main car, Nic and Terrence drew the lines out on the donor car and cut those to make sure they were going to be right from the outset. Measure twice, cut once, right? Other body mods include the lengthening of the front doors, which meant the quarter panels had to be extended to suit too. Initially, the HR was cut in half through the trans tunnel before going across the backseat support to the wheel arches, where around 4-inches were added to their width also. The same amount of width was added to the C pillars making the factory rear screen look like a smaller custom glass. Eight inches was added to the centre of the boot lid to keep proportions right. Width was also added to the firewall and dash.

To get the look of the car right Nic moved the B pillar back 245mm before cutting the height down to match the door frames giving the HR a pillarless coupe appearance. Removing the entire B pillar affects the rigidity of the body so Nic and Terrence have added extra bracing, crossmembers and supports to many areas of the HR to not only keep it safe, but to also please the engineer. You’ll also notice the custom back seat brace which was designed in house and welded into place with the help of John’s Hot Rod and Customs (Berwick Victoria). The floor area above the rear end was scalloped to allow the tramp rods to move up and down easily as well as creating space for the mufflers to tuck up high and out of the way. There’s also a fabricated gearbox crossmember that incorporates a tailshaft loop. This acts as a cross brace. The reworked tunnel now features a VY shifter mount welded into place. The rear roll pan has been modified for dual 3-inch exhaust outlets.

The all new custom glass will be electronically operated using standard, off the shelf window regulators. For added safety the HR’s doors and back seat panel have had intrusion bars added. All door skins are one piece and custom made by Craig Vayne Sheetmetal (Queensland) . Custom made side windows seal channels have been added and rolled to follow the top of the car where the windows will meet. Opening the widened bootlid exposes a custom-made full tank which is notched into the boot space for more capacity and to ensure the car can sit nice and low. The driveline trio will be fronted by an LS3 fitted with side-draught weber carbs that will be mounted to the engine via a custom intake manifold. Backing the engine will be a Commodore-spec 6-speed box with the power being sent rearwards to a custombuilt 9-inch diff with full-floaters, 31-spline axles and a 3.1 geared, tru-track centre. Brakes are Wilwood discs all round on custom alloy mounts, partially hidden by the 15x10 inch and 15x8 inch American Racing rims.

The Company

Kuza Kustoms was born out of friends and word of mouth customers needing things done right. While the business name is new, Nic has been using his craft during his spare time to assist others with their projects along the way. Now the business is continuing with Terrence moving into the future, with a 3D printing space creating new parts which are hard to come by. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for future updates on the HR Coupe and 3D printed parts www.facebook.com/Kuzaskustoms

The diff is custom built 9” with full-floating 31 spine axles and a 3:1 ratio with True Track locker. Wilwood calipers are mounted custom alloy mounts. Rear tyres are 26x12.5x15 inch on 15”x10 rims. Fronts are 26x10x15inch on 8x15 inch rims by American Racing. There will be a considerate ride height drop over the factory settings with lowered springs and upgrade shocks being slotted into each corner. VE Commodore power steering rack and pinion will be added . Once the bodywork is completed, and the custom fibreglass flip front added (from Graham Cowley Melbourne), the HR is likely to be coated in a smooth coat of 977 Mercedes Silver – always a classy colour! Since the work on the HR started some eight long years have passed but, in that time Nic has sold one house, built another with a bigger shed. This put the build on hold for quite a while. With both Nic and Terrence going hard at it now, it hopefully won’t be too long before this HR Coupe is out doing the laps of the local car scene…

THE MAN BEHIND THE BUILD...

Nic Kuzakov began building cars in his car port at age 15 in Dandenong South. This came about with Nic’s desire to have his first car drivable by the time he was 18. He brought a Morris 1100S for $50 and began working on it. As Nic grew up, he attended Doveton Tech school where he honed some skills in the fitting and turning and woodworking. Money being tight and parts being expensive Nic found jobs that directly provided parts or material necessary to complete his projects. An example of this was working in a textile factory to get Velour to line his HX roof lining. Nic’s entrepreneurial and outgoing nature made this an easy task by door knocking at local businesses to gain work and experience in the areas he wanted to learn or needed to learn. “He just has hands of gold, anything he touches just seems to work. I swear his brain never stops thinking designs and creations, we will discuss something at night the next morning he has a solution and already half way through doing it before I’ve had my morning coffee,” explained Terrence. Some of the cars he has owned and modified include - Morris 1100s, Torana Lj , Ford XD 351, body bought direct from Ford new, Holden HX & HZ Premier wagon, XY Ute GTHO super roo Clone, WB Ute 1 tonner and one style side, Ford F100 1956 460 big block/C6/9 inch, Ford Bronco – highly modified show winner – Nic owned Altera 4x4 in Dandenong.

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