Jody Vincitorio’s 468ci big-block CHOPPT HQ Monaro

Jody Vincitorio threw needs to the breeze to create exactly the Summernats stunner he wanted

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Photographers: Peter Bateman

First published in the February 2012 issue of Street Machine

Looking at this sensational Holden Monaro in our Summernats photo studio, photographer Peter Bateman sticks his tongue firmly in his cheek and asks: “So, when did you start the medication?”

Mick Truman, a bloke heavily involved in the car’s build and a good mate of owner Jody Vincitorio, hits back a perfect reply: “Mate, it’s when he went off the medication, that was the problem!”

This Monaro is that kind of car. Imaginative yet pure in its concept, creation and presentation, it sets a new standard for Australian automotive sculpture.

Jody is part owner of Olds Cool Panel Works in Tatura, Vic, with his brother Kyle.

“I wanted big billets and the car on its sills,” he says. “It didn’t need to be practical or registered. Everybody loves Monaros and I wanted to build something that would stop people in their tracks.”

He also needs to keep himself busy. “I knock off work at 5 o’clock and I’m pacing around looking for something to do by 10 past. Sonia [my fiancée] told me to go and buy another car, so I did!”

He brought home a rolling shell — someone else’s project that had been sitting around for a few years in the weather. He’s built plenty of drivers in the past but this time he had plans for pure automotive art.

“I was really inspired by the Myers Silver Bullet Mustang and Al Bundy’s Monaro — they both had that in-yer-face ‘Wow!’ factor.”

The roller Monaro was the perfect starter. “It was in average condition but the tubs, ’cage and missing tags meant it was just about impossible to take back to original,” he says of the abandoned drag special.

“There’s no way you’d do this to an original car but this one was already molested.”

Work began immediately and although Jody knew what he was doing with the project, he didn’t specify a debut date. However, the sheer volume of work involved with a build such as this meant setting a strong pace by working hard and working often.

“This was all after-hours at the shop,” he says. “Five o’clock, I’d knock off and get into it. Sometimes I’d be there until 2am; sometimes I’d only do an hour and think: ‘Stuff this!’”

There were big metal changes. “The first thing I did was chop out the old ’cage and firewall,” Jody explains. “Then I braced the door openings so it wouldn’t go all floppy and chopped the roof.”

That meant cutting the Monaro turret into four and adding a roof section from a wagon. “I finished the roof first, then moved onto removing the old floor. Then I did the new floor and interior with a driveline dummied into place. After that, the car went on a rotisserie and I finished the underside.”

He makes it sound so easy!

The slice is heavier at the rear than the front, to accentuate the Monaro’s sensual lines; an even chop would have made the car’s profile too slabby.

The steel headlining was an enormous task, made a little easier by standing in the empty door openings with the car sideways on the rotisserie.

Seven sections of steel sheet — each hand-rolled on an English wheel — were welded inside the lowered Holden turret. Jody shared the task with Kyle, and Wayne who does casual shifts at the shop.

There were never any plans for door glass and the Monaro’s original stainless steel window trims were sold to help finance the earlier stages of the build. The pillars and window apertures have been filled and smoothed.

There are inner and outer floors separated by a 25mm deep frame that provides clearance for wiring and lines. Surprisingly for a build such as this, the Monaro retains its original front subframe and suspension. The chassis was welded and smoothed and its factory curves and character give a more pleasant appearance than stark box-section steel. But like the remainder of the Monaro, it also received dozens of hours of smoothing and grinding.

“I wore out three angle-grinders on the cutting-in work,” Jody says of the weld, grind, weld again process. The visual detail work was performed with an eight-inch grinder — “I used big, long sweeps to get a sense of length.” The bare metal was completed on the go, and coated in acrylic to keep out the rust.

The final colour was one part of the project that deviated from Jody’s original plan.

