First published in the March 2009 issue of Street Machine

Forty-six years after it was born, the humble EH remains one of the most popular models the General ever dreamed up. Holden sold 250,000 in just 18 months and young blokes have been using them to express their creativity and upset their parents ever since. We’ve featured damn near 100 hot EHs in our 27-year history, with countless variations on the theme, but Generation Y has managed to throw out something different again.

With the ink still wet on his provisional driver’s licence, apprentice carpenter Robert Koch was looking for a neat EH to turn into a good street car but the search was tough.

“My uncle Alvin has been a hot rodder for years, so he came along with me to look at potential cars all over NSW,” Rob says. “Once we’d rejected about our 10th car, he said: ‘Why don’t we just build one ourselves?’ I thought that was a cool idea, so we started looking for a shell.”

Even then it took another year of searching before the pair found a body worth working on.

The plan was simple: drop in a Commodore V6, give the car a respray and end up with a cool cruiser. Rather than dreaming that the job could be done in six months, the pair had a realistic two-year build plan. So far so good, but that all changed when they stopped by their local Japanese wreckers to suss out some bucket seats.

“My uncle asked the guys at the counter about Japanese V8s and he pointed out a Toyota quad-cam. He told us the specs, we checked with the engineer and it was all over for the V6.”

Robert reckons that was the moment that the sensible two-year build plan blew out to what would become seven years, with the scope of the project expanding far beyond the original ‘cool cruiser’ intentions. He handled the engineering side of the swap himself, starting with the tried-and-true HR front crossmember, which was notched to clear the sump then heavily reinforced. This was matched to a rear-mounted shortened VH steering rack, for a better turning circle and minimal bump-steer. A set of two-inch drop spindles ensured that the car would sit low without buggering up the steering geometry — particularly important when you’re running big-inch rims.

The front brake set-up is also of Rob’s design, using 355mm VN rotors, adapted to 80-series LandCruiser calipers. Rob made his own engine mounts and used a Dellow bellhousing and an owner-built gearbox crossmember to mate the Supra five-speed to the V8. The factory oil filter fouled in the engine bay, so it was relocated using a LandCruiser remote unit, but surprisingly few other mods were needed to get the engine sitting pretty — just a lot of trial and error!

The engine itself is internally standard, the main deviations from stock being a Microtech ECU and the trick twin-throttlebody inlet manifold. Normally, these engines run a single throttlebody on the driver’s side of the engine but Rob had the boys at AMSE modify the inlet to allow the fitment of a throttle on each side — a V6 Commodore as the primary throttlebody and a V8 Commodore item as a secondary. That gives the motor a lot more breathing room for future upgrades, as well as lending the engine bay beaut symmetry.

Putting the grunt to the ground is a Ford nine-inch with 4.11:1 gears — a combination that no doubt scares more than a few late-model sports sedans at the lights!

When it came to the body, all the effort put into finding the right shell paid off, with little repair work needed. However, Rob put in plenty of time getting the car up to show standard, including shaving the fuel filler, filling the factory trim holes and removing the spot welds from the door jambs. He then threw the car onto a rotisserie and detailed the bejesus out of the undercarriage.

Like everything else in the build, Robert took his time choosing the colour, spending six months mixing and test-spraying different colours in the garage.

“I wasn’t happy with anything until I drove past a motorbike dealer and saw exactly what I was after — Kawasaki Lime Green Candy.”

He set up a spray booth in his garage and proceeded to prep and paint the under-body, diff, crossmember, springs and just about anything that could be unbolted from the body. He then handed it all over to the experts at his local panel shop, who laid on the paint proper.

“With the paint on, it was really starting to look like a car and turn some heads,” Rob says. “That was pretty cool, so I took it home and started to assemble it and wire things up. When I heard it start for the first time, that gave me a whole new rush of inspiration to get it finished.”

The final task to tackle was a complete re-imagining of the interior. Like every other part of the build, Rob did as much of the work at home as he could, using building foam, two-part expansion foam, fibreglass and cardboard to come up with a complete custom interior, including a custom dash, console, four bucket seats and a false floor.

He left the actual trimming to the experts, who decked it out in off-white Italian leather that Robert brought back in his hand luggage from holiday — customs approved, of course! With an engineer consulted the whole way along, the EH passed its rego test with flying colours.

“It took heaps of work and a lot of cold nights in the shed,” Rob says. “Thankfully, I had a lot of help from my mates. You can’t rush perfection and that is what I’ve tried to achieve with the EH.”

Engine in detail:

Toyota V8 is light, strong, cheap and powerful but doesn’t normally look this good. Here’s how the job was done:

1. 1. After failed searches for billet brake and clutch fluid reservoirs, Rob made his own.
2. 2. The single factory throttlebody was ditched in favour of dual Commodore items. Inside, the manifold is divided by a wave-shaped plate to prevent turbulence.
3. 3. The rocker covers are highly polished factory items, with the plastic Toyota-script inserts replaced with stainless steel.
4. 4. Rather than cut holes in the guards, Rob ran his extractors down between the chassis rails and the engine.
5. 5.Filter covers were custom-made by JNT.

ROBERT KOCH
1963 EH HOLDEN

THANKS
AMSE; PL Quinlan Trimmers; Oak Flats Electronics; Caballo Signs; Casey’s Smash; Paul’s Metal Polishing; Leisure Coast Welders; JNT; Park Engineering, Steve’s Speed Shop, Dubbo Electroplaters.