Mick ‘Nev’ Hodgson’s HK Monaro has been a family ride since the late 80s, and was handed down to him from his dad 10 years ago. “It was in the shed,” Nev began. “Two months ago, Dad got a little bit sick, so we took it off the rotisserie and spent those two months putting it back together.”

That entailed a lot of borrowing the stuff you now see on, in and under the car. “I need to thank Paul Cundy, Trent Hamill and Greg Love as the main contributors.” Nev joked that there’s a twin-turbo LS hooked to the fake twin pipes, but underneath the HK’s skin, you’ll find a 202, four-speed manual and Torana diff combo. “We’ll get the suspension finished and then it’s done,” Nev grinned. “Two months ago, this was on a rotisserie with not a part on it and more holes than you can imagine.

“We’ve had a ball; it’s either let it sit in the shed and don’t use it or get out and have a laugh,” Nev continued. That’s why we’re here, sitting on the bonnet and talking shit!”

While some people have shown a bit of disgust for the HK’s presentation, Nev pointed out that he’s done quite a bit of work to pull it back from the brink. “It’s coming back to life – think about the shit they did to these back in the day,” he said. “It’s got new rear quarters, new floors, and it’s all painted underneath. If you put new panels on the front and a new boot, it would have no rust in it.”

There’s something special about a finish that melds 60s rust, unpainted Rare Spares patch panels and bits of Cadbury Roses tins, as Nev points out: “I had to eat a lot of chocolates to get all those in!”