Affectionately known as ‘Grumpy’ – which is more to do with the demeanour of his cars than his personal temperament – Bob Grambau didn’t get the memo that you’re meant to take it easy in retirement. Following a complete revamp of his iconic EH Holden (SM, Apr-May ’82 and Oct-Nov ’87) in 2015, Bob claimed he was hanging up his boots for good. Soon enough, however, the 73-year-old revhead was soon in the thick of a new build: the stunning, elite-level ’34 Ford you see here.

First published in the August 2025 issue of Street Machine

But the car that started it all for Bob is his EH Holden, also known as GRUMPY. With its tough-as-nails, tunnel-rammed small-block, impressive quarter-mile times and show-stopping presentation, it’s little wonder that the EH is one of the more fondly recalled Aussie street machines of the 70s and 80s. And as you can see, it’s now been extensively modernised.

Bob was a 17-year-old apprentice mechanic when he purchased the car in 1969, and it’s been a beloved member of the Grambau family ever since. “It was my first car; I drove it everywhere,” Bob says. “Maureen and I got married in it; I drove both my son and daughter to their weddings in it as well.”

Starting life as a green stocker, the EH was initially upgraded with a strong 179 bored out to 186ci, backed with an Aussie four-speed. But as Bob began racing it with increasing regularity at Calder Park, he wanted his Holden to be more competitive. So, he and his fitter-and-turner old man dropped in a 350 Chev, along with an M21 Muncie four-speed and narrowed Pontiac 4.11:1 diff, which his dad also machined custom axles for. They completed the conversion in the family’s single-car garage!

Bob then campaigned the EH in the A-class off-street drags at Calder, running a 12.2@116mph best on street tyres – mighty heady stuff for the 70s!

Along the way, the Muncie made way for a TH400, and a Weiand tunnel ram sporting twin 500cfm carbies was added, as was the well-known Yosemite Sam motif on both front guards.

As well as collecting 104 timeslips over the years from tracks such as Calder Park, Heathcote and Adelaide, the Grambau clan also drove the car to dozens of events, including plenty of Street Machine Nationals and Summernats, as well as the Rickshaws Hot Rod Show in Newcastle.

By 2013, the EH had well and truly earned itself a full make-over. “We redid the entire car from headlight to tail-light,” says Bob. “Stripped it down to nothing and put it on a rotisserie.”

Darryl Blackwell from Restoration Industries was tasked with removing the old fender flares, mini-tubbing the rear, moving the springs inboard and redoing the old Dulux black duco in mile-deep PPG black two-pack. A Southern Chassis Works front end with stainless control arms and rack-and-pinion steering was slid under the nose, while Mickz Motor Trimming gave the interior a thoroughly modern fit-out.

Bob had more power in mind for the revamped Holden, so he called upon longtime friend George Haddad to screw together a new small-block. The brief called for a stout street engine, as Bob was adamant about being able to use the car on the road. Starting with a Motown block, George added a Scat crank, CP pistons, a Comp Cams roller cam, AFR alloy heads, a Dart intake and an 850cfm Holley carb. With PULP-friendly 10.7:1 comp, the 434ci stroker makes around 600 healthy horses.

The TH400 was swapped out for a full-manual Powerglide, along with a 31-spline nine-inch rear end with a Truetrac centre and 4.3:1 gears.

The EH still boasts an all-steel body and full glass, weighing in at 1486kg. In its current form, it’s run a best of 11.4@121mph, with loads more potential on tap. With a bit more sorting, Bob might just achieve his goal of snagging a mid-10-second timeslip! Yet despite being gruntier and better finished than ever, this well-loved Holden remains 100 per cent street driven.

Upon completion of the EH rebuild, Bob had started to ponder what he’d do next, when his wife Maureen suggested, “How about we finish the hot rod?”

The Grambaus had been shuffling a Deuce Customs ’34 Ford body and accompanying chassis around their shed for some 30 years, so they figured it was finally time to blow the dust off it and get to work. Ten years later, Bob and Maureen unveiled this stunning 1934 Ford coupe at Meguiar’s MotorEx 2024.