“It was going to be silver but Karen Keves’s Monaro arrived last year with a similar colour to what I’d planned, so we turned in another direction,” he explains. “I thought about green; it’d really make the sheet-metal ‘pop’. I spoke to Owen Webb at House Of Kolor and told him I was thinking of using Emerald Green and he was totally supportive.”

Applying the paint — critical for this car, against the bare metal — took four weeks. The spray painter, Kyle, walked around the car 25 times in that month.

“It was a big job,” Jody says, with classic understatement. “Kyle had no previous experience with House Of Kolor product but Owen was terrific with support — he’d seen the [unfinished] car at Springnats and knew what we were about, what we were trying to achieve.”

Those crocodile seat trims are something else, too. The trim is symmetrical around the centreline of each seat and the seats are identical. Musty and Danny, the lads at Customised Trimmers, did the steering wheel like that too. You’ll notice the shifter installed on the driver’s seat to keep the tunnel clean but you won’t be able to find how the pews are mounted to the car — there are hidden panels under the seat bolsters keeping it all tidy.

It’s traditional to have a last-minute thrash to finish your car for Summernats but Jody took that to a higher level too, working on the tow car and trailer as well as the Monaro until the last moment.

In the course of the build he also maxed out the credit card of his very understanding fiancée, Sonia, and received his Summernats trophies — including Top 10, a High Impact Award, Second Top Custom and Third Top Bodywork with pride. But that was the bonus, never the ambition, he says.

“It’s just a fully showy, blingy, unpractical car!”

Building a work of art

Building a car such as this Monaro is far more involved and intense than resurrecting or restoring a street car. There’s no instruction manual and if you mess it up, you’re on your own!

A: Jody’s performed several other lowered lids before he hit this Monaro, so he’s had a little practice at this classic hot rodding craft. In other words, don’t try this at home, kids!

B: The Monaro turret was cut into four pieces. Retaining the pillar angles — so the standard rear glass and cut-down standard front screen could be used — meant the turret has to grow in area

C: Metal section from an HQ Holden wagon was grafted into place. This is the smart way to achieve the factory turret shape with the laid-back rear screen

D: After the turret was shape-shifted, the Monaro’s floor was removed and its replacement framed up. The 25mm gap between upper and lower surfaces provides clearance for wiring

E: After fitting, welding and roughing-in with the grinder, Jody attacked the undercarriage with 80-grit to provide the peerless natural finish on the metal

JODY VINCITORIO
1971 HQ HOLDEN

Colour:House Of Kolor Emerald Green, green to gold Kameleon
POWER
Engine:LS7 big-block Chev, 468ci
Injection:Crower staggered injection with nitrous
Heads:Top Line Pro
Cam:Crower roller
Pistons:JE
Compression:13:1
Rockers:Crane roller rockers
Exhaust:Luke Lingard-built 2½in primaries into dual three-inch system
SHIFT
Transmission:Raceglides Powerglide
Converter:Dominator 5500rpm stall
Diff:Nine-inch, braced, 31-spline Moser axles, 4:11 gears, full spool, billet pinion support
UNDER
Suspension:McDonald Bros control arms (f); four-link (r); Air Ride Shockwave airbags (f&r) with approx five inches of travel
Brakes:Wilwood 380mm rotors with polished six-piston calipers (f), no rears
RIMS & RUBBER
Wheels:MT billet one-piece, 18×4 (f), 20×16 (r)
Tyres:Mickey Thompson 165 (f), MT Sportsman HR1 with 31×18½x20 (r)

THANKS
Sonia, love you heaps; Kyle; Mick; Steve; Woody; Paj; Sandy; Luke; Mark; Rupert; Wayne; Uncle Jimmy for inspiration throughout the build — I wish he was here now to share it all with me; Musty and Danny, Customised Trimmers; Owen Webb, HOK; Trashy; Shaun; Portz; Ralphy; Troy and Mick, who did more than 500 hours of machining.

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