Tony Wilkins and his sons Jesse and Corey are names that have been popping up on the show scene of late. Their family-owned Sunshine Coast workshop, Hardwood Rod & Custom, has been producing some epic builds that have appeared at some of Australia’s top car shows.

You may remember Darren Ison’s tough, Hardwood-built HT Holden ute blowing minds when it was unveiled at Rockynats earlier this year. The Wilkins boys also sent the HT to Melbourne after it scored a spot among the Meguiar’s Superstars finalists at MotorEx 2024.

After spotting Tony, Jesse and Corey rolling around in their old-school sleds at Cooly Rocks On and ripping up the dirt at the Downs Dust-Up, we had to catch up with the trio to see what else they have been working on.

All your builds have a classic yet tough style. Do you get a say when it comes to the build designs for your customers’ cars?

TONY: “We are very lucky to have awesome customers that trust our direction, and we work closely with them at every stage of a build. We do have customers that want us to put our style into their build; they say that’s just one of the many reasons why they sought us out. Between myself and the boys, we each have a style of our own that really goes well together when it comes to working on builds.”

Have you always worked together as a family building cars?

TONY: “Nah, not the whole time. My dad Gary ran a panel shop back in the day, but he wanted me to learn something else before following in his footsteps. I wanted my boys to learn the same way I did. I became a cabinet maker, which is where I got the eye for detail and the skills to paint. Most of the time, doing splashbacks and cabinetry needs to be just as nice as you would finish a high-end car.”

Jesse, how long have you been working in the family shop?

JESSE: “I’ve been here now for the past two years. Before working with Dad and Corey, I worked with Chris Wells at BMV Engineering for nine years as a coach builder. I respect Chris and the time I spent there; it taught me so much, but it was time to start something new. Learning new ways within the industry and becoming better and better within my skillset is what drives me every day. My inspiration is literally the industry itself. Knowing that it’s always changing and there are no rules in a custom space is pretty cool.”

How about you, Corey?

COREY: “Kind of the same – I’ve worked here about two years now. I came over just after Jesse. During Year 10 at school, Dad would send me to work with Cam Hayward at North Coast Custom Trim one day a week for the whole year. I was there for six years and learned many skills from Cam while creating my own style. I was honoured to work on custom trims on cars like Billy Shelton’s VL, SICKEST; Charlie Harley’s ’57 Chev; and Jason Behan’s VG Valiant, which was unveiled at Summernats 33.

“My inspiration over the years has a lot of American influence and watching builders online. Trim can be a very personal taste, and my customers are letting me have a lot of input in styling now, which is great for my confidence in my work moving forward.”

What’s it like now that you’re all working together in the same workshop?

TONY: “We are all highly motivated and creative in our own fields. We work well together and respect each other’s ways of working and ideas. At the end of the day, we are family and never let work get between that.”

JESSE: “Having the workshop at home makes you appreciate how important your free time is after hours. We are close to family, and we know when to switch off work. It’s the small things, like having my mum Danielle bring little Ruxton, Corey’s son, out to the workshop to see us during the day, playing in his family-built custom pedal car. Family is important to us; it’s a bonus we can build cool cars, too.”

We’re sure you have some cool builds on the go, Tony – what are you allowed to tell us?

TONY: “For the first time in a long time, I’m building my own car to unveil at Rockynats 5 next year. I’ve owned my HQ coupe for 33 years now, bought off a close friend of the family. We’ve hooked in over the past three weeks, tubing the rear and putting the arches back to original. Now I’ve found a brand-new love for it again and am ready to rip in hard. Corey also has a brand-new build to debut at next year’s
Rockynats. Both builds will be all show and go over the big weekend.

“Another two builds we have in the shop at the moment are an HT Monaro and an LC Torana, both with extensive body mods (below). We’re expecting them to go just as good as they are going to look. It’s funny – both these cars we used to own, and we’re now building them for the new owners.”

What’s the story with the cool patina bus you have sitting in the corner of the workshop?

TONY: “We bought this little Morris J2 from Toowoomba where my mum Kerry and Dad had moved to. I was talking to Mum and Dad about wanting an old school bus, and Mum said she’d maybe seen a bus behind a shed down the street from their home. They went and saw the people and realised it was the lady who used to own the corner store in the little town of Bell, where Mum used to work after school. Small world, eh?

“Even crazier that the bus is the one my mum used to catch to school when she was little. It’s been kept in great condition; the inside is preserved and still has the scratching from students with their compasses.

“My wife Danielle said that’s her build to take to events; we have to keep it patina but will clear over it in matte. The plans are for a small-block, and custom trim by Corey – keeping the seats but maybe adding a cool captain’s chair.”

You don’t have Hardwood Rod & Custom sign out front; instead, you have another panel shop sign hanging there. What’s that all about?

TONY: “Yeah, that catches a few people’s eye. Mum and Dad used to own a panel shop called Chinchilla Panel Works back in the day. It was the sign they originally had hanging in front of their business. If you look at it closely, you can see that it’s been cut in half, and we’ve put it back together. When they were re-doing their signs for the shop, the signwriter had used the old sign but cut it in half and hung it end-to-end to make one new, long metal sign.

“When we were cleaning out Dad’s place to move to Toowoomba, I found the Chinchilla sign behind a bench and asked to have that for our shop as memorabilia. When we pulled it out, that’s when we noticed the old 70-year-old sign still on the back. “So, we hung this one out the front just like Mum and Dad had back in the day and had the one on the back of it re-done and hung above our paint booth.”