To bring the hot rod to life, Bob assembled virtually the same build team that had worked on the EH, with George Haddad on engine-building duties, Darryl Blackwell on body and paint, Mickz Motor Trimming taking care of the cabin, Alan Bailey wiring it all up, and of course Maureen pitching in throughout.

“I can’t believe it; 50 years of building cars together and she’s still right there by my side,” Bob marvels. “As well as helping wherever she could, she bagged and tagged every last nut, bolt and bracket, which was a massive godsend during final assembly. And she can talk cars with the best of them!”

The chopped three-window coupe rocks one of the very early repro bodies from Ken Brownlee of Deuce Customs. It’s still a great piece, with no cracks and decent gaps, and the double-skinned floor makes it just as smooth underneath as it is on top.

The Rod City Repros chassis is equipped with one of the business’s polished-stainless double A-arm front ends and a four-bar rear, the latter upgraded with a Panhard bar. The rear rails were also kicked in 50mm each side to clear the fat, 12in-wide Mickey Thompson rubber.

That incredible body and paint took Darryl Blackwell at Restoration Industries a full five years to complete, and it’s the blackest black that PPG makes. There’s not a ripple or awkward reflection in sight, which is quite a feat given how notorious black is for highlighting even the tiniest imperfection.
“I spent a lot of time getting the power windows 100 per cent,” says Bob. “It took me five attempts to get the 6mm MDF templates right. Anybody who reckons building a fibreglass car is easy – nope!”

Lightweight hot rods don’t require a tonne of grunt to push them along, but revhead Grambau dialled it way past 11 anyway, instructing Haddad Race Cars & Engines to build a bitchin’, 8/71-blown big-block filled with loads of go-fast goodies.

Transferring the prodigious grunt is a full-manual TH400, followed by a 35-spline nine-inch with 4.11:1 gears, full-floating ends and a Truetrac-equipped alloy centre. In typical hot rod fashion, the brake booster and master cylinder are mounted under the floor and rely on a CVR electric pump to supply sufficient brake vacuum.

The rod is fully engineered, too, with JC Bonneville inspecting the car some six times during its construction. Some of JC’s requirements included relocating the retractable seatbelt mounts, swapping the original Z-bar to a Panhard bar, and adding a centre rear stop light, rear reflectors, windscreen washers and a minimum 12mm of clearance on everything.

After missing Meguiar’s MotorEx 2023 by a whisker, Bob kept the ’34 under wraps for unveiling at last year’s MotorEx, where it qualified for Meguiar’s Superstars in 2025. To date, the black beauty only has around 300 kays on the clock, but after a few more shows, including the Victorian Hot Rod & Street Machine Show in August, Bob and Maureen are looking forward to racking up plenty of kilometres in the immaculate machine.

And if you’re thinking that’s it for Mr Grambau, you’d best reconsider. “I’d like to build another EH for Street Machine Drag Challenge,” Bob says. “Maureen and I love building cars together. Through our five-decade love affair with cars, we’ve met so many people, made so many lifelong friends and have so many great memories. Besides, you’re a long time dead!”

Can’t argue with that.

1934 Ford coupe

1964 EH Holden

GRUMPY VERSION 1

Bob’s EH scored two Street Machine features back in the day, one in the very early days of the mag (SM, Apr-May ’82) and a full-colour job in the Oct-Nov ’87 issue.

As you can see, the EH was a little different back then, with flared guards all ’round to accommodate fat rubber on 7×13 front and 8×14 rear Splattys.

Poking through the bonnet was a tunnel-rammed, Bob-built 350, sitting in a detailed engine bay decked out in a contrasting blue, with a stainless firewall cover. The blue detailing extended to the undercarriage.

Inside was blue and beige velour, an HQ console for the T-bar shifter, a centre-pull handbrake, and blue carpet, while the boot housed a cool spun-alloy gas tank, sitting behind the back seat.

THANKS
Darryl Blackwell at Restoration Industries; Haddad Race Cars & Engines; Mickz Motor Trimming; Alan Bailey for the auto electrical work; Ron at Kustom Bitz; Dave at Maltech for the EH’s brake lines; my son Patrick; my wife Maureen for all her help and support